Among the alluring storylines just after Jerry Sandusky's November 2011 arrest was the mystery surrounding Ray Gricar, the former Centre County (Pa.) district attorney who went missing in 2005. The case had long gone cold, and Gricar was declared legally dead six years later. But get this: the Altoona Mirror says investigators are now looking into whether Gricar was murdered by a former Hells Angel who had become an FBI informant and was out for revenge.
Gricar had decided not to press charges against Sandusky in 1998, after the mother of one of his victims approached police with a claim that Sandusky had showered with and touched her son. Gricar's disappearance was the subject of much intrigue and speculation in the frantic early days after Sandusky was charged with molesting several boys, including the boy from the '98 shower episode. But with no leads for investigators to pursue, any interest in Gricar's case pretty much faded away. Sandusky, the former Penn State defensive coordinator, was eventually convicted of abusing 10 boys, including the boy from '98. He'll likely be in prison for the rest of his life.
But the FBI and the Pennsylvania state police are now assisting Bellefonte (Pa.) cops in a new inquiry into Gricar's disappearance. A source, described as a "ranking member" of the Hells Angels, told the Mirror he had been a person of interest in the case. But the source claims the man actually responsible for ordering Gricar's murder did so to get back at Gricar for a stiff state prison sentence in connection with an aggravated assault conviction in the late 1990s.
A check of Centre County Court records confirms the Hells Angel named by the source was convicted of aggravated assault, received a multiple-year state prison sentence and had worked as an FBI informant while a Hells Angel starting in the early 1990s.
News accounts from the time confirm the former Hells Angel named had been arrested in another state in the 1980s on another charge.
A letter from the FBI to the Centre County judge who presided over the aggravated assault case in the late 1990s was read aloud during a sentencing hearing and indicated the man had provided the FBI with intelligence regarding the illegal activities of outlaw motorcycle gangs after his release from federal prison after serving five years of a 12-year sentence.
The source told the paper he had finally come forward because he thought the Hells Angel in question was dead, but he has since been told by investigators that the man is alive and living in another state.
The source said he accompanied FBI agents to a property in Pennsylvania where he said Gricar's body was disposed after his "knee caps were spun" and his throat was slit. At the last minute, the source said he decided not to disclose the exact location of a shaft he said holds the body, the remains of four others and various guns.
The shaft has been capped and covered with several feet of dirt, the source claims.
The source said he became concerned uncovering the shaft could incriminate him in other cases, and he is seeking immunity from all prosecution related to any evidence found in the shaft.
Multiple independent sources, including law enforcement familiar with the case, confirmed the FBI had questioned the source and taken him to the location.
The Mirror's source said he had become annoyed by the speculation surrounding what happened to Gricar as a result of the Sandusky case. He's hired a lawyer. A Bellefonte detective told the Mirror the Gricar investigation is being treated as a missing persons case.