Six Months Later, Still No Trace of Gricar
Erin L. Nissley
Centre Daily Times
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Bellefonte, PA (United States):
Six months after Ray Gricar vanished, calls about the case have dwindled and the few clues discovered have only created new questions.
Theories about his disappearance abound, but police have no new leads. And the idea that they may never know what happened to Centre County's distict attorney, a career prosecutor who was set to retire at the end of the year, is something his loved ones are slowly and unwillingly coming to grips with.
If everything were normal, Gricar would have celebrated his 60th birthday Oct. 9 in Vermont with his longtime girlfriend, Patty Fornicola. The trip had become a tradition.
"He loved Vermont," she said. "We've been (there) every year since we started dating."
But instead of a vacation, Fornicola went to work last week and tried to push thoughts of the trip out of her head. It's just part of the nightmare she's been living since she called police at 11:30 p.m. April 15 to report Gricar missing.
"I'm waiting to wake up," she said. "Sometimes, I'll be driving home, and I'll think, 'Oh, he'll be in the house when I get home.'"
For Steve Sloane, an assistant district attorney who considers Gricar one of his closest friends, even work is different without him.
As time goes by, Gricar's disappearance threatens to join the ranks of other local unsolved missing person cases -- Brenda Condon, who disappeared from Spring Township in 1991, and Hyun "Cindy" Song, who disappeared from Ferguson Township in 2001.
Last year, 165,786 adults were reported missing in the United States, according to statistics kept by the FBI. While most of those cases end happily, more than a few are never solved.
Lara Gricar said she always knew that her father's disappearance would not be solved easily.
Many of Gricar's loved ones are tired of talking about the case, tired of the theories, tired of the wait.
Tony Gricar, who at 33 has become the Gricar family patriarch, said he's trying to get his life and his small business back to normal.
But every time a new call comes in, family and police are thrust back in the midst of the puzzle. Many of the reported sightings, such as at a Chili's restaurant in Texas two months ago and at a grocery store in Ohio this summer, turned out to be false alarms. Others, such as sightings in Michigan and Wilkes-Barre, can't be confirmed.
Oct. 16, 2005
Erin L. NissleyCentre Daily Times
_______________
Bellefonte, PA (United States):
Six months after Ray Gricar vanished, calls about the case have dwindled and the few clues discovered have only created new questions.
Theories about his disappearance abound, but police have no new leads. And the idea that they may never know what happened to Centre County's distict attorney, a career prosecutor who was set to retire at the end of the year, is something his loved ones are slowly and unwillingly coming to grips with.
If everything were normal, Gricar would have celebrated his 60th birthday Oct. 9 in Vermont with his longtime girlfriend, Patty Fornicola. The trip had become a tradition.
"He loved Vermont," she said. "We've been (there) every year since we started dating."
But instead of a vacation, Fornicola went to work last week and tried to push thoughts of the trip out of her head. It's just part of the nightmare she's been living since she called police at 11:30 p.m. April 15 to report Gricar missing.
"I'm waiting to wake up," she said. "Sometimes, I'll be driving home, and I'll think, 'Oh, he'll be in the house when I get home.'"
For Steve Sloane, an assistant district attorney who considers Gricar one of his closest friends, even work is different without him.
As time goes by, Gricar's disappearance threatens to join the ranks of other local unsolved missing person cases -- Brenda Condon, who disappeared from Spring Township in 1991, and Hyun "Cindy" Song, who disappeared from Ferguson Township in 2001.
Last year, 165,786 adults were reported missing in the United States, according to statistics kept by the FBI. While most of those cases end happily, more than a few are never solved.
Lara Gricar said she always knew that her father's disappearance would not be solved easily.
Many of Gricar's loved ones are tired of talking about the case, tired of the theories, tired of the wait.
Tony Gricar, who at 33 has become the Gricar family patriarch, said he's trying to get his life and his small business back to normal.
But every time a new call comes in, family and police are thrust back in the midst of the puzzle. Many of the reported sightings, such as at a Chili's restaurant in Texas two months ago and at a grocery store in Ohio this summer, turned out to be false alarms. Others, such as sightings in Michigan and Wilkes-Barre, can't be confirmed.
Oct. 16, 2005
