Criminology - Ray Gricar and Jonathan Luna

Episode Date: February 22, 2020

For the 100th episode of Criminology, we're tackling two cases of murdered prosecutors that some people may be related. Ray Gricar was a prosecutor in Pennsylvania who was murdered in 2005. Jonathan Luna was a federal prosecutor with the United States Attorney's office in Baltimore, Maryland who was killed in 2003. Both men were found in rural areas of central Pennsylvania. The investigations into both of these murders revealed some very interesting information. But, police have not been able to prosecute a single person for either of the murders. Questions are numerous in both cases. Were these cases connected in any way? Did either of these men have something to hide that ultimately factored into their deaths? Were their deaths related to their jobs as prosecutors who had put a number of really bad people in jail over the years that might want retribution? You can support the show at patreon.com/criminology   An Emash Digital Production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you love chilling mysteries, unsolved cases, and a touch of mom-style humor, moms and mysteries is the podcast you've been searching for. Hey guys, I'm Mandy. And I'm Melissa. Join us every Tuesday for moms and mysteries, your gateway to gripping, well-researched true crime stories. Each week, we deep dive into a variety of mind-boggling cases as we shed light on everything from heist to whodunit.

We're your go-to podcast for Mysteries with a Motherly Touch. Subscribe now to moms and mysteries wherever you get your podcast. Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised. Hello everyone and welcome to episode 100 of the criminology podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson. And this is Mike Morford. Mr. Morford, how are you? I'm doing good. I'm excited. Episode 100.

Yeah, it's kind of hard to believe. I mean, if you look back over the years, look at the start, Zodiac, look at that whole kind of long seas. And then we jumped into the Golden State Killer. It seems like a lifetime ago. Yeah, we had four total seasons of episodes. And then we had breaks in between. So I think had we not had breaks in between all the seasons, we might have, what, 150 episodes out, they think?

Yeah, we would definitely have a lot more episodes today had we done it that way. But it's a big milestone, no doubt. getting to 100. I mean, just think about the first 99 episodes and the work that went into all of that. It's a number of years. And it's a lot of, it was a lot of work. So we're kind of celebrating that. Yeah, it's,

it's kind of cool to look back and realize that you've done that many episodes because it sort of creeps along and then all of a sudden you look back and you're like, whoa, where'd that time go? All right. So we had some new Patreon supporters. So let's give some shoutouts. we had Ali Pettit, David Holm, Gina Ann, Sarah Moseratolo, Doug Kaplan, and Ryan Garvey.

So some amazing new support, Morp, and we always appreciate that. Yeah, awesome. Thanks for all of that support. Everyone that did support us and everyone that continues to support us and anyone out there that's on the fence, if you'd like to support us on Patreon, you can do so by visiting patreon.com slash criminology. And speaking of milestones, we're also happy to announce that our Facebook discussion group, criminology podcast, discussion and fans, just past 5,000 members, which is pretty cool. And to celebrate that, Mike and I are going to do some sort of Facebook live Q&A or just some kind of random talk, whatever we decided to do.

If you're in our little group of Facebook supporters there, thank you so much for supporting us and joining. and anyone else that hasn't done so. If you want to come on over, we'd be happy to have you. And we'll finalize some details on when we do that Facebook live and we'll let you know. All right, buddy, it's time to get into this 100th episode of criminology. And we've got something really good picked out, not just one, but two cases that some people believe might be related. So we're talking about the disappearance of Ray Gras, a center.

County, Pennsylvania district attorney and the murder of Jonathan Luna, an assistant United States attorney in Baltimore, Maryland, who was found dead in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. So we're talking about two quiet, rural type areas in central Pennsylvania. That's really what connects these two cases, at least on the surface. Both of these cases are unsolved. and both have continued to baffle investigators for years. So you have separate questions in each case. Obviously, that is who committed these murders. But then you have kind of this overarching question, which is, are these two cases related?

Ray Krakar was born on October 9th, 1945 in Cleveland, Ohio. He graduated from Cleveland's Case Western Reserve University of Law. with a jurist doctor degree, the highest education available in the legal profession. And Morph, I don't know if you're familiar with Case Western, but a very highly regarded university, especially when it, you know, when it comes to law. Yeah, there's no doubt. He had some very good academic credentials. And he actually began his career as the district attorney for Cuyahoga County in Ohio. Your neck of the woods.

Ray left Cleveland in 1979 when his first wife was hired as a professor at Pennsylvania State University and State College. During their first year in Pennsylvania, Ray was a stay-at-home dad to their adopted daughter, Laura. But then a position opened up under District Attorney David E. Grine, and Ray Gricar was the best man for the job. In 1985, he won District Attorney in an election and eagerly started the job with an eye on tackling any cases that came his way. Ray had an eye for detail, and this was extremely helpful to him in his career as a prosecutor. It helped him secure convictions in some pretty major cases, like the March 1993 murder of Don Marie Burnbaum. She was a 17-year-old runaway from the Alon School, a home for runaway and troubled teenagers in Poland, Spring, May. Her body was found in a snowbank.

off Route 550 and Route 26 in Center County, Pennsylvania. This was near the Milesburg exit off I-80. Ray used DNA, gas receipts, and tire tracks to link Don's murder to a cross-country truck driver named James Robert Cruz Jr. At the time, Cruz was 36 years old and worked for New Century Trucking Company out of Waterford, Ohio. Cruz was married with three children and had a fourth on the way.

Cruz made the mistake of dumping Don's body in the same county where Ray worked. And I say mistake, Morf, because Ray was relentless in solving Don's murder. Those who worked with Ray described them as a friendly but private person who never talked openly about his private life. By spring 2005, Ray had been married and divorced twice, and was in a relationship with Patty Fornicola, who worked as a clerk in the district attorney's

office. Ray and Patty had been an item for several years, and they were living together in Belafonte, Pennsylvania, a beautiful small town loaded with a Victorian architecture. It's also the county seat of Center County. Ray worked hard, but every once in a while he liked to take a day off to get away from the hustle and bustle of his job. Around 11.30, on Friday, April 15th, 2005, Ray called Patty to tell her he was going to play hooky and go for a drive on Route 192. In his red and white minicouper, he was heading to Lewisburg about 50 miles away. Ray loved his mini cooper, and he enjoyed tooling around it whenever he got the chance. So a 50-mile drive would be something he'd enjoy. When he talked to Patty, Ray told her that he

wouldn't make it home in time to feed and walk their dog. So Patty said she would do it. They both said I love you and carried on with their day. According to Patty, there was nothing unusual about the coal. During his day off, Ray planned to visit an antique shop in Lewisburg called Street of Shops near the Susquehanna River. It was a beautiful warm day with temperatures in the 60s. Ray often went on spontaneous drives. He once hopped in his car and drove to a Cleveland Indians game without telling anyone.

On April 14th, 2005, an acquaintance saw Ray at Raystown Lake. This is about 22 miles southwest of Belafonte, Pennsylvania. Patty arrived home from work after 5 p.m. on the 15th. And Ray was not home yet. When Patty didn't find a note, she headed to the local YMCA for a workout, really not thinking a whole lot about it. But when Ray was not. hadn't returned home by 1130 p.m. Patty called the police. Belafonte Police Department's normal

procedure was to wait 24 hours to report a missing adult. However, because of Ray's position as DA, police officers immediately showed up at the home of police chief Dwayne Dixon, who right away send a notice to other police departments to be on the lookout for Ray's red and white Mini Cooper. The following morning, the Pennsylvania State Police joined in the search. And shortly after, they found Ray's Mini Cooper parked in a parking lot across from the street of shops in Louisburg, Pennsylvania. The town where Ray told Patty on the phone that he was heading to. The car was locked with his cell phone still inside of it. There were no signs of foul play, no blot around or scuff marks on the ground suggesting he was forced into another vehicle. When police started questioning locals

and shopkeepers, they caught a break. Witnesses reported seeing Ray and an unidentified woman who may have been with him in the antique shop. Bloodhounds were brought in, but were unable to track his scent. When the mini Cooper was examined, authorities found cigarette ash on the passenger's side floor mat and the smell of burning cigarettes lingered in the car. Ray did not smoke, and it was very well known that he hated the smell of cigarette. He would have never willingly let anyone smoke in his car. So I think right off the

bat, this was an immediate red flag for Ray's loved ones when they heard this news. When the investigators checked Ray's bank accounts and credit cards, there were no unusual clues or purchases. And there was no money missing from his account. And from the time that he vanished, none of his accounts or credit cards were used and neither was Ray's email. One thing that police did find was that Ray's work laptop was missing. Now, he rarely used it and police were quick to point out that they did not believe that his disappearance was in any way related to his job as district attorney. Authorities came out and said that there was no evidence pointing to his disaffirm. He said, pointing to his appearance being linked to Ray taking his own life. I think more the reason why this came up

was because Ray had a brother, Roy, who in 1996, disappeared under very similar circumstances. Roy Gracar, who was 53, disappeared from Dayton, Ohio on May 8th, 1996. At 5.30 p.m. the day, he left his Westchester home in his silver 1991 Toyota Camry to drive to a gas station to purchase some mulch and then pick up his nine-year-old son, Andrew. Andrew alerted other family members when Roy didn't pick him up at a friend's house. Roy had retired from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in January 1996 and had been taking antidepressant medication. He also suffered from severe vision problems and his family thought he was possibly disoriented when he vanished. Two days later, Roy's locked car was found 20 miles away at Veterans Park in Dayton. His wallet was in the glove compartment, but there was no evidence of Roy's whereabouts

or any indication of foul play. On May 18, 1996, Roy Grecara's body was found in the Great Miami River. His death was ruled suicide by drowning. Rang Rikara told a colleague that he never believed his brother's death was a suicide. So, Morf, there's some strange connections here for me. personally. I think I've mentioned it before, but just in case I haven't. I live in Dayton. So I'm very familiar with not only, you know, Roy's case, but the locations, right, that you just talked about. I used to work in Westchester. My wife works by Wright Patterson Air Force Base. I mean, these are very familiar locations to me. The day that Roy's body was. The day that Roy's body was

found in the great Miami River, which I live probably less than a mile from, was the day I got married, May 18th, 1996. Well, that's, that's really interesting, the timing, the locations, the same day you get married. And what's interesting about these cases we're talking about today is as close as this one is to you, the next one we're going to talk about later on this episode is right near me. Yeah, when we talked about that date, I got chills a little bit, man. And, you know, there's some strange connections here, to say the least. Belafonte authorities were aware of Roy Gras' death. But again, like we talked about, there was no evidence suggesting that Ray had taken his own life as far as anyone knew. He didn't have any mental, personal, or family

problems, although his girlfriend Patty said that he had been feeling fatigued in the weeks before he disappeared. Now, how many of us that work day in and day out don't feel fatigued to some degree, but Ray was about ready to retire from his job as district attorney at the end of the year. And he and Patty had made some plans to go on some long. trips. They were going to see his daughter, Laura, in Seattle. Ray's family did not believe there was any way that he took his own life. Laura said she spoke with her father the night before his disappearance. And she too said no signs of trouble, no signs of distress in that

conversation or in any other conversations in the weeks prior. The search continued for Ray Gras. Divers from Sunbury Fire Department thoroughly searched the Susquehanna River, and a cadaver search dog was brought in from Dauphin County. Authorities from the sheriff's offices in Northumberland and Union counties also assisted in the search. On April 19, 2005, the case went national when investigators in Ray's case appeared on Fox News's Gretta Van Susteren Show. On April 25th, authorities issued a warrant for Ray's medical records, but they didn't find any clues there either. Authorities revealed at that time that three of five sets of fingerprints found on Ray's car belonged to Ray, while the other two sets were never identified. At a April 29th press

conference, police chief Dwayne Dixon said, two people in Wilkesbury insisted that they met a man matching Ray's description on April 18th. This was three days after Ray vanished. Dixon didn't say where Ray was seen, but the local media discovered the witness was a bartender who said the mystery man was drinking a Heineken and was talking enthusiastically about the Cleveland Indians. The bartender said Ray was wearing a suit, but it was known that he had left his home in casual clothes. So if this was Ray, he more than likely changed clothes because the sighting happened days after he disappeared after he left his

home wearing casual clothes. By June 2005, more possible sightings of Ray were pouring in. People claimed they had seen him in Maryland, Michigan, Ohio, and Virginia. Of those sightings, authorities were able to rule out all of

them, except the Michigan one. In that sighting, a retired Detroit police officer spotted a man at a restaurant on May 27th in Southfield, Michigan. He was dined with a woman in her 70s. The officer thought the man looked familiar, and that night after dinner, he turned on his TV and saw a feature on Ray's disappearance. He recognized Ray as the man in the restaurant. Pennsylvania authorities called it a credible sighting, but still weren't convinced

it was Ray. In the Ohio sighting, a woman thought she saw Ray in a grocery store in Columbus around 3 p.m. on June 7, 2005. Ray's nephew, Chris Carr, lived in the area, and he and his brother Tony reviewed the store's security footage, but could tell by the man's hairline and waistline that it wasn't their uncle, and the sighting was rolled out. So, Morif I think you have this in a lot of cases, right? Authorities get in reports of sightings from all over the place, different states, some close, some far away. It doesn't surprise me that they took the Michigan siting as being, maybe a little more credible. It was reported by a retired police officer. Police officers, you know, they notice details. They're trained to do that. You know, most of us that are not trained

in that way, you know, we kind of go through life. We see people, you know, I don't make note of everybody that I see. Maybe if somebody's acting suspicious, but I kind of naturally think that police officers are scanning people. I mean, I think they, they really notice those type of details more than your average Joe or Jane. Yeah, I think it's in their nature just to be paying attention and looking for details all the time. Yeah, I think it's in their nature. It's in their training. You know, it's what they do. It's also probably in large part about being safe, right? You know, that keeping your head on a swivel thing. saying, well, very important if you're a police officer.

At the end of June 2005, police and Ray's family were getting desperate for answers. Ray's family turned to a psychic profiler named Carla Barron. Carla was 44 years old and a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, Carla believed that Ray Gras was dead. She said Ray had information about an illegal scheme that threatened the income of some people involved in a criminal network. This took place over a period of years. Those people in the network found out that Ray was onto them and they started following him.

Carla didn't believe they planned to kidnap Ray on April 15th, but the opportunity presented itself when he was alone in Lewisburg. Carla went on to say that when Ray parked his car in the parking lot across from the antique shop, two men in a tan, four-door car approached Ray. The driver leaned in to Ray's passenger window and brandished a gun. The man threatened Ray. So Ray went with the two men because he didn't want anything bad to happen to his family. A man in the backseat of the car tied Ray's hands behind his back with zip ties.

Carla said the men took Ray to a large warehouse where they often did business. She described the area to police and said that she believed the men killed Ray that night, then buried him in a shallow grave near the warehouse where no one would find it. That location was five to 15 minutes from where Ray's car was located in Lewisburg. Police worked on the information. Carla gave them, but they had no luck in finding Ray. And Morph, this is interesting. I always find it interesting when we bring in psychics into a case.

Now, again, this is a self-proclaimed psychic supplying this information to Ray's family and to police. The one thing I will say about it is that the information is very specific. Whether you believe in that stuff or not, to provide that type of information, very specific information, now, it doesn't mean it's real, doesn't mean it's truthful. It's just, to me, it stands out as being in the suburbs of D.C. A woman fails to show up for work and is found brutally murdered. 911, which emergency? We just walked in the door and there's blood in the foyer. For the next two decades, the case remained the.

unsolved until new technology allowed investigators to do what had once been impossible. A new series from ABC Audio in 2020, Blood and Water. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts. Being very complete and very specific, I guess. Yeah, I think sometimes when we talk about psychics in these cases, their details are very vague, like he's buried along the side of the highway or he's you know, a woman's in a body of water someplace. There's not a whole lot of specifics, but she really detailed a lot of stuff here. Yeah, I think that's the one thing that jumped out to me about the information that the psychic gave in this case. If you love chilling mysteries, unsolved cases, and a touch of mom-style humor,

Moms and Mysteries is the podcast you've been searching for. Hey, guys, I'm Mandy. And I'm Melissa. Join us every Tuesday for Moms and Mysteries, your gateway to gripping, well-resour to true crime stories. Each week, we deep dive into a variety of mind-boggling cases as we shed light on everything from heist to whodunit. We're your go-to podcast for Mysteries with a Motherly Touch. Subscribe now to Moms and Mysteries wherever you get your podcast. At the end of July 2005, two fishermen found a laptop under a bridge in the Susquehanna River, just a couple blocks from the parking lot

where Ray's car was found. The men turned it over to State Police, who determined it was Ray Carers missing laptop. It had a center county government tag on it, but the hard drive was missing. Dive teams searched the river again, but nothing else was found. Police had no idea how long the laptop had been in the water. Police Chief Dwayne Dixon said the water where the laptop was found was about four and a half to five feet deep, shallower than when divers originally searched the river shortly after Ray vanished. The laptop raised a few questions, mainly who took out the hard drive, and why? Was it Ray or someone else? What was on the hard drive that Ray or another person didn't want authorities to see? Police never found the answers. And that's still a mystery today.

That same month in July 2005, Patty Fornicola took and passed a polygraph test. Laura Gras car took one as well and also passed the following September. But police said they were just following procedure. You know, these two women were never. considered suspects in Ray's disappearance. At the end of October 2005, the hard drive to Ray's laptop was found in the Susquehanna River in Lewisburg. The problem is it had experienced significant water damage and experts from two different labs were unable to access the files on it. Months went by and then years. An investigator still had no clue. as to what happened to Ray Gras.

They had a lot of questions. You know, did he leave on his own? Was he murdered? Or did he take his own life? But I think more if the overall sense was that police and family members believed that Ray was murdered. A rumor floated around that Ray was in the witness protection program. But this was really kind of one of those local rumors.

There was really nothing to back. it up. One thing that's really interesting and just pure luck in this case, like finding the needle in the haystack, not once but twice in this case, is the fact that the fisherman found the laptop the first time and then someone else discovered the hard drive separately. Finding those two different things at separate times just seems like a small miracle. If you think about the hard drive from a laptop, it's not all that big. So, you know, for somebody to find it in a river or, now, I don't have all the details of how it was found, but I think you're right. I mean, I think it's kind of incredible that both items were found by fishermen. And the fact that both

were found in a body of water would later take on some meaning. In April 2009, authorities were revealed they had searched Ray's home computer and found internet searches pertaining to destroying a hard drive. Key phrases used in the online search were how to fry a hard drive, how to wreck a hard drive, and water damage to a notebook computer. In March 2010, a task force was formed after Ray's friends and family, as well as the public, put pressure on police to solve the case. The task force is still around today and meets monthly to review the case. In 2011, several things happened in Ray's case. Authorities in Utah circulated a photo of a John Doe prisoner in order to learn his identity.

The authorities there had a man in custody, but they had no idea of who he was. The man bore striking resemblance to right her car. But it turned out he was identified by his brother as Philip T. Beaver's from New Mexico. It turned out to be another rabbit hole in Ray's case. Ray's daughter Laura petitioned the court to have her father legally declared dead. so that she could finally settle his estate. Around this time, disgraced Penn State Assistant football coach,

Jerry Sandusky, was indicted for sexually assaulting young boys. It was revealed that police investigated an abuse allegation against Sandusky in 1998 and that Rai Gras car decided not to pursue charges. That information had some people wondering if there was any type of connection between Sandusky and the disappearance of Ray Garcar. The problem was there was no evidence to support any type of link. Two years later in September 2013, a new theory emerged in Ray's disappearance. The Atuna Mere published an article reporting a state prison inmate, who was a

former Hells Angels member turned police informant, told authorities that another former member of Hells Angels killed Ray in reprisal for a prison sentence. This prison sentence was handed down to another member who was prosecuted by Ray's office in 1999 for aggravated assault. In a road rage incident, the member split a driver's head open with a baseball bat. Witnesses described the attack as if he was chopping wood. A one-day trial resulted in a conviction and four-to-eight-eight-year sentence. The prison inmate said that he had knowledge of Ray's alleged murder because he was a ranking officer in the Hell's Angels at the time. But he refused to take authorities to the location of Ray's body.

for fear of self-imprimination. After police investigated the Hells Angels theory, they said there was about a 1% chance a member of the Hells Angels killed Ray Grecur. In 2014, the Rockview and Lewistown barracks of the Pennsylvania State Police took over the investigation.

From the Belafonte Police in an effort to shake things up, they were set to take a look at the case with fresh eyes. Central Pennsylvania residents badly wanted Ray Gracar's case solved. And to some of them, Ray's case was reminiscent of another unsolved mystery involving a high-ranking attorney in the area. This was the 2003 murder of a Baltimore assistant United States attorney named Jonathan Luna,

whose body was found in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. And just like in Ray's case, there are more questions than answers. Jonathan Paul Luna was born on October 21st, 1965, in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx in New York. His father was Filipino and his mother are African American. His father supported a family by working in the restaurant business, while Jonathan's mother stayed home to care for him and his brother. Jonathan graduated in 1988 from Fordham University with a bachelor's degree in communications. Later that year, he attended law school at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. but returned to New York after one semester when his father became seriously ill. A year later,

Jonathan went back to UNC and graduated in 1992. Shortly after, he got a job as a clerk for Judge William L. Osteen. While working there, he met Angela Hopkins, a medical student in the University of North Carolina. Angela was in her final year of medical school. Jonathan and Angela were married in 1993 and eventually had two sons together. From 1993 to 1994, Jonathan was an associate at Arnold and Porter law firm in Washington. Then in 1994, he went to work in the general counsel's office at the Federal Trade Commission. But Jonathan missed New York, and he often talked about returning finally in 1997. He and Angela moved to Brooklyn, where he worked as a prosecutor in a unit of the King's County District Attorney's Office that covered Brooklyn Heights, Clinton Hill, Fort Green, and Red Hook.

In 1999, the Luna's moved to Elkridge, Maryland after Jonathan became a federal prosecutor at the United States Attorney's Office in Baltimore. Jonathan was hired by then U.S. Attorney for Maryland, Lynn Bataglia. So, you know, if you look at this more, if things looked really positive for Jonathan Luna both professionally and in his family life. Jonathan has been described by friends and colleagues as responsible, charming, and highly intelligent. The U.S. Attorney's Office considered him to be a bright and energetic prosecutor, who

was well liked in the office. But after Batagli was appointed judge with Maryland Court of Appeals in January 2001, Jonathan had problems with her successor, Thomas M. DiBiaggio. In 2003, Jonathan thought DiBiaggio was going to fire him and hired former federal prosecutor Andrew C. White to represent him. DiBiaggio publicly denied Jonathan's job was in trouble, but confirmed it to others in the office. At the end of 2003,

Jonathan was prosecuting a 32-year-old Baltimore rapper named Dionne Lionel Smith and Walter Poindexter, who was 28 years old. Both men were charged in a five-year-old. count indictment with heroin distribution and conspiracy charges. Dion Smith recorded music under the name Poppy Jenkins and was a silent partner in Stash House records. The men had been arrested in July. The indictment also alleged that Poindexter, who went by the nickname Fela, shot and

killed a man named Alvin Jones on January 22nd, 2001. According to the Baltimore Sun, Poindexter believed that Jones had burglarized one of their stash houses. So in addition to the heroin distribution and conspiracy charges, Pointexter was also charged with murder. The chief witness in the case was Warren Grace, a convicted heroin dealer who was working as a paid FBI informant. But Grace broke the conditions of the informant program when he slipped out of his electronic monitoring device and was caught with heroin in his vehicle. Now, the heroin was unrelated to the case, but obviously that doesn't look good for your star witness. All of that info came out during the trial, and Smith and Poindexter's attorneys

accused Jonathan Luna of failing to disclose it. By the end of the workday on Wednesday, December 3rd, 2003, after some negotiation, Jonathan and the defense attorneys reached a plea bargain on the drug charges. After work, Jonathan went to his Elkridge home, but returned to the office at around 8.40 p.m. to write up the papers on the plea agreement. At 9.06 p.m. He called Pointexter's lawyer to tell him he was still drawing up the paperwork and would fax it over by midnight. But the attorney never received the fact from Jonathan Luna. The next morning, on December 4th, at 5.30 a.m. about 100 miles northeast of Luna's office,

a worker at a well drilling company in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, spotted something red, glowing, a short distance from the office, and turned his car around to investigate. It was very early, and it was still dark outside, but in the path of his headlights,

he saw a silver Honda Accord with Maryland license place. The car was nose down in a small creek with the engine still running. He saw blood smeared on the driver's side door. He also saw a child's car seat in the back. Beneath the car and lying face down in the water was the body of a male. The worker called 911. When police arrived, they examined the scene.

The victim was wearing a business suit, but there was no identification on him. money and cell phone attachments were in the car, and a considerable amount of blood was in the back seat. The investigation pressed on. Back in Maryland, Jonathan Luna was scheduled to be in court at 9.30 a.m. that morning for the Smith and Pointexter case, but never showed up. Jonathan was always very punctual, so this was highly unusual behavior. Federal agents at the courthouse searched the building, but couldn't find him. Other attorneys entered pleas in Jonathan's absence, and by 1130 a.m., people were, frantically looking for him. Within four hours, authorities linked the body found in Lancaster County,

Pennsylvania, with Jonathan Luna's disappearance, which had been reported by Jonathan's wife. She had reported Jonathan missing when he failed to come home from work the night before. An autopsy performed by Lancaster County Coroner, Dr. Barry Walt, revealed Jonathan had been stabbed 36 times with a small night. Walt found what he called, what he called, prick marks on Jonathan's body that suggested he may have been tortured before he was killed. Walp also said that Jonathan was alive when he went into the water and that if Jonathan had not been moved to the creek, he would have bled to death. Wapilp listed stab wounds and drowning as causes of death and he listed the manner of death as homicide. Jonathan's boss

Thomas DeBasio made a bold declaration in regards to Jonathan's murder. He said, we will find who did this. And we are dedicated to bringing the person's responsible for this tragedy to justice. That's a commitment from me. That's a commitment from every law enforcement officer in the state of Maryland. The investigation into Jonathan Luna's death continued, both in Maryland and Pennsylvania. Some people couldn't help but wonder if Jonathan's job as a prosecutor got him killed, specifically the Smith and Poindexter case.

But Dion Smith's lawyer said that his client had nothing to do with Jonathan's murder and was cooperating with police. Poindexter was interviewed by the FBI on December 4th, the day Jonathan's body was found. Smith's attorney said that his client was happy with the outcome of the drug case because of the plea bargain Jonathan and the defense attorneys agreed upon. The deal dropped conspiracy counts for both men, which carried a sentence of 25 years to life. Smith was allowed to plead guilty to drug distribution and use of a firearm, which had a potential sentence of 8 to 10 years. Smith's attorney claimed that his client was happy because he got what

he wanted in the plea deal. So what would be the point of killing Jonathan Luna? And not only that, but killing a DA does not affect the outcome of a trial. I think it's an important statement to make, because it's accurate, right? Okay, you're going to kill a problem. One of the biggest decisions for a new parent is who you trust with your child's health care. We chose Salas Health. They're the only place in L.A. that pairs an incredible concierge pediatrician with 24-7 urgent and emergency care for your child, all with the same trusted medical team.

No waiting, no guessing. Just calm, exceptional care from people who truly know your child. 24-7 virtual care and house calls available. Learn more at solacehealth.com and mention code Pediatrics 10 for 10% off your child's first year. Prosecutor, a district attorney, it's not going to stop your case from moving forward. They're just going to get somebody else to step in. It's not like they're going to say, well, okay, we have to let you go now. Yeah, unless he had a personal beef with him directly and just wanted him out of the way for some reason, I agree with you.

Well, yeah, me having said that doesn't mean that, you know, one of these individuals may still not have wanted Jonathan dead. It would have had to have been for a different reason than the outcome of the trial. Because, you know, like Smith's attorney said, his plea bargain was pretty good. I imagine he was happy with how it turned out. It doesn't mean there still may have been some animosity. and maybe we'll get into it later on the part of Smith or Pointexter against Jonathan Luna. Investigators began looking into Jonathan Luna's personal and financial life. The FBI claimed they found a credit card that Jonathan had that his wife knew nothing about.

They also said someone was posting messages using the name Jonathan Luna on a website where people advertised for female sex partners. Okay, that doesn't seem good. But everyone that knew Jonathan Luna vehemently denied that this was a guy who would ever do anything like that. And, you know, not to mention that fact, morph, but, you know, if this guy was to do that, he probably would not have used his real name. We're talking about a very intelligent individual somebody in a high profile position. It doesn't mean that those guys don't make mistakes or, you know, lose their heads over something. But you would think if this guy's on the web and he's trying to set up some type of sexual

trist, if he's on a website, is he really going to put in his name as Jonathan Luna? Yeah, it's way too easy to change it. And you could almost make a case that someone wants to soil his name by putting his name on a site like that. Yeah. Or, you know, maybe that is a person that had dealings with Jonathan Luna. Maybe they didn't go so well. And so they're on this site. And they said, you know what?

I'm going to use this name. So. But again, there are a lot of questions in this case. We've already said that. There are a lot of things that don't make sense. But we have to talk about always. of them because who knows what's important. Authorities were able to establish Jonathan's final movements before his death.

And it would come out that, you know what? They were almost as big of a mystery as who murdered him. Investigators knew that he was at work at 1130 p.m. on December 3rd because building records showed his silver 1999 Honda was parked in a nearby garage. It's really from this point forward when things turned somewhat bizarre. At 11.38 p.m., Jonathan or someone else drove his car out of the parking garage. What investigators found very strange was that Jonathan's eyeglasses and his cell phone were left behind on his desk. So first of all, family and friends said he needed glasses to drive. And what type of person

leaves their cell phone behind? Not many of us. And how many attorneys who are in this kind of fast-paced lifestyle always in communication with somebody would leave their cell phone behind? It seems out of the ordinary for sure. Yeah, it definitely seems like a red flag. And when you put the two together, right, I see, okay, you forgot your cell phone. It happens to everyone, but when you couple the cell phone and the eyeglasses together, that's where to me, that's more than just an oversight. Something has happened that's not right. After Jonathan Luna's car was driven out of the garage, It was driven south to I-95 and then drove through the Fort McEnry Tunnel heading north. At 1246 a.m., Jonathan Luna's easy pass was used for a toll on I-95 into Delaware.

A few minutes later, at 1257 a.m., he withdrew 200 hours from an ATM at a rest stop in Newark, Delaware. A surveillance camera at the ATM recorded images, which showed Luna standing alone in front of the ATM. In the video, Luna still was a little. wearing his tie. But at 2.37 a.m., Jonathan's car entered the New Jersey turnpike via Route 130 in Florence, New Jersey. Ten minutes later, the car entered the Pennsylvania turnpike. And I have to stop here for a second because it's important to point out, like you, Mike, in some of those areas where Roy Gras car was navigating. This is an area that's very close to me, and it's very unusual, this route that he would take. If the person driving, whether it was

Jonathan Lunar, whoever, wanted to go to Lancaster, they could have made a straight beeline up instead of cutting over through Delaware into Pennsylvania, crossing over into New Jersey, and then back into Pennsylvania. The area of Florence, New Jersey, where the turnpike was entered, there's nothing there. There's no town. It's very rural. So I almost wonder if they made a mistake and came in New Jersey and had to turn around and get back over to the Pennsylvania Turnpike, but it's a very strange set of movements. To me, it seems like someone is either wandering or driving aimlessly, no real plan, or they're just going very far out of their way, driving in South Jersey to turn around

just to head west to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. So unless Jonathan or whoever was driving had to pick up someone or pick up something here in South Jersey, I can't figure out why they drove into New Jersey at all. It's just very much out of the way. At 320 a.m., Jonathan's debit card was used at the Sonoco gas station in the King of Prussia Service Plaza in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. At 404 a.m., Jonathan's Honda exited at the Pennsylvania Redding Interchange. Police later said the ticket had a spot of Jonathan's blood on it.

At 5.30 a.m., Jonathan's body. was found at the well drilling company property off dry tavern road in the town of Denver in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The drilling company is only about two and a half miles from the interchange. So what happened between 404 a.m. and 530 a.m. is unknown. And more of like you said, the entire established route, troubled investigators, just like it troubled you, a direct route from Baltimore to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, it's about 100 miles. That's less than a two-hour drive. The route that Jonathan's car traveled covered 135 miles and would have taken about two and a half hours. So whoever was driving that car,

Whether it was Jonathan or someone else, they could have driven from Baltimore to Lancaster in pretty much a straight shot on only three highways, I-83, I-95, and U.S. 30 West. And when I mapped this out, I think that the travel may have taken as much as four hours. When you plug in all those locations where Jonathan Luna's car traveled, it just doesn't make sense. Investigators questioned people at gas stations along the route to see if anyone recognized Jonathan's picture. But no one did. The Sonoco gas station's surveillance camera failed to record the transaction clearly. According to investigators, it is unclear if investigators check surveillance cameras around the area of Jonathan's workplace and at the various toll booths.

Authorities learned that Jonathan Luna had traveled to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, several times in the months before his death, but didn't know of any work-related business that would have taken him there. Two months after Jonathan's death, investigators reported finding the murder weapon, Jonathan's penknife, near a large rock where his body was found. This was an area that was previously searched by FBI agents, U.S. Marshals, and 100 cadets from the State Police Academy. In March 2004, investigators announced a $100,000 reward and said they were actively pursuing three theories in Jonathan Luna's death, one that he was killed by someone he knew, one that he was killed by a stranger who picked him at random. And then the third was that he took his own life.

And when you talk about that last theory that Jonathan Luna took him. his own life. No one in his family, no one that knew him believed that was possible. Right. The idea that he stabbed himself 36 times with his own penknife seemed ludicrous. And I think Lancaster County officials agree. They continued to investigate his death as a likely homicide. But then something changed.

by the second anniversary of Jonathan's death, the FBI labeled it suicide. And they tried to get coroner Barry Wulp successor, a guy by the name of Gary Kurchner, to change the manner of death to suicide, but he refused. Despite this, the FBI stuck with the theory that Jonathan Luna took his own life. The FBI suicide theory centered around $36,000 in evidence from a bank robbery case. Jonathan was prosecuting that conveniently went missing shortly before Jonathan's death. Jonathan was set to take a lie detector test as part of the investigation, but postponed taking it at least once due to his heavy workload.

Investigators discovered that he came into possession of more than $10,000 cash shortly after the evidence money went missing, but investigators never determined how Jonathan acquired the money. Others who had access to the missing money took polygraph tests. One of Jonathan's fellow prosecutors said that Jonathan was willing to take a polygraph, and she went on to say that she didn't believe he stole the money. And obviously, neither did Jonathan's friends and family. The FBI was never able to prove that Jonathan Luna had anything.

to do with the missing money. A short time later, a report by the Department of Justice Inspector General's office detailed what was quoted as credible evidence of serious misconduct by the FBI agents investigating Jonathan's death. But they added that it was serious misconduct, but not to the point where it compromised their investigation. According to multiple sources, two agents questioned a fellow female agent about rumors that she and Jonathan were having an affair. She later filed an internal complaint charging that the FBI's then acting special agent in charge of the Baltimore division ordered two agents to interrogate her and approved an illegal search of her computer.

This interrogation did not include agents assigned to investigate Jonathan's death. The female agent denied the affair and said her relationship with Jonathan was strictly professional. Ultimately, it was decided that the special agent in charge, as well as the two agents, didn't do anything wrong, in their interrogation of the female agent. In 2004, author Bill Kiesling wrote a book titled The Midnight Ride of Jonathan Luna. Two years later, in a new edition of the book, Kiesling said that Kim McLeod, the mortician who prepared Jonathan Luna's body for viewing, counted 32, not 36 stab wounds. The autopsy stated Jonathan was stabbed 36 times in the neck and chest area, but Kim told Kiesling that Jonathan also had stab wounds in the middle of his back and around and below

his shoulder blades. She also said his hands had been shredded by deep cuts between the fingers and bone-deep slashes to the front and back of the hands. This suggested that Jonathan may have defended himself against the blows. According to Kim, the wounds to Jonathan's hands were so severe that she had to put gloves on his hands for the viewing. This fact had previously been mentioned by a friend of Jonathan's, who said that when he saw Jonathan at the funeral home, he was wearing gloves. Kim McLeod went on to say that Jonathan's neck had been slit and his scrotum cut,

but the cut wasn't a clean one. So, more, the facts provided by Kim McLeod seem to support homicide, right? Those things don't sound like something that would come from someone trying to take their own life. The defensive wounds on the hands, the stab wounds to the back, the shoulder blades. Seems to me like those would be made by another person. But Dr. Gary Kirchner had a response to Kim's claims. He said that she is, quote, describing probably accurately the wounds on the body. She is describing autopsy wounds as well as inflicted wounds.

Those linear wounds are the medical examiner looking under bruises for the depth of the wounds. They were not inflicted pre-death. Kurchner went on to say that he was recently. reasonably certain that the cut to the scrotum was done during the autopsy. It's interesting because even if this examiner is right, it still doesn't explain the severe damage to his hands that look like self-defense wounds. Yeah, I think he does a good job of maybe, you know, casting some doubt on the cut to the scrotum and maybe some of the, the other wounds.

But as far as I know, he didn't address all of the, injuries to Jonathan's hands. I still think that is very important to this case. It was around the end of 2005 when a lot of people started to wonder about a possible connection between Ray Grecar's disappearance months earlier and Jonathan Luna's murder in 2003. Both were prosecutors and both were involved in heroin cases and both cases centered in counties in central Pennsylvania. On March 31st, two weeks before Ray Grecar vanished, he had state attorney general Tom Corbett announced the largest heroin bust in in Center County history. But authorities today say the two cases are not related and there

isn't any evidence to support a link. While the FBI continues to say that Jonathan Luna took his own life, more I think it's clear. There are too many things that seem to cast doubt on their theory. For one thing, Jonathan needed his glasses to drive. He would have taken them with him. He wouldn't not have been able to see well enough without them, especially at night to make that type of drive. And we talked about his cell phone. And I think you add those two together. Both of those items being left in his office suggests that he either left in a hurry or he was forced to leave. There's also the spot of his blood found on the toll ticket that suggested he was already injured when he went through that toll booth, the considerable amount of blood found in the

backseat of his Honda points to the fact that obviously at some point he was in the backseat at the point where some of these blows, if not all of these blows were inflicted, it does raise the question. Did Jonathan drive his own car that night or was someone else driving and had him captive in his backseat. While many questions remain in Jonathan's death, the case is pretty much cold. People associated with the case have refused to discuss it with the media, and some believe Jonathan's case will never be solved. Angela Hopkins Luna and her two children moved out of the Elkridge home after Jonathan's

death. She's still working as a doctor in Maryland. Whether or not Regrakar and Jonathan Luna's cases are connected is uncertain, but both deserve justice and their families deserve answers. And I think morph as we wrap up these cases, we have to talk about some of the strange details and some of the clues in both. Well, the first thing that jumps out to me in Ray Krikar's case is the laptop searches about how to destroy a laptop in water and then lo and behold, when he disappears, his laptop is found in water. That doesn't seem like a coincidence. Just,

to me personally. And I wonder if he was planning some kind of exit, whether it was to go live a new life. It just doesn't seem like a coincidence that that search would be found on his computer and then his laptop would be discarded in the water. Yeah, I'm with you there. I mean, why search for that unless you have something on that hard drive that you're hoping to erase completely? We know. It's very. It's very. very hard to erase a hard drive. I shouldn't say that. It's not that hard. You need to crush it. You need to destroy it. You know, running some software to erase things off doesn't really work. There are people that can go in and recover that information. The thing to me is, what would that be?

What would be on your laptop on the hard drive that you would never want anyone else to see? I don't know. And I don't think anybody else does either. And another thing that jumps out to me about Ray's case is the fact that his brother went missing before ultimately being found dead. It just seems too bizarre like the odds of that would be, you know, really low to have something like that happened twice to two. a set of brothers. To me, the thing that really stands out about this case is both of these guys were prosecutors. And tough job. We know it's also a job where you are going to make a ton of enemies. You are literally day in and day out putting people away. Now, hopefully there are people that

deserve it. They did bad things. They should go to jail. They should go to prison. They should go to prison. should serve their time, but there are a lot of people that are going to have a tremendous amount of animosity towards the person that is putting them behind bars. And just like in Ray Krakara's case, in Jonathan Luna's case, there's a number of questionable things. He leaves his phone and his glasses, which we know he needs his glasses to drive. And then he takes this wild, bizarre path to ultimately get to Lancaster and goes very far out of his way to get there.

That just seems very bizarre. And then I think you add on top of that the missing money, right? So you have Ray Grascar who has apparently something on his laptop that he never wants anyone to see. You've got the question of whether or not Jonathan Luna was involved in this missing money. Most people don't believe he was, but the question's out there. You know, you have to. factor both of these things in when you're talking about their deaths. The one thing I don't know

is the proximity. You know, what does that have to do with the two cases? I don't know if it has anything to do with them. What do you think? Yeah, they were both found dead in quiet, more rural areas of Pennsylvania about 100 miles apart. And to me, that's where I just don't see the connection relating to the geography. What I think is these are definitely two separate cases. I don't think they have anything to do with one another, except for the fact that they both bodies were found in rural areas of Pennsylvania. I think more than likely both of these have something to do with the professions that,

you know, these men were in. I will say this, that I think specifically. in Reg Ricar's case, there's someone that might have some answers. And that's the woman that he was seen with at the antique store just before he went missing. If he was talking to her, she might have some insight as to what they were talking about. Did he know her? Was she a random shopper? But at least she might be able to give investigators some kind of idea of what was happening.

But she's never been identified. Well, and to me, that goes back to what was on that lap. top. It doesn't have to be criminal, right? It could be, and I don't want to cast aspersions on this guy, but it could be evidence of infidelity. And, you know, he's trying to get rid of it. And maybe that woman is, like you said, a part of that. But in all the cases that we do, Morf, there is someone, at least one person, if not multiple people, that know what happened. The key is, will, they ever come forward or will police ever figure out who they are so that they can find a way to extract that information? That's the key. Yeah, whether these cases are connected or not,

they're both very bizarre in their own rights. Thanks goes out to Debbie Buck at TruecrimeDiva.com for writing and research assistants in this episode. If you love the show, please take a minute, go out, give us a five-star rating. Tell your friends about criminology. word of mouth goes a long way in helping the podcast. If you're active on social media, we'd love to hear from you. We're on Twitter with the handle at Criminology Pod. You can also find us on Facebook by searching for Criminology Podcast or by joining our Facebook discussion group, which is Criminology Podcast, Discussion and Fans.

All right, Morf, that is it for Episode 100. It's a big milestone in the anthology that, is criminology. It's kind of tough to say those two words side by side. And I'm not even sure that I used them correctly. But what I do know is we've put out 100 episodes. And I'm very proud of what you and I have done. And I'm looking forward to the next 100. Yeah, definitely. You know, like I always say, if people like what we do and they keep listening, we will keep putting it out there. Morph and I will be back with all of you next Saturday night with an all new episode of criminology. So for Mike and Morph, we'll talk to you next week. Take care, everyone.