I'm coming in very late on this so some of this has probably been discussed already but possibly not. So what the hades, I'll add my :twocents:
I think RG honestly thought he couldn't win a case against Sandusky based on what he had at the time. Gricar would have been going against the Penn State PR machine and a man who was a local legend.
Here's an article about him;
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/g/gricar_ray.html
Some things mentioned in that article:
He called his girlfriend to tell her he was going on a leisurely drive that afternoon.
He took his laptop with him but he rarely did this.
When his car was found it was across the street from an antique shop. It had a bottle of water with his DNA on it in the car. There were cigarette ashes in the car but friends say he'd never let anyone smoke in the car.
The antique store owner says that the man he thinks was Ray was in the store and seemed to be waiting for someone.
The keys to the car have never been found.
His home computer showed searches for water damage to a hard drive and how to wipe a hard drive. He even purchased an hard drive wipe program.
His brother (Roy) went out to get mulch in Dayton, Ohio in 1996 and never returned. His body was found a little while later in the Miami River. His death was ruled a suicide.
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Ok here are my thoughts:
1. I think it's reasonable to assume that Ray wanted his laptop's hard drive destroyed. No other computer had it's hard drive wiped and even though the water could have damaged it beyond repair it could have been wiped before entering the water.
2. Why was the hard drive detached? :waitasec: Whoever did it definitely didn't want the hard drive found.
3. The call to his girlfriend seems like an alibi to stall her.
4. It appears that there had to be someone else in the car since Ray didn't smoke. It appears no cigarette butts were found in the car. Was that a coincidence or did the person who smoked know DNA could be extracted from the butts?
5. Where's the body and the keys? The fact that the body has never been found is interesting and so is the mystery of the missing keys.
6. He's fallen off the grid. There is no evidence he used credit cards or his SS number after his disappearance. The police found no discrepancies in the District Attorney's financial accounts.
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So if he intentionally left and fell off the grid he'd need either a benefactor or a large sum of cash to get going. If he wanted to just disappear why wipe the hard drive and throw it in the river? What was on it?
He may have used the laptop exclusively for a personal thing because he knew that a DA's laptop would be much harder to take away by LE. The person he met may have wanted proof that the hard drive on the laptop had been wiped and destroyed.
The person who smoked in his car was either allowed to by Ray because he knew he'd never see the car again or he was intimidated enough by them to ask or they refused.
He, most likely, had never made contact with this person through his cellphone. He destroyed his hard drive but left his phone.
The fact that it appears somebody else was in the car with him makes the suicide theory seem doubtful. That and that his body hasn't been found.
If this meeting was related to an active case and the person wanted to see the hard drive destroyed why didn't Gricar just copy it before destroying it? He was either involved in the crime or agreed that the personal information should be destroyed.
My theory is this, he went on a dating site and made contact with someone he wanted to be with. However, he didn't want anyone to know about this relationship. Being a DA he may have known how to get a new identity pretty well.
He met this person that day and threw everything into the river that would give any clue about this relationship and voluntarily left with them. They would be able to supply a place to stay and an income for him. He may have gone overseas.
Just a theory.
