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Pennsylvania court releases
Jonathan Luna’s autopsy report

On November 24, 2025, Lancaster, Pennsylvania Judge David Ashworth unsealed the medical pathologist’s autopsy report describing Jonathan Luna’s homicide. The unsealing of the autopsy report was by request of the local newspaper, which cited our book The Midnight Ride of Jonathan Luna in court papers. The Pennsylvania State Police and the Lancaster County DA’s office suppressed the release of this report as far back as 2009, when Yardbird Books filed the first right to know request for this and other materials.

In 2020, a Pennsylvania state trooper told Judge Ashworth that he called the Baltimore FBI field office once a year to check on the status of the case; as such, the state police considered the case active. Ultimately, the court decided there was no serious investigation of Luna’s murder and so released the report to the public.

In the documentary The Midnight Ride of Jonathan Luna, based on the book, state police officials shared their opinion that Luna inadvertently committed suicide by “accidentally nicking his carotid artery.” You be the judge.

To download the 11-page report click here >

‘By way of background, this office (was) contacted by Dr. Barry Walp, Lancaster County Coroner, concerning the death of Jonathan Luna, a 38-year-old male, who dies under suspicious circumstances... After autopsy and review of the history, it is my opinion that the cause of death is Freshwater Drowning/Multiple Stab Wounds to Neck. The manner of death is Homocide.’

— Wayne K. Ross, M.D., forensic pathologist

Click here to read Postmortem Report >

- Bill Keisling
posted November 30, 2025

Jonathan Luna's Midnight Ride timeline

Here's the timeline of stops made by Jonathan Luna in the hours before his death, as released by the FBI:

Dec. 3, 2003:

• 11:38 pm - Luna's vehicle departs the U.S. Courthouse in Baltimore
• 11:49 pm - Luna's vehicle passes through Fort McHenry Tunnel Toll Plaza in Baltimore, northbound on Interstate 95

Dec. 4, 2003:

• 12:28 am - Luna's vehicle continues northbound and passes through the Perryville Toll Plaza in Maryland
• 12:46 am - Luna's vehicle passes through the Delaware Line Toll Plaza
• 12:57 am - Luna's debit card is used at an ATM at JFK Plaza in Newark, Del.
• 2:37 am (approximate time) - Luna's vehicle gets on the New Jersey turnpike at Exit 6A, from Route 130
• 2:47 am - Luna's vehicle enters the Pennsylvania turnpike at Exit 359, the Delaware River Bridge
• 3:20 am - Luna's debit card is used at a Sunoco gasoline station, King of Prussia, Pa., to purchase gas
• 4:04 am - Luna's vehicle exits the Pennsylvania turnpike at Exit 286, the Reading/Lancaster interchange
• 5:30 am - Luna's body is discovered off Dry Tavern Road in Denver, Pennsylvania

Witness: Luna stabbed in back, his hands and scrotum slashed

No Man No Problem: While Jonathan Luna lies dead in a stream, his DOJ superiors rush through a questionable drug plea deal

Bank robber robbed in Baltimore federal courthouse

Missing evidence money documents

Embattled FBI agents disrupt mourners gathered at Jonathan Luna's home

Related external links:

Ravenell indictment (September 19, 2019)

DOJ press release: Baltimore defense attorney facing federal indictment (September 18, 2019)

DEA, IRS raid the offices of Baltimore defense attorney Kenneth Ravenell and the firm representing him (Baltimore Sun, June 20, 2019)

Investigative tool used in law firm searches at risk, federal prosecutors fear (Washington Post, Jan 10, 2020)

Leader of cross-country drug organization pleads guilty, ordered to forfeit $20 million (Baltimore Sun, November 3, 2016)

Feds indict prominent Baltimore defense attorney Ken Ravenell in 2014 drug conspiracy of Jamaican kingpin (Baltimore Sun, September 18, 2019)

Feds may call witnesses from top Baltimore law firms in Ken Ravenell's drug case (CBS Baltimore, September 24, 2019)

Filing indicates more charges coming in case against prominent Baltimore attorney Kenneth Ravenell (Baltimore Sun, March 6, 2020)

Read our in-depth coverage and analysis of the courthouse disappearance and murder of Jonathan Luna here >

Shortly before midnight on December 3, 2003, young Assistant United States Attorney Jonathan Luna vanishes from his desk in the federal courthouse in downtown Baltimore.

Without explanation he mysteriously drives away from his office in the courthouse, away from his life, embarking on a wildly improbable midnight ride. In his office he leaves behind oddly important, personal items. His laptop. His cell phone. His eyeglasses.

And a bad plea agreement he was unable or unwilling to complete.

The next morning, shortly before dawn, Luna’s body is found face down in a cold stream outside of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He’s been stabbed 36 times, once for every thousand dollars missing from a courthouse safe. His car idles beside him at the side of the murmuring creek. He’s seventy miles from his office, at the far end of a midnight ride that carried him across four states.

In The Midnight Ride of Jonathan Luna, writer William Keisling reconstructs the last hours in the life of an American public servant. It’s a shocking, true-life, murder mystery whodunit that you’ll never forget.