I'm starting to believe that Gricar was either never in Lewisburg, or was only there briefly (perhaps to meet someone and get into a different vehicle, which is consistent with what the dogs smelled).
- The eyewitness accounts, in my opinion, are extremely unreliable. Ray Gricar was a very plain looking man. 6' tall, 172ish pounds. White, middle aged male. How many of those are in any given city or town in Pennsylvania? Did anyone ever describe what he was wearing?
- The laptop and hard drive appear to be staged. Even if Ray thought it was the best way to get rid of the information, why pick an area so close to where people walk, fish, and boat? It was inevitably going to be found. Why not ditch it in some remote pond or lake? Hell, why not put it in a bucket or cooler full of water in his basement for a few days, and then ditch it in a dumpster? If one was really worried about someone finding info on it to the point of purchasing data erasing software AND damaging it with water, they would likely also be worried about it ever being found. There was a lot of effort apparently put into wiping data, but none put it ensuring the machine itself wouldn't be found. A reasonable person could conclude that this was staged to make it appear he was in Lewisburg.
- I find the sighting near the courthouse (silver car I believe) much more credible since the eyewitness knew him. Like I mentioned, Ray was a very plain looking man. Those who knew him would be much more likely to distinguish him from every other plain looking middle-aged white 6' 172 pound male in PA.
I'm still sticking with my witness protection theory.
1. Ray meets with witness protection at a remote area around Raystown Lake the day before to plan things out. The decision is made Lewisburg the staging area, since nothing would seem odd to PF about him traveling there.
2. On the next day, Ray goes to great lengths to ensure the trail leads to Lewisburg, even telling PF what route he was taking, and waiting to call her until his signal would bounce off the cell towers on said route.
3A: When he gets to Lewisburg, he gets into a different vehicle and leaves. Meanwhile, a computer forensics guy, probably a smoker, gets in Ray's car, and fidgets around with Ray's laptop. He either clones the data to a different hard drive or writes it to a CD/DVD. Ray is already on the road to somewhere by the time the tech guy finishes cloning the data. The tech guy then dumps the computer and hard drive into the river as instructed.
3B: Ray gets into the other car and takes the laptop with him (it's evidence for whatever case the feds are building). A couple days later, it's reported that LE has realized that Ray's county issued laptop is gone. Witness protection guys decide to take the hard drive out, clone its data, and go back to Lewisburg at night and ditch it in the river. Or, they keep the actual hard drive, and throw an entirely different hard drive (same model as the one used in his laptop) into the river, in an area where it is certain to be found. The pieces are put in two different areas to increase their likelihood of one or both being found.
4. After he is transferred to the other car, he realizes there is something else important in his office that he needs. The Marshals drive him back to Centre County and retrieve whatever it is in his office while he waits in the car. It is at this point which he is spotted by an acquaintance. Then, he is gone, disappearing into the program.
5. Due to the unique nature of the case (a sitting DA going into witness protection), no family is informed, as it may put them in danger. Months or years later, when things have died down a little, Lara Gricar - and only Lara Gricar - is informed.
6. Whatever case he is working on has become a Pandora's Box. Every door opened leads to another. It has taken years to build a rock solid case. Whatever it is, it definitely deals with public corruption (the FBI office that specializes in public corruption cases is located in Detroit... this would explain the Southfield sighting). The Sandusky matter - whether it was directly related, or related inasmuch as it dealt with politically connected people involved in The Second Mile - further complicated things, as it threatened to kill the entire case Ray was helping build as those targeted by Ray's theoretical investigation began to change the way they were going about their business.
7. The Feds have gone to great lengths to push the idea of walk-away or homicide, to the point of planting disinformation on the web. JJ himself may actually be a federal agent, or doing their bidding as an independent contractor. Karen Arnold once noted JJ's extremely strong insistence on "walk away" was curious on her extended blog post about the entire Ray Gricar case.... I mean, it's probably 99% likely that JJ is not here to plant disinformation, but in my opinion it's as plausible a scenario as any. Because if I wanted to help someone disappear and ensure they would not be found, I would do the exact same thing.
I just try to go by what is plausible and which eyewitness and info is credible. To me, the eyewitnesses in Lewisburg are not credible at all. So I go by what is plausible - even if it is not likely - based on what information is credible. Ray was at Raystown Lake the day before. Ray called PF when he was already en route to Lewisburg, 15-20 minutes into his trip, and curiously told her what route he was taking (as if she needed to know). Ray parked in Lewisburg. His scent ends just feet away from his car, making it likely he entered a different car. He is spotted back in Centre County an hour or two later, in a different car. By an acquaintance. Perhaps the most credible eyewitness in the entire matter, yet it gets completely dismissed. I choose to believe it. Which changes everything, including the timeline. But if you subscribe tot he theory that Ray drove to Lewisburg, wasted no time at all, got in a different car and left, then it fits THAT timeline completely.
