Authorities in Indiana are searching for a missing college student who disappeared early Friday after a night out with friends.
Police say 20-year-old Lauren Spierer, a student at Indiana University, was last seen about three blocks from her apartment in Bloomington at around 4:15 a.m. Friday, Fox 59 reports.
Witnesses reportedly told investigators that the young woman was walking barefoot to her apartment. Video footage does not show her entering the building, according to the Indiana Daily Student.
Spierer, a 2009 graduate of Edgemont High School in Scarsdale, N.Y., had just completed her sophomore year at Indiana University. She is reportedly studying fashion merchandising and is a University Division scholar.
"She's an amazing girl," Monique Douglas, a friend and coworker of Spierer's mother, said in an interview with FoxNews.com.
Douglas described Spierer as a driven young woman with "great charisma."
Spierer's parents flew from their home in Westchester County, N.Y., to Bloomington on Saturday to assist in the search for their daughter.
"It's every parent's worst nightmare," her father, Robbie Spierer, told the Journal News. "And it's worse than what you can imagine."
Spierer's mother also told the newspaper that her daughter has a life-threatening heart condition called Long QT Syndrome and needs medical attention.
"She has a heart condition but she never lets that stop her," Douglas said.
Spierer is described as 4 feet, 11 inches tall with blond hair and blue eyes. She was last wearing a white tank top with a light-colored shirt over it and black pants.
Anyone with information on her whereabouts it being urged to call the Bloomington Police Department at 812-339-4477.
Search parties fanned out today looking for an Indiana Univesity student with a dangerous heart condition who has been missing for four days.
Lauren Spierer is a pint-sized student who weighs less than 100 pounds and is 4-foot-11 and had just completed her sophomore year at the school's Bloomington campus.
She was last seen at about 4:30 a.m. on Friday morning walking to her apartment. The Indiana Daily Student reports that Spierer was at Kilroy's Sports Bar Thursday night and then at a friend's party. She was last seen at the intersection of 11th Street and College Avenue. Surveillance footage from her apartment at Smallwood Plaza shows that she never came home.
Her keys were found a block away from where she was last seen, OH SHIT. but there have been no other traces of the missing student.
"Lauren is an amazing person and friend. She's artsy, fun, and different," says Becca Lefkowitz, 19, Lauren's best friend since seventh grade. "I can't imagine anyone doing any harm to her."
According to Lefkowitz, Spierer suffers from a condition called Long QT Syndrome, which is a heart rhythm disorder for which she sometimes needs medication. This disorder can cause uncontrollable and dangerous arrhythmias.
Spierer is an apparel and merchandising major and has interned with Anthropologie in New York. She planned to continue there after completing a summer course in Indiana.
Lefkowitz spoke to Spierer's mother today and said the family is "in complete shock" and wanting to wake up from this "nightmare."
GREENBURGH — After three full days of searching the streets, construction sites, lakes and woods in and around Bloomington, Ind., authorities still don't know what happened to Lauren Spierer.
The 20-year-old Indiana University fashion student and Edgemont resident disappeared early Friday morning. She was last seen around 4:15 a.m. just a few blocks from her apartment in the middle of a well-lighted and busy neighborhood in downtown Bloomington.
Earlier in the night, she had visited a friend's apartment and stopped by Kilroy's Sports Bar, which closes at 3 a.m., also a short walk from her apartment.
A manager at Kilroy's who gave only her first name, Megan, said the bar wasn't busy that night. She said Spierer was there for about an hour.
not promising. i always feel for the parents, their world suddenly destroyed.
(CBS/WISH) BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Bloomington police used a battering ram Tuesday night to break into a room located in the apartment building where Lauren Spierer lived.
Spierer, a 20-year-old Indiana University sophomore, was last seen early Friday morning as she left a friend's apartment and started walking home. Her disappearance has sparked a massive search and social media efforts to find her.
According to CBS affiliate WISH, police were serving a search warrant at Smallwood Plaza apartments. Once inside, authorities removed three computer hard drives from the apartment complex's security room, but would not say why. Police could not get someone from the apartment complex to let them into the room.
WRTV
Robert Spierer was stoic as he thanked community members and police for an onslaught of support in the days since the disappearance of Lauren, 20.
"She's full of life, always on the go, fun to be with, had a very large circle of friends, both boys and girls. She's the kind of person that would spend time volunteering," Spierer said.
Bloomington police Lt. Bill Parker said the search for Spierer began Friday afternoon, less than 12 hours after she was last seen, and that either foul play or a medical condition could be involved. She is 4 feet 11 inches tall and weighs 90-95 pounds.
Parker said searchers should not focus on Spierer's appearance in the most commonly spread picture of her with short hair. Authorities said her hair could be longer or it could have been cut or dyed.
Investigators reconstructed the hours before Spierer's disappearance. She had been at Kilroy's, a sports bar and had been at a friend's apartment before deciding to walk to her home at Smallwood Plaza at about 4:30 a.m.
Police determined that one of the woman's male friends was the last to see her as she walked barefoot at the corner of 11th Street and College Avenue, on her way toward her apartment.
"We've been interviewing everybody that was with her," Parker said. "They've cooperated fully with letting us search their places, their cars."
Spierer has a heart condition and needs medication. She had also been drinking in the hours before her disappearance, officials said.
Two separate searches have been ongoing in recent days, one conducted by police and another comprised of family members, friends and hundreds of volunteers. At least one police officer is involved in each of the volunteer searches.
"We very much appreciate the help that all the volunteers have provided," Parker said. "They would be very hard to cover with a small group of officers."
The search for Spierer is further complicated because she did not have her cellphone with her, having left it at the bar earlier in the morning. Authorities have no way to track her.
Aside from Bloomington police, Indiana University police, the Monroe County Sheriff's Department, Indiana State Police and the FBI have provided assistance in the search, Parker said.
"We will continue these same procedures, but at this point, we don't have a revelation," Parker said. "We're inviting tips. We're inviting information."
Parker said there are no suspects in Spierer's disappearance.
"We don't have anybody that we characterize as a suspect," Parker said. "People that were with her are, of course, persons of interest."
Spierer hopes community members will keep up the search.
"There's a lot more we have to do to find Lauren," he said. "Continue to join us every day in front of Smallwood. There will be searches three times a day."
Those searches are starting at 10 a.m., 2 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. at Smallwood.
"If anybody saw Lauren on Thursday night with anyone, please share that with Bloomington police. It doesn't matter how casual it was," Spierer said.
The woman's disappearance has taken an emotional toll on her family.
"She's a loving girl, very close with her mother, spoke to her mother every day," Spierer said.
About 15 Indiana University ROTC members and their instructor were part of a volunteer search Tuesday morning. They were going through wooded areas that are more difficult for other people to comb.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (WISH) - A total $120,000 has now been publicly promised to anyone who comes forward with information that leads to the discovery of missing student Lauren Spierer.
LOHUD.com
Spierer's mother said the family is offering a $100,000 reward.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — The student who was with Lauren Spierer in the hours before her disappearance has no memory of their last moments together, his lawyer told The Journal News on Wednesday night.
Corey Rossman, Spierer’s companion early Friday, was punched in the face after the two returned to her apartment building, Smallwood Plaza.
“At Smallwood, someone confronted them,” his lawyer, former Monroe County District Attorney Carl Salzmann said.
“He got punched in the face. He has no memory of that, or of the 15 minutes leading to that moment. The first memory he has is the next morning when he wakes up in his bed, and that’s collaborated by several people.”
Police have said Spierer was with the student — who they have not identified — at a nearby bar and that the two were seen on videotape returning to her residence about 2:30 a.m. They then left the building about 10 minutes later, police said.
“She was helping him home at that point,” Salzmann said, because Rossman had been punched.
The two then went to a building complex up the street, where Rossman lives. Police have said she visited two apartments there. Salzmann said there was another “confrontation” that morning at Rossman’s building, but he would not elaborate.
Spierer was last seen rounding a corner on her way back to her apartment — a half mile away — at about 4:15 a.m. Salzmann said Rossman was not the last one to see Spierer that morning; three or four others saw her after Rossman.
Asked what he thinks happened to Spierer, he said, “I have my theory.
“I hope they follow all the leads we’ve given.”
Video footage from security cameras at Lauren Spierer’s apartment building show her and several men in an argument that morning.
“My daughter and these other boys are on the video,” Spierer’s father, Robert, said Wednesday.
“There was an altercation between the boy my daughter was with and some boys here at Smallwood.”
Robert Spierer said he did not see the video himself.
No one answered the door at Rossman’s apartment Wednesday night.
6News
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- The boyfriend of Lauren Spierer is one of several persons of interest as the investigation of the Indiana University student's disappearance enters its second week.
Bloomington police Lt. Bill Parker provided a few new nuggets of information in a news conference Friday morning, the fifth since Spierer's disappearance on June 3.
"We continue to speak with him. He's cooperative," Parker said, referring to Spierer's boyfriend, adding "certainly" when he was asked if the boyfriend is a person of interest.
There are a couple of people Parker said police want to interview, but they haven't received return phone calls. Parker stressed that there are no suspects in the case.
"We don't have anybody that we characterize as a suspect at this time," he said.
Both police and volunteer searchers continue to comb Bloomington and surrounding areas in search of Spierer, but they said they haven't found anything of significance.
Police conducted a checkpoint at 11th Street and College Avenue on Friday, looking for people who regularly drive through the area who might have seen anything related to Spierer's disappearance.
Investigators also wrapped up their search of Lake Monroe that stemmed from a specific tip, and they've been using K-9s in other searches.
Parker also asked for businesses in the area to provide more video footage, if they have it.
"We very much appreciate all the businesses that provided us with video footage," Parker said. "We may have businesses that have video that we may not know about."
Police are working to identify vehicles seen on surveillance video in the area at the time Spierer was last seen.
"America's Most Wanted" is set to air Spierer's case on Saturday night, and police expect a lot of tips to come from that.
"We're not losing hope. We're concentrating completely on this case and finding Lauren. We certainly want to find her alive," Parker said.
Police said they've opened up a new tip email address -- [email protected]. Tips can also be called in to 812-339-4477.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Police investigating the disappearance of Lauren Spierer were given a DNA sample this afternoon by Corey Rossman, the Indiana University student Spierer was with the morning she went missing.
He gave the sample at the police station and upon exiting with his lawyer, Rossman told reporters, "I was not the last person with her. That's all I can say. Sorry. I hope they find her as soon as possible. I am praying for her and her family."
Asked whether he had anything to do with her disappearance, Rossman said,
"Absolutely not."
The search for Spierer, 20, of Greenburgh, has drawn hundreds of volunteers, including her parents and sister and several of her classmates from Edgemont High School, where she graduated in 2009.
Also today, Ernie Reno, a spokesman for the building where Spierer lived, told The Journal News that Rossman was on a "no trespass" list the morning Spierer vanished.
Reno said Rossman was banned for prior disturbances at the building, Smallwood Plaza.
Wonder why she left her shoes & cell phone at Kilroy's? I'm guessing foul play is involved but am hopeful that LE will solve this case. In 1999, another IU student went missing, Jill Behrman, she was later found.
ETA: the following article says that friends found Lauren's keys & "card purse" between buildings. I'm sure whoever the responsible person(s) is in this case just threw her over their shoulder & carried her away. Hopefully, video footage will reveal an answer. http://www.wthr.com/story/14883546/searc...ew-results
It's the hint of arsenic that gives it that extra kick.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — The attorney for a second acquaintance of a missing Indiana University says his client has provided a DNA sample and answered investigators' questions.
Bloomington attorney Ron Chapman said Saturday that he represents Mike Beth, a roommate of Corey Rossman, whom missing student Lauren Spierer of Greenburgh, N.Y., accompanied to his apartment after leaving a Bloomington bar on the night she disappeared.
Chapman says Beth was at home doing classwork when Spierer disappeared early June 3. He says Beth is cooperating "totally and completely" with police and is under no criminal suspicion in the case.
Rossman's attorney says Rossman also has given police a DNA sample.
Bloomington, Ind.— Bloomington police confirmed information first reported by Fox59 News last week about evidence discovered in the investigation of the disappearance of an IU student. Bloomington Police Captain Joseph Qualters told reporters Lauren Spierer's keys were found on the railing of an apartment building near where she was last seen June 3rd.
Surveillance cameras may provide important clues as to the young woman's disappearance, police say.
"We have information from that video that again gives us an indication not only of the direction (of her travel) but the activities that have taken place from where that video shows," said Capt. Qualters, who told reporters that surveillance cameras in the vicinity of 10th Street and College Avenue and adjoining alleys may show Spierer walking from her Smallwood Plaza apartment building to 5 North Townhomes at 11th Street and Morton Avenue.
"I believe that was in the area of 3:15, 3:30," said Capt. Qualters. "That would be somewhere north of 10th Street."
It is believed Spierer was accompanied by Corey Rossman who lives at 5 North Townhomes. A witness told Fox59 News Rossman was punched during a confrontation in the 5th floor elevator lobby of Spierer's apartment building at approximately 2:45 a.m. That confrontation was with a group of friends of Spierer's boyfriend, Jesse Wolff.
Rossman's attorney, Carl Salzmann, told Fox59 News his client has no memory of the fight but was told that Spierer walked him home and turned him over to his roommate Mike Beth. Salzmann said Beth claims he put Rossman to bed while Spierer asked him if he wanted to party. Salzmann said when Beth demured, Spierer left Rossman's apartment to visit Jay Rosenbaum, a mutual friend, two doors down.
Rosenbaum reportedly told police Spierer left at approximately 4:30 a.m. to walk home and he last saw her near 11th Street and College Avenue.
Rosenbaum is represented by noted Indianapolis defense attorney James Voyles. Wolff is being represented by Bloomington attorney Larry Lozano. Rossman and Beth have given DNA samples to Bloomington police. Sources indicated to Fox59 News that Wolff is at his parents' home in Port Washington, New York, though Bloomington police are confident that all persons of interest, even those currently not in Bloomington, will voluntarily agree to give statements to investigators.
"Obviously there are a lot of friends and associates of Lauren who will be able to provide us with information," said Qualters. "We have an indication that the individuals who are not available will make themselves available to us (in the coming week) and we're encouraged by that."
Qualters indicated that persons of interest (there are 10 so far) could provide DNA samples to agencies other than the Bloomington Police Department. Friends and a roommate of Lauren Spierer have told Fox59 News that she intended to stay home the night of June 2nd. Other neighbors have told Fox59 News that shortly after midnight on the morning of June 3rd she was looking for someone to accompany her to the bar. Investigators believe Rossman joined Spierer in visiting Kilroy's Sports Bar where she left behind her shoes and cell phone. Her boyfriend, Wolff, is reported to have spent the evening watching basketball and unsuccessfully attempting to reach Spierer.
k so she didnt want to talk to her boyfriend cuz she didn't go to the bar until after midnight, and she had her phone on her until she left it at the bar. i wonder if she drank before she went to the bar after 12? She must have been hammered to leave her shoes and cell at the bar? so then her boyfriends friends punch out the guy shes with.. then she leaves her keys on a random railing in an apartment building? And then shes missing. i dunno it really sounds fishy that the boyfriend was at home all night watching basketball on a saturday. is that weird? I dunno weird for people that age in university...
(06-13-2011, 01:29 PM)barbiexo Wrote: k so she didnt want to talk to her boyfriend cuz she didn't go to the bar until after midnight, and she had her phone on her until she left it at the bar. i wonder if she drank before she went to the bar after 12? She must have been hammered to leave her shoes and cell at the bar? so then her boyfriends friends punch out the guy shes with.. then she leaves her keys on a random railing in an apartment building? And then shes missing. i dunno it really sounds fishy that the boyfriend was at home all night watching basketball on a saturday. is that weird? I dunno weird for people that age in university...
Wow, there was sure a lot going on that night. I had to read that story twice to get everyone's actions in my mind. Odd about the boyfriend's friends punching her companion. You hear about men being possessive all the time, but I can't recall ever hearing about friends being possessive on behalf of the boyfriend. If there's that level of possessiveness going on, it seems likely his friends would have reported back to the boyfriend and the boyfriend may have gone out looking for her.
hate to say it, she's likely dead, but she had a heart condition and was doing coke? oh shit stupid. :(
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Police for the first time today acknowledged that they have received information that college student Lauren Spierer may have overdosed on cocaine and that the student or students who were with her panicked and disposed of her body.
Bloomington police Capt. Joe Qualters was asked by a reporter about these "rumors" during a morning media conference.
His reply: "Have we heard information along those lines? Absolutely."
But he said detectives have not ruled that, or any other possibility, out in their investigation into the missing student.
"It's absolutely critical for us to be open minded," he said. "There is no shortage of information coming in."
The 20-year-old Indiana University sophomore, a graduate of Edgemont High School who has a rare heart condition, vanished early June 3 after a night of partying.
Qualters also said today that they have video of one or two cars in the vicinity that they are interested in tracking down. They are seeking to enhance the video and may release photos to the public, hoping to speak with the driver or drivers in case they have information that can aid the investigation. The street, which he did not identify, is "not heavily traveled," Qualters said.
Police are not describing the car or cars in question at this time, saying they do not want be inundated with false leads.
I agree that she is probably dead. The whole scenario seems like a screwed up movie w/all the crap that went on that evening. Hopefully her body is found sooner than later. I feel for her parents.
It's the hint of arsenic that gives it that extra kick.
Hadar Tamir, Spierer's roommate at Smallwood Plaza apartments, on Monday filled in more details of that morning, saying Spierer was hanging out with her until 12:30 a.m., then went with another Smallwood resident, David Rohn, to friend Jay Rosenbaum's apartment up the street.
Spierer, Rohn and Rosenbaum watched a basketball game at Rosenbaum's, said Tamir, who is friends with Rohn and Rosenbaum. They were joined there by Corey Rossman, who lives two doors down, she said. Tamir said Mike Beth, Rossman's roommate, was also there.
A while later, Rossman and Spierer went to a bar, Tamir said, and Rohn returned to Smallwood.
About 2:30 a.m., Spierer — who left her cellphone and shoes at the bar — and Rossman returned to her building, where other students confronted him
One punched him in the face, causing him to lose memory of the exchange and his interactions with Spierer after that, Rossman's lawyer said
They then went to Rossman's building, where Beth, his roommate, put him to bed, said Beth's lawyer, Ronald Chapman.
Beth watched Spierer leave. She then went to Rosenbaum's apartment.
Tamir, who has spoken with Rosenbaum since then, said Monday that he had tried to prevent her from leaving.
"He told me he tried to make her stay and sleep on his couch but she refused, so finally after trying to convince her, she left," Tamir told The Journal News.
"He told me he watched her leave and told her, 'If you stumble then I'm going to make you come back in here.' But he watched her leave and she seemed fine so he just let her go," Tamir said.
Before leaving, Tamir said, Spierer used Rosenbaum's phone to call Rohn to see if he knew where her phone was.
Chapman, who represented Rohn in a prior public intoxication case and spoke with him in recent days about his interactions with Spierer, would only say that that "somebody" called Rohn at 4:15 a.m. and that "he didn't answer his phone because he was in bed."
He did say that police questioned Rohn.
"It's pretty clear that the police looked at his phone," Chapman said. "They wanted to talk to him and everything seemed copacetic."
Rosenbaum told police he last saw Spierer rounding a corner toward her building. Police said they have no video evidence of that.
According to Tamir, Spierer's boyfriend, Jesse Wolff, had been planning to get together with her that night. But he couldn't reach her, nor she him, because she had left her phone at the bar.
He was texting her hours after her disappearance. The bar, noting that, called him that afternoon. Wolff then tracked down Tamir in class, retrieved her keys and checked her apartment for Spierer. She wasn't there.
Two of Tamir's friends went to the police station to file a missing person's report. Wolff, who met Spierer in summer camp as a child and has been dating her for a couple years, alerted her parents that she was missing, Tamir said.
Neither Wolff's lawyer nor Rosenbaum's lawyer returned repeated calls. Wolff's parents, on Long Island, have refused to comment.
Spierer’s parents appeared on NBC's 'Today" show this morning to appeal for the public's help in finding their daughter. They were asked whether they think Rossenbaum and Wolff -- a young man they described with great affection early in the investigation - are cooperating with police and telling the truth about what they know
Robert Spierer paused, then replied: “I’m not privvy to what’s being said between them, meaning the police and Jesse and Corey. I’m letting the police evaluate what’s being said, how open they’re being in helping the investigation.” Watch the interview.
Meanwhile, Tamir said police cordoned off Spierer's room Monday with tape, to preserve potential evidence.
When Lauren Spierer’s uncle called Texas EquuSearch last week, Tim Miller said he couldn’t help unless law enforcement asked him. Within a few hours, Miller received a call from police and booked the next flight to Indiana.
Spierer, a 20-year-old IU student, has been missing since June 3. Community members and investigators are in their second week of searching, and Miller said he and his group are just a small part of the search.
Texas EquuSearch started 11 years ago with only volunteers on horses searching for people reported missing. Slowly, people came to Miller saying, “I don’t have horses, but I have ATVs.”
Now the organization has more than 530 trained members in Texas and more than 1,400 members nationwide. Each member brings their own skills with them, allowing the organization to bring dive teams, aerial searches and other technical equipment with them to make their searches more effective.
“We know it doesn’t look good now, but we have to remember cases that we’ve given up on,” Miller said. “We have to remember Elizabeth Smart.”
Miller has spoken with the Spierer family, and he’s been there before. His daughter was missing for 17 months before she was found dead. Police thought his daughter ran away, so she was never mentioned in the newspaper or on TV, and he felt the effort to find his daughter was lackluster.
“I challenge anyone to be in my office and take a phone call when a family member is on the phone,” Miller said. “If they can tell them ‘no’ then they’re a different person than I am.”
Miller and his volunteers spent Monday driving around the area, looking for rural places to search. They decided on about 50 areas outside the city that they will send search teams to early Tuesday morning.
Miller said it’s essential that his volunteers don’t talk about their own lives or even theories about what happened to Lauren while on searches. It’s not a social gathering, he said. Everyone must remain focused.
Miller doesn’t disclose the location of where his volunteers will be searching until right before he leaves. He said he’ll be up late into the night making maps, and his team leaders won’t even know where they’ll be searching until they are briefed at 8 a.m. Tuesday.
Although Miller can’t make any promises to the Spierer family that he’ll find their daughter, he can offer experience. During the past 11 years, the organization has helped with 1,224 searches. There are volunteers helping Miller that helped him with the Natalee Holloway and Caylee Anthony cases. He has volunteers in Bloomington from Ohio, Minnesota, Texas and Missouri who have experience with these type of searches.
The small airplane they have flying over Bloomington can do the job of 300 ground searches, Miller said. Its cameras can capture tire tracks and grass that has been bent down.
Sharon White has been a volunteer with the organization for several years and is basically like a sister to Miller, she said. She began helping with a single search in Texas, and now she travels with Miller whenever she can.
“Once you do it, you’re hooked,” White said, who only slept three hours Sunday night.
Since Thursday, White said the organization recovered four bodies in Texas; three were drowning victims and one was murdered.
“We’ve been very successful, but we’re only as good as our next search,” Miller said. “And Lauren is our next search.”
Although the search for Miller’s daughter didn’t have a happy ending, he remembers taking a sigh of relief when she was found. He hopes he can give any type of relief to the Spierer family.
“I’ve been where Lauren’s family is. It was a long 17 months,” Miller said. “I know the loneliness a family goes through.”
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