Penn State Scandal: Second Mile Records Relating To Jerry Sandusky Lost, According To Report

Among the curious items uncovered by a Wednesday night New York Times report that gave a behind-the-scenes look at the grand jury investigation leading to former Penn State assistant Jerry Sandusky's indictment is the case of the missing Second Mile records. As investigators began to dig for clues, the attention turned to Second Mile, Sandusky's charity for at-risk youth. Authorities had been working to piece together a case against Sandusky at the time, but ran into road blocks along the way.

When the investigators subpoenaed Sandusky's travel records, as well as records that should show the names of the youth who passed through the program, Second Mile was unable to produce three years of files.

Much of the older paperwork was stored at an off-site records facility. The travel and expense records, for instance, had been sent over several years earlier. But select members of the charity’s board of directors were alarmed to learn recently that when the records facility went to retrieve them, some of those records — from about 2000 to 2003 — were missing.

Some of the records were later found and it could simply be that they were lost at some point along the way, but the years that came up missing are curious. At the time, the grand jury case centered around a 2002 incident in which Mike McQueary allegedly witnessed Sandusky assaulting a boy in the Penn State locker room. Without the records, though, investigators struggled to find the alleged victim.

For more on the investigation, check out the New York Times' report detailing how Sandusky's indictment came about from start to finish.