An anonymous man at a Utah prison has been identified as a missing New Mexico man, clearing up speculation that he might be a district attorney from middle Pennsylvania who has been missing for six years.
The sheriff's office in Provo, Utah, announced last week that it was searching for the identity of a man arrested three weeks ago who refused to give police his name. The office received hundreds of emails wondering if it might be Ray Gricar, the former Centre County district attorney who mysteriously disappeared in April 2005, the Centre Daily Times reported. Mr. Gricar was just declared legally dead at the request of the district attorney's daughter.
The lead investigator in the disappearance, Det. Matthew Rickard of the Bellefonte, Centre County, police told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in an email that the bureau is "going to be doing fingerprint comparisons" with the jailed man, but dampened expectations for a link.
"However, at this point we do not believe it to be Mr. Gricar based solely on facial comparisons," he wrote.
His reservations were well-founded. The Associated Press reported this afternoon that authorities have determined the man is Phillip T. Beavers of New Mexico. Centre County District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller said in an email to the AP that the man was identified by his brother.
The graying, disheveled man with blue eyes and a scruffy face was booked into the Utah County Jail as "John Doe" on July 1 after being arrested for trespassing in the Provo Police Department parking garage, about 45 miles south of Salt Lake City.
Since then, investigators have been publicizing his mug shot and reaching out to the media and public to figure out who he is.
First Published: July 26, 2011, 8:30 p.m.
