somebody. >> by somebody. >> he was the first da to investigate jerry sandusky, could there be a link between that case and his disappearance? where is this man? >> somebody knows something or a lot of somebody's do. >> hello and welcome to dateline. ray gricar was a district attorney and bellefont, pennsylvania. not far from penn state university. he was the first to investigate allegations against jerry sandusky who abused the child. that was long before the scandal made headlines. but several years later, ray gricar mysteriously disappeared. the strange turn of events left people asking, was there a connection? here is lester holt with the case of the missing da. >> the clues are tantalizing, as sporty red car, a speck of cigarette ash. a battered hard drive. >> it is a mystery, it absolutely is a mystery. >> but what do these clues say about the sudden disappearance of a district attorney who left them behind? >> it is baffling, it is confusing and perplexing it is all of those things. >> his name is ray gricar, when he vanished in 2005 it was a big story. >> a prosecutor in pennsylvania who vanished on friday is still missing. >> now ray's story is linked to an even bigger one. >> stunning allegations of sexual child abuse. >> one of the most storied names in college sports is enveloped in scandal. >> because 7 years before he went missing, ray gricar decided not to prosecute jerry sandusky for the first known allegation of child sex abuse against him. now, some are asking whether that jerry sandusky case had anything to do with the da's disappearance. >> for anyone to think that there is no relationship is the epitome of naivete. >> others say no way. >> eliminating ray does not eliminate the problem for anybody. >> ever since the scandal broke, dateline has been on the ground. analyzing clues, digging into the case, and talking to those who knew the da from center county. there are several scenarios for ray gricar disappearance. we will look for answers. what really happened to ray gricar? >> ray, i love you very much. and i miss you. >> he was the district attorney in pennsylvania centre county. working at the coast guard out of bellefonte. penn state is just down the world. it is a powerful presence in this neighborhood. back in april 2005, ray gricar had served the better part of five terms, and racked up a stellar reputation. >> it is the nature of the job that you do difficult things, you make difficult choices. >> he was the most serious prosecutor i have ever met. >> bob was ray's friend. he was the da in neighboring county. he met ray gricar in the 90s and over the years the two traded shop talk whenever they could. did he go with his gut and shoot from the hip? or was he punched the right buttons, get to the answer. >> he was the guy who always had the next question. what about this? did you consider that? he was the most serious guy, most ethical guy. >> methodical. meticulous. fearless, too. >> he did not care who the person was he prosecuted. he prosecuted some very high profile cases that made national news in little center county, in pennsylvania. it didn't bother him who the person was. it was what they did that counted. >> in the spring of 2005, everything seemed to be going ray gricar's way. he was in love. after two divorces, he had moved in with his longtime girlfriend, patty. and he seemed happy. >> i think for both of us, we finally found our soulmate, we found the person who was perfect. >> investigators say that he had no health problems, no money worries and he was close to his only child, 27 year old laura. she lived in washington state at the time. but the two stayed in touch by phone. >> i spoke to my dad often, i would say 3 to 4 times a week we were in pretty regular contact. >> in that spring of 2005 he was 59, just eight months away from retirement. and he was ready for it, he was already starting to cut back on his workload. >> we were going to drive across the country, and take our time. visit the national parks and end up on the west coast to visit his daughter. >> the trip never happened, on april 14th, laura had a conversation with her father that she will never forget. >> the conversation was, hey dad just called to say hi and i love you. i said i have this exam and he said, you know i love you too, and i'm sure you're gonna do great on that exam you are always do. you're just like your mom. >> the next day, april 15th, ray woke up and told pattie that he was going to play hooky. she wasn't surprised, he had done it before. >> i said it's time to get up, and he said i don't think i'm gonna go to work today, i think a minute take the day off. i said fine good for you. >> patty went to work, she was a clerk in ray's office and he called around 11:30 that morning. he said that he had taken his fun little mini first spin on the country roads near their home. he often did, that he like to go for a long drive so she thought nothing of it. >> he said you know i'm going down one 92 and i am going home. i said fine no problem. he said i love you. and i said i love you too and we terminated the phone call. >> it was their last conversation. when patty got home from work that night, there was no sign of ray. she went to the gym, and when she got back he still was not home. she called his cell phone, the calls went straight to voice mail for three hours she dialed and re-dialed the number, nothing but voice mail. finally, frantic, she called 9-1-1. >> to me, it was an emergency, it was not like him, it was unusual behavior. it's not like him, it's not -- , i called and said ray is not home, this is not like him. it's unusual behavior. they quickly responded. >> ray gricar was gone, gone without warning. the police department put out a description of him and his red mini. the hunt for a missing da was underway. >> coming up! a district attorney in danger? >> we know what ray had done all of his life. he had prosecuted for years. >> was someone imprisoned out for revenge? when dateline continues! good throwback? [sfx: video game sound] new emergen-c crystals. throw it back. want your clothes to smell freshly washed all day without heavy perfumes? try downy light in-wash freshness boosters. it has long-lasting light scent, no heavy perfumes, and no dyes. finally, a light scent that lasts all day. downy light! ♪ upbeat music ♪ ♪ [ tires screeching ] director: cut! jordana, easy on the gas. force of habit. i gotta wrap this commercial, i think i'm late on my payment. it's okay, the general gives you a break when you need it. yeah, we let you pick your own due date so you can pay your car insurance when it's best for you. well that's good to know, because this next scene might take a while. [ helicopter and wind noises ] for a great low rate, go with the general. >> patty fornicola woke up on april 16th 2005, and felt like she was trapped in a bad dream. ray gricar, her living boyfriend and the da of centre county had not come home the night before. and he was still missing. >> i knew it wasn't good that he still had not been located. so then we had to make a decision about calling his daughter. >> as patty told dateline in 2006, she decided to make that call to laura, then a college student in washington state. >> your gut tells you a lot of things, i just knew that something happened and my gut said that it was bad. >> rays friend, bob, was bewildered when he heard the news. >> i absolutely did not know what to make of it at all. it was very confusing, das do not go missing. >> former investigator, daryl, still remembers that point. >> we just handled it as a missing person, but a highly significant missing person. >> daryl has now retired from the bellefonte police force, but back then he was the lead investigator on the case. >> i assume alarm bells are ringing loudly when the da goes missing? >> yeah when the da goes missing you get a little concerned. there's figure that there's foul play involved, then the guy does not come home because he's been out at the bars all night. >> and that's because you knew his character? >> we knew what ray had done all his life, he had prosecuted homicides and rape for years, then prosecuted here, and then became our da. >> foul play was only one possibility, in those first hours after ray went missing, the bellefont police said that they considered several others . they ordered a nearby search of the nearby roads, with many thinking that he may have had an accident. there were other searches too, they knew that he may have gone solo somewhere. turns out, he had done that before. >> he once took off to a cleveland indians game? >> he didn't go to this one. because we had called cleveland and had the stadium police looking for him. >> did you potentially lose time in the investigation because of a default position that he is going to turn up here soon? that there is a reasonable explanation? >> no, we worked on it from the minute we decided we were going after this as a missing person. it was constant go, go, go. >> investigators trapped his movement before he vanished, and found the last known pictures of him alive. on his way to the office. the evening before he disappeared. it seemed routine enough, and it had taken them nowhere. >> one of america's most intriguing mysteries. >> on day two, investigators caught a huge break, his many was discovered in a parking lot by an antiques mall called the street of shops. in the nearby town of lewisburg. ray had visited the antique stores there in the past. now his car was sealed up tight, and locked. his cell phone was inside. but there was no sign of ray. >> i was glad that it was found, not the car, but thinking that maybe there would be a clue. >> there were clues all right, real puzzlers. >> when they open up the vehicle, the first initial thing that struck them was, a strong odor of tobacco in the car. ray was not a smoker, and he definitely would not let anyone smoke in his car. >> there was more, inside the car, a speck of ash on the passenger side. how do explain that? in a car of a passionate nonsmoker? >> it would indicate to us that someone who had been in that car was smoking, or at least was leaning into the car, possibly talking to ray, holding a cigarette. >> investigators found cigarette butts on the ground, and sent them offered in a testing, nothing there. there was no sign of a struggle, or foul play. and not a bloodstain insight. nothing to indicate that a crime had occurred in, or near the car. >> would still baffles me in all of this is, basically a lack of a crime scene. >> she was a crime scene investigator, and at the time, and nbc news consultant. >> the crime scene at least helps to tell a story. something where you can prove, or disprove, witness statements. testimonies. through your crime scene, threw evidence. there isn't a crime scene. >> but how many times have we seen crimes of someone who willingly went away with the person who ultimately kills them? and there is no crime scene. >> correct, if you willingly go, there is no crime scene, it's just the last place that you you were seen. >> but if the car itself gave investigators little to go on, its location in lewisburg, 60 miles from ray gricar home did. >> that shifted the investigation to lewisburg at that point? >> we knew that he was definitely there then. the car had been there. so we immediately went down, pounding on doors getting to people. and we got some confirmation from people, and some of the businesses in the area who had actually seen ray. and they saw him there for several hours throughout the day. >> they began building a timeline of ray's movements and louisburg. but it was not easy, because there was another mini cooper owner in town that day. shawn was the chief of bellefonte police department. he had joined the force shortly after ray disappeared. but he says that he knows the investigation, inside and out. >> there was a lot of sightings of another individual, we later found out who he was. he was in a restaurant eating with a woman that was not ray, it was another guy that has a mini cooper. >> it was a dead end, tony is ray's nephew, he lives in dayton ohio. as soon as he learned his uncle was missing, got in his car, collected his brother, and began driving to pennsylvania. >> at the time we thought, we need to get there as quick as we can to see what kind of assistance that we can provide. >> but when tony and his brother got to lewisburg, and saw the scene where ray's car was found, they were stunned. >> here we go again? that was the exact first thought. >> the investigation into ray gricar's disappearance was about to take a whole new turn. >> coming up! >> i think my first words probably to the investigators were, he is probably in the river. >> when dateline continues! - [announcer] tens of thousands of customers wrote about carvana being fast in their five-star reviews, including sheena. - this was our second purchase through carvana. it was super easy and really fast. this time, we traded in a car and couldn't believe how easy it was, and we found the car our family really needed and in red. next thing i know, our new car was here and our trade-in was gone. bye! ta-da. (sheena chuckles) i literally tell people all the time how fast and easy carvana is. - [announcer] buy your car with carvana today. hey hon. hey dad...(sniffs) that smell could be 8,000,000 odor causing bacteria. good thing adding lysol laundry sanitizer kills 99.9% of bacteria that detergents leave behind. clean is good, sanitized is better. ♪ ♪ (fan #1) there ya go! that's what i'm talkin' about! clean is good, sanitized is better. (josh allen) is this your plan to watch the game today? (hero fan) uh, yea. i have to watch my neighbors' nfl sunday ticket. (josh allen) it's not your best plan. but you know what is? myplan from verizon. switch now and they'll give you nfl sunday ticket from youtubetv, on them. (hero fan) this plan is amazing! (josh allen) another amazing plan, backing away from here very slowly. (fan #1) that was josh allen. (fan #2) mmhm. (vo) for a limited time get nfl sunday ticket from youtubetv on us. a $449 value. plus, get a free samsung galaxy s23. only on verizon. ♪♪ when you have chronic kidney disease... there are places you'd like to be. like here. and here. not so much here. if you have chronic kidney disease, farxiga can help you keep living life. ♪ farxiga ♪ and farxiga reduces the risk of kidney failure, which can lead to dialysis. farxiga can cause serious side effects including dehydration, urinary tract or genital yeast infections in women and men, and low blood sugar. ketoacidosis is a serious side effect that may lead to death. a rare life-threatening bacterial infection in the skin of the perineum could occur. stop taking farxiga and call your doctor right away if you have symptoms of this bacterial infection, an allergic reaction, or ketoacidosis. farxiga can help you keep living life. ask your doctor for farxiga for chronic kidney disease. if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. ♪ farxiga ♪ >> when tony drove into losbnnsyania back in april of 2005, he did a double take. tony's uncle ray had disappeared and they had located raise abandoned car in a parking lot. near a bridge, over a river. the scene took tony straight back to a bad place in his past. >> to say that it was an eerie parallel would be the understatement of the century. it was the exact same thing. >> nine years earlier, tony's father, ray's brother, had abandoned his car by a park near a bridge over a river. his body was discovered in the river in dayton, ohio, a few days later. the coroner ruled it a suicide. now this. >> geographically, everything lays out the exact same. it was a car, a park, a bridge. a river. >> tony drew the logical conclusion about his uncle ray. your thought was that he had committed suicide? >> i think my first words to the investigators where, he's probably in the river. >> when your uncle went missing, of course the connections with your father, started to be made. was your father depressed? >> yeah, he fought depression for, why would i could gather, for 20 plus years. >> and depression can run in families. he remembered that ray did seem preoccupied before he vanished, she put that down to work. he did recall that she had been napping a lot. she had even asked him about it. >> when he disappeared, he said, i want you to promised me something. i said sure, what? i said, if you continue to be tired, would you please call your doctor? and he said, work frequently makes me tired. and i came back at him with, the three years that we have live together, i have never seen you nap so much time before and after work. >> but when investigators went through his medical records, they found nothing to indicate that he had been treated for depression. nothing at all. in fact, ray gricar seemed fit and healthy. but if the body was in the susquehanna river, investigators were determined to find it. they brought in helicopters, rescue divers, there was even a cadaver sniffing dog on a boat. although the river could run shallow near the bridge, the spring of 2005, tony says the water level was high. >> the spring rains, as well as melt, so the water was several feet higher. >> bellefonte police chief at the time shawn says that the conditions were favorable for finding a body. >> at the time, they said they could see to the bottom of the river, it was clear water. it is pretty much, the bottom of the river was a flat rock, you could see very easily from the sky. >> but no body turned up. and this was the most confounding question of all, if he'd had jumped off the bridge like his brother. then where was he? >> the biggest thing that you have in a suicide, is a body. the body helps to tell you what really happened here. or, is it even feasible that this happened? we also know that sometimes things are stage to look like a suicide. when in reality it is a homicide. so, a body is something that will give you those clues. and the means, by which the suicide occurred. but in this case, where was the body? >> the river was not telling them. but daryl, then the leader investigator with the bellefonte police came up was one answer. so it was possible that the body would not be found in that river? >> yes, it's possible, basically what happens if you get in the susquehanna river, it ends up in the chesapeake. but if ray went into the water, then there is the possibility that he went down to what they call a fiber dam, down to where the water just hits the dam. and he could've got wedged down underneath and just been turned to pieces unfortunately. >> even as the river search was underway, the police continue to canvas the streets of shops, and the area nearby. it was frustrating, lewisburg is a college town, home to bucknell university. and the weekend ray vanished, there were bucknell parents in town. to tony, every other dad looked like his uncle ray. >> honestly, i couldn't walk through that weekend without seeing 20 guys who look like him. upper middle class, caucasian male, wearing a blue fleece. >> but investigator would not let it go. >> i probably put in 16, or 17 -hour days. at times, just one home to sleep for a while and came back out, we were going at it again. >> going at it, and getting lucky with a promising new lead. investigators came up with several credible sightings of ray in lewisburg, the day he disappeared. one got their attention. ray had been seen with a dark haired woman in the street of shops. >> we were hoping maybe this was just a fling that he was on, he connected with another woman and decided to spend a weekend in a hotel or something? >> as a cop you've seen that before? you know that it happens? >> we know that happens. never seen it with ray, but we know that happens. we started to think that maybe he hooked up with this lady and, you know, he just felt bad. did not want to call patty. >> a fling? where would that hunch take them? >> coming up! police catch a break when to fishermen catch a clue. >> what's that? and they start looking at it. and it looks like a computer. >> when dateline continues! it's overwhelming, but you just have to put your mind to it and fight. subject 2: it doesn't feel good because you can't play outside with other children. subject 3: as a parent, it is your job to protect your family. but here is something that i cannot do. i cannot fix this. i don't know if my daughter is going to be able to walk. i don't know if she's going to make it till tomorrow. [music playing] interviewer: you can join the battle to save lives by supporting st. jude children's research hospital. families never receive a bill from st. jude for treatment, travel, housing, or food so they can focus on helping their child live. subject 4: childhood cancer, there's no escaping it. but st. jude is doing the work, continually researching towards cures, giving more than just my child a chance at life. interviewer: please, call or go online right now and become a st. jude partner in hope for only $19 a month. subject 5: those donations really matter because we're not going to give up. and when you see other people not giving up on your child, it makes all the difference in the world. interviewer: when you call or go online with your credit or debit card right now, we'll send you this st. jude t-shirt. you can wear to show your support to help st. jude save the lives of these children. subject 6: st. jude is hope. even today after losing a child, it's still about the hope of tomorrow, because. childhood cancer has to end. interviewer: please, call or go online right now. [music playing] >> i'm katie phang, here is what is happening, political reports the special counsel is seeking a protective order from the court following new threats from former president trump. in a social media post trump said if you go after me i am coming after you. the judge warned trump if he threatened witnesses or tried to influence jurors, he could be jailed. and a texas judge has lifted a ban on abortions for women with medical emergencies. the ruling will allow doctors and nurses to treat complications during pregnancy without fear of prosecution. the injunction also applies to fetuses with fatal anomalies. and now, back to dateline. k to dateline. >> not long after pennsylvania da ray gricar went missing, investigators had a newly-. >> investigators announced that they were looking for a woman. >> wray had been seen with a dark haired woman, in a shop in louisburg. at first, investigator daryl wondered if maybe ray had a flaying. >> you checked hotel and motel records to find out if a couple had stayed in the lewisburg area around that time? >> we sent troopers out. did a hotel buy hotel search. talk to the best marks, car registrations were checked. descriptions of the female that he was seen talking to where presented. race pictures were presented. >> but they came up empty, and when they canvas nearby train and bus stations to see if anyone matching the couples descriptions had left town, they came up empty again. so they began asking, how likely was it that ray gricar, stand out da, a guy who had seemed happy and love at last had run off with a woman? raise nephew, tony, did not buy it. >> he wasn't married, so what would the point be with running off with a mystery woman? >> and perhaps, not unexpectedly, ray's live in girlfriend did not buy it either. >> i know every did not want to be in this relationship with me, he would tell me. i know that. >> as investigators developed a lead, they too came to believe that ray was not romancing the missing woman. it did not jive with what they were hearing. and what they were hearing was plenty mysterious. >> where they're multiple witnesses to gricar and this woman? >> there were people on the street of shops that saw ray, with this lady. walking together, talking. they would separate, go into different little shops, come back out, start to meet up, walk together, sometimes go into a shop together. come back out, and ultimately, you didn't just see them anymore. it's a pretty big place. >> investigators had a slew of questions, for starters the woman's identity. what was it that she and ray were talking about? and what she dared to lore ray into a trap or was she helping him start a new life? yolanda, then a consultant for nbc news, said the answers would be pure gold. >> i think that she could answer some questions here as to, whether it was a meat setup that went wrong for ray, be it foul play. or was it someone who had information for him and it still went wrong? >> or someone he met casually, very innocently, but could at least give us a state of mind? >> absolutely. it didn't seem that they were intimate. but at least knew each other, by the way that they were talking and strolling. i think that maybe she could see shed a little bit of light as to what happened in those last few moments. >> investigators worked hard to track the woman down. they were not successful. and some began wondering how credible the sighting was. as weak stretched into months, the case of the missing da, was stalled. then, in the summer of 2005, the susquehanna river surprise them all. it gave up a huge clue. >> a cold case may have just gotten a boost with the discovery by two fishermen. >> the fishermen saw something glistening in the shallow water, turns out it was a laptop. >> what's that? they started looking at, it looks like a computer. they pulled it out, they got it to us. >> it was ray work laptop, issued by the county. investigators excitement quickly turn to frustration. because the hard drive was missing from it. instead of answering some of investigators questions, the laptop just gave the more. why did ray have his work laptop with him, if he was playing hockey? where was the hard drive? and why was it missing? they were still mulling that over, when the susquehanna river surprise them again, and gave it up. a mother and her child saw it lying in the riverbed. >> when the hard drive was found, was the first thought, this is going to explain our , so did their dog roger. ♪ ♪ gain scent beads keep even the stinkiest stuff smelling fresh. [bell dings] are you good? no, i think i'm late on my car insurance. good thing the general gives you a break when you need it. yeah, with flexible payment options to keep you covered. just tag us in. like right now?! oh...i was talking about insurance. ouaaaahhhh! [bell dings] for a great low rate, go with the general. >> one year after ray gricar, vanished without a trace, the man who took his place as district attorney of pennsylvania centre county, held a news conference. >> while the leads quo colds, the interest of law enforcement, my interest, such as the public interest, will not go cold. >> rays live in girlfriend, patty, made it clear that she was not giving up either. >> i can't make any sense of any of it either. one day it might be one scenario, one day it might be the other, but i have never given up hope. it helps me go on. >> but hope, and the hard facts did not seem to go together. investigators had nobody, and precious, little evidence. and they're trophy find? the battered hard drive, was not giving anything up. >> it's like everything else, it has been a rollercoaster. >> tony gricar, raise nephew had question about the hard drive. it was recovered separately from the laptop, about 100 miles away. tony knew it took some work to remove it from the laptop. he knew it was no accident. >> i know computers, especially laptops, and there is no way by just going into the river that that hard drive is coming out on its own. it was a screw, and a slide switch to release it. >> but why would someone yank it out? investigators learned that before he disappeared, wray was asking around the office about how to erase our hard drive. and on internet searches at, home he was looking at how to wreck a hard drive. but race friend, bobby, said there could be a simple explanation for that. he spoke to dateline shortly before he retired as a da. >> as i am in my career now, frankly, i am thinking about the same thing. i have a lot of things on that hard drive. yeah, i would probably like to get rid of it. i do not have any need for it. >> and after all, why would ray drive 60 miles to dump a hard drive in the river, when he can dispose of it closer to home. but if ray did not remove the hard drive, someone else apparently did. maybe, investigators speculated, there was something incriminating on it. >> you would really like to know what that is on that hard drive? >> we think that that hard drive had information on it that would lead us to one of the theories. the reason why someone would want him dead. why he would jump in the river. why would he would want to leave. >> three theories, that was what investigators were left with two explained what happened to ray gricar. >> does your department lead in any particular direction? >> actually no, and it is hard, because we all have our personal thoughts on the case. everyone who has ever looked at the case has had a theory. a personal theory, how crazy it might be. >> one theory, is that ray disappeared because he wanted to. he simply walked away. if so, that would require serious planning. yolanda, then a consultant for nbc news. >> money would have to move, arrangements would have to be made. you would have to be a pretty sharp cookie to hide that some sort of plotting would you? >> whatever happened as well planned. out >> by somebody? >> by somebody. ray, or somebody else. >> but financial investigators from the fbi could find no evidence that wray was planning to move money. there was nothing to indicate that he was planning to walk out of his very successful life. >> here is even the biggest thing. what is the motive behind that? why would you just walk away from your life? anybody, i mean even his closest doctor. he had nobody he had issues with, what was this based off of? >> he was planning -- , planning travel after retirement. does that make it even less likely that someone would sell -- and just disappear? >> i think it's less likely. yes. >> tony agrees. >> there is no path where the investigators can go, and say this is why he walked away. >> if we ray gricar, did not walk away and assume anode identity? did he die by suicide like his brother? >> this was a man who loved his daughter. he loved his girlfriend. does it make sense that he would take his own life and not leave some sort of explanation, a message to them? >> i would say no. it makes no sense to me. >> and without a body, there is no way to be sure. that leaves one last theory. murder! investigator, daryl, says that as a prosecutor, gricar had put some dangerous people behind bars. >> who knows who got out of jail 20 years ago and is still holding a grudge against him? >> someone who may have wanted to get the straight arrow da out of the way. someone who may have lured him into a trap. >> the first thing that most of us think of when you heard of a prosecutor going missing under extreme circumstances, that this could be linked to something that he was working on. somebody who wanted payback. >> sure. to me that would be the most plausible thing. >> tony had not conclusively settled on the foul play theory, but the da, bob, had. >> i had always felt, maybe not initially, but i had always felt several months later when all the facts started coming out that the only conclusion left was foul play. and that is an awful thing to imagine. the one thing i did not want to think about. >> but if it was foul play, there were no credible suspects. and so overtime, the ray gricar case went cold. in the summer of 2011, his daughter, laura, petition the courts to have her father declared legally dead. that is where things stood for at least six months. until the case of the missing da came roaring back to life. >> coming up! could there possibly be a connection between ray gricar disappearance and his investigation years earlier of the first known sex abuse allegation, against coach jerry sandusky? >> for those who say that ray gricar missed the opportunity to put jerry sandusky away, you say what? >> when dateline continues! ♪ birds flyin' high, you know how i feel. ♪ ♪ breeze driftin' on... ♪ [coughing] ♪ ...by, you know how i feel. ♪ if you're tired of staring down your copd,... ♪ it's a new dawn, ♪ ♪ it's a new day... ♪ ...stop settling. ♪ ...and i'm feelin' good. ♪ start a new day with trelegy. no once-daily copd medicine has the power to treat copd in as many ways as trelegy. with three medicines in one inhaler, trelegy makes breathing easier for a full 24 hours, improves lung function, and helps prevent future flare-ups. trelegy won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. do not take trelegy more than prescribed. trelegy may increase your risk of thrush, pneumonia, and osteoporosis. call your doctor if worsened breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling, problems urinating, vision changes, or eye pain occur. take a stand, and start a new day with trelegy. ask your doctor about once-daily trelegy, and save at trelegy.com (tonya) because i smoked, i have heart failure. i went from me being their caregiver to the husband and kids being mine. (announcer) the people you love are worth quitting for. you can quit. for free help, call 1-800-quit-now. looking for a smarter way to mop? introducing the new swiffer powermop. an all-in-one cleaning tool that gives you a mop and bucket clean in half the time. our new cleaning pad has hundreds of scrubbing strips- that absorb and lock dirt away, ( ♪♪ ) and it has a 360-degree swivel head- that goes places a regular mop just can't. so, you can clean your home faster than ever. don't mop harder, mop smarter, with the new swiffer powermop. (fan #1) there ya go! that's what i'm talkin' about! don't mop harder, mop smarter, (josh allen) is this your plan to watch the game today? (hero fan) uh, yea. i have to watch my neighbors' nfl sunday ticket. (josh allen) it's not your best plan. but you know what is? myplan from verizon. switch now and they'll give you nfl sunday ticket from youtubetv, on them. (hero fan) this plan is amazing! (josh allen) another amazing plan, backing away from here very slowly. (fan #1) that was josh allen. (fan #2) mmhm. (vo) for a limited time get nfl sunday ticket from youtubetv on us. a $449 value. plus, get a free samsung galaxy s23. only on verizon. >> welcome back. investigators had, three theories for da ray gricar disappearance. he died of, died by suicide, or he was killed. he prosecuted countless criminals who heads may have held a grudge. by the scandal was about to explode. linked to a case that wray had investigated years earlier, could the new allegations help solve the mystery of what happened to ray ray? here is lester holt with the conclusion of the case of the missing dna. >> at penn state university, an awful story. >> it broke bag in november of 2011. >> former penn state football coach indicted on sexual abuse charges. >> the story of the unofficial 40 child abuse child uses against jerry sandusky. >> -- a ganns former assistant coach jerry sandusky speaks out. >> a grand jury coached went more than two years investigating the allegations of more than eight alleged victims. and there it was in the official sun many of the grand jury findings. the name, ray gricar. it turns out that ray was the first prosecutor to investigate the allegation of child sex abuse against jerry sandusky. way back in 1998. that was news to many. including michael madeira, the man who became center counties the air after ray disappeared. >> i found out about ray gricar involvement along with the rest of the world when the grand jury presented. >> the investigation popping up in the media. why didn't ray gricar prosecute jerry sandusky years earlier? to understand, you have to go back to 1998. that's one mother contacted the penn state university police. to say that her 11 year old son had told her that he had been bear hugged by sandusky naked in the shower. it was an explosive allegation. ray gricar the local da big involved. we don't have his file, we don't know exactly what he did, but former da, bob, was sure that he knew what wray did first. >> and when you get a case of child abuse, you just put on the game face, that is the one. that is the one that really gets to us. >> ray would have almost certainly met the alleged victims to assess his credibility. >> if he met with victims, and i believe he, did he was the one who would have made to have the gut credibility decision. >> but when you have a member of the community, a well-known member of the community, and you look at the credibility of your alleged victims. does that become tough? then >> absolutely. >> if it ever got to a courtroom, the case would likely come down to the testimony of 1:11 year old boy against a hometown hero. that is where the staying, or something close to it, came in. we do not know all of the details, only this. that the mother confronted jerry sandusky on two occasions in may of 1998. while detectives listened and. >> had you ever known ray to do that kind of staying? or run that kind of operation? >> i don't know, i think that would be typical of what ray would do. like i said, he was the kind of guy when police would come in. he would always ask the next question. we'll have you tried this? have you tried that? >> the grand jury report says that jerry sandusky told the mother, i was wrong. i wish i could get forgiveness. i wish i were dead. days after the story broke, nbc's bob, asked jerry sandusky about that confrontation. >> in 1998, a mother confronts you about taking a shower with her son, and inappropriately touching him. two detectives is dropped on the conversation with you, and you said that maybe your private parts touched her son. what happened then? >> i cannot exactly recall what was said there. in terms of what i did say was that if he felt that way, then i was wrong. >> it seems that jerry sandusky was confessing to something wrong, but that's not how bob site. >> people have characterized jerry sandusky statements as being a confession. we call it under law, an admission. but it has to be an admission to a crime. hugging, even of itself, even in a child under the age of 12. is not necessarily a crime. unless you can show sexual gratification. that is the key. >> was that statement at least grounds for further investigation? >> have you tried to get into ray gricar head to try to understand what his thinking may have been when this allegation was presented in office? >> it's easy for me with 2020 hindsight to say, well if i had that information, i would've, said this needs to be looked into further. but, that must always follow with i don't know what information that he had. >> we ray gricar decided not to prosecute. we do not know his reasons. it is easy now to second guess ray gricar decision. especially since jerry sandusky went on to commit repeated assaults after 1998. in 2012, jerry sandusky curry was convicted of 45 counts of child sex abuse. >> for those of you that say that ray gricar miss the opportunity to put jerry sandusky away, you say what? >> i say they do not know the law. they do not know ray gricar. >> there were online posts, and tweets speculating about a link between the two. because there actually be a connection? >> for anybody, anybody, to suggest otherwise is i think, incredibly naive. >> dr. cyril is a well-known pathologist and people -- pittsburgh. about 100 miles west of penn state. he has now worked on the gricar great car case but he has followed it for years. -- after the sandusky story broke. he believes there must have been more. jerry sandusky was continuing to abuse young boys after 1998. and he says that ray gricar must have heard them. >> i guarantee you, after a district attorney has been in office for some years, there is not any kind of criminal activity that takes place in that county that he is not of where of. >> he speculates that gricar blamed himself for those alleged abuses, and either walked away or committed suicide. or, he says, maybe gricar knew too much. >> someone says, mr. gricar we've kept it quiet all this time. and without you around? we will keep it quiet longer. and that is the end of mr. gricar. but -- >> but gricar rule out any connection between the missing da and the sandusky case. >> i am in no way aware of any reason why there would be a lake. as i said before, we were talking about the person that gricar is. i cannot imagine, based upon the things that i know about him, that he would allow something or someone to influence a decision that he thought was the right decision to make. >> bob agreed. and added this. >> i see absolutely no connection between ray gricar disappearance in 2005, and anything connected with jerry sandusky. >> but you could see how people might make that leap? not to the imagination. this is a true mystery. >> it is a true mystery. anna nikema. why would anybody connected with the jerry sandusky matter, take out and eliminates a district attorney who declined to prosecute a case, and was leaving office in eight months? >> declined to prosecute years later? >> yeah. if you're gonna take someone out on a criminal case. you go after the witnesses. you go after the people that really can get on the witness stand and do you in. >> whether or not what happened to ray gricar, has anything to do with jerry sandusky, his disappearance remains an open case to this day. the pennsylvania state police still follow leads. they occasionally get reports of ray gricar sightings. he is supposedly been spotted in illinois, ohio, michigan, maryland, and texas. >> we had some pretty crazy sightings, but we look into them. we had sightings in new york city. from a very credible person. and the individual did look like mr. gricar but it wasn't him. >> maybe one day, they will be able to unlock the secrets of that damage hard drive. >> do you hold any hopes that at some point they will allow you to recover? >> i'm hoping maybe in a couple of years. >> for now, the mystery of ray gricar disappearance endures. and so does the wait for answers. >> do you still hold out hope that you are going to get a definitive answer? >> always. we're always gonna have that question that is never going away. >> that's all for this edition of dateline, i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching! >> ultimately what president trump said is let's go with option the, let's just halt, let's pause the voting and allow the state legislatures to take one last look and make a determination as to whether or not the elections were handled fairly. that's constitutional law. that is not an issue of criminal activity. >> that's an admission. >> you can say something is not criminal but that doesn't make it true. that is donald trump's attorney in the 2020 election case, seeming to admit that the former president did exactly what he is accused of doing. >> when all he wanted to do is