First off, have a safe and enjoyable trip.
As always, respectfully snipped.
PEF had her own car, which she retained after the Mini was purchased. EG, wife #2 got the house, but it was not under water, and RFG should have gotten something in return.
BBM.
You are correct, at least publicly.
LE has never said that they were satisfied, only that there was no large cash withdrawal.
The major problem that I have with estate planning is why didn't the family simply state it. Either TG was deliberately trying to mislead everyone that there was no estate planning or LG never bothered to tell him. That raises a red flag.
Suppose that in 2002, with his divorce settled, RFG made some major estate plans and established a trust or bought a single premium life policy or something like that. That doesn't make him look bad, at all. It make him look like a caring father. It doesn't make him look suicidal or planning to walk away either. It doesn't tell us how much money LG will get. There isn't a good reason
not to release that information.
You have not answered the questions, but have shown why the questions should be raised. You are asking the right questions, IMO. That can be as important as getting the right answers. Good job!
I have some thoughts and questions about the money.
My largest concern is what each of the family members thought at the beginning of their public appeals, how that changed, and what the possible mitigating factor was in the change in statements and attitudes over a few years.
Also, we do not know when Ray might have either invested in annuities, stock plans, life insurance, or whatever else and we do not know when Lara became aware of same.
I think all of us can watch the family's and Patty's segments that aired on TV and although I'm sure they are heavily edited, the emotions and so forth change pretty dramatically from one press conference or TV show to the next.
At the beginning, it is believed that while Tony and Chris were afraid of suicide, Lara and Patty pushed foul play and justifiably so. Not much thought or time would probably be put into a case where the family said " Oh, he's on one of his adventures. He's a wanderer at heart and will come home when he feels the time is right". First of all, they would be lying to the police and to the public, because he was known to be a hard working DA. He probably didn't use all his PTO every year- no type A personality man I've known would use theirs. So they were justified and correct in doing and saying things which promoted active and vigorous investigation.
Later, not too much later, Patty asks Ray to just come home. Like he is a child who rode too far on his bike. Maybe she wasn't thinking clearly, or maybe she was so hurt that her reasoning was impaired. OR maybe something happened that has not been released to the public which caused her to change her pleas.
Did Lara follow Patty's line of thinking? I don't know for sure, but a lot of it might be answered in the financial planning, if there was any, and the date she found it out. Would Ray make long term financial plans and not tell Patty about them? I don't think so but I don't know what their levels of comfort were about money matters.
The thing that gets to me is Lara seeming to walk away from her dad emotionally and to put distance between herself and the investigation by saying " It's a closed chapter". She phoned in her testimony regarding the required statements to have him declared dead legally. Why? Was it too painful or was it too much trouble to fly cross country? Or did she not want to answer reporters' questions?
After going back and making a timeline of how the families' and Patty's responses changed over the period of the first 3-4 years after Ray disappeared, I think they all found out something which
led them to believe he planned to leave them all
. Noting the caveat that they all could be mistaken. I do not know if the change in attitude publicly ( where one puts on one's best possible demeanor) was related to possibly missing money or the emergence of the Mystery Woman... or something still unknown to the gen. public.
IF we were discussing my father, a father to an only child, an adopted daughter, I would have extreme doubts about him hooking up with a stranger at a shop 50 miles from home. I'd tend to think it was witness error, or maybe something inconsequential because I know my father loved his family above all else on this earth. It makes me so sad that
Lara may not believe that her father loved enough to hang around for her wedding, possible grandchildren, her adult life in general.
And then there is Patty, who was planning her life around Ray's, planning to retire and travel the country in the Mini, something they had discussed for a long time, she said. Her life changed forever when he didn't return to her.. I wonder if she still asks herself what happened like she used to do? I tend to think so, unless she has info we don't have.
If the MW disclosure was not the reason for everyone to sigh wistfully and look away, then does that leave information about financial issues as the reason this chapter of their lives is closed and they all want to move on?
I don't know, but I think something concrete was presented to at least Lara, and possibly Lara and Patty. Not one family member is still in front of the cameras asking for help finding Mr. Gricar. I don't fault them, but I DO wonder why, when we have family members here still begging for searches and info on people who have been missing for decades, sometimes as long as 40-50 years. They never have given up hope. Why did the Gricar loved ones stop hoping? Stop asking for public help? Not renew any reward?
I think there are conundrums within this mystery. I fault no one, I have no theories or answers. I have extreme empathy for Lara, and I also feel sorry for Patty's loss.
I am very sad that no one is pushing for answers, and also feel confused about this case compared to so many others where hope persists and there is no talk of death, not ever, not even many decades later. If you read the missing section much, then you know the cases I reference, and you understand the difference in attitudes and statements on record.
