Without a Trace

Happy True Crime Thursday True Crimers! 

Today I'm going to cover a mysterious disappearance... and 8 years later there is still no answer. 

No answer as to what happened to Lauren Spierer.

In the early morning hours of June 3, 2011, bubbly and outgoing 20 year old Lauren Spierer vanished without a trace in downtown Bloomington, Indiana. 

Lauren was born in January of 1991 to Charlene and Robert Spierer in Upstate New York. She grew up in Scarsdale. She was born into a Jewish family and was very active in the Jewish community at school. She spent one of her spring breaks planting trees in Israel on behalf of the Jewish National Fund. She attended a summer camp called Camp Towanda in Pennsylvania, it was here that she met her boyfriend Jesse Wolff and became good friends with Jay Rosenbaum. All 3 of them ended up attending Indiana University together in 2009 and remained close. 

Now I'm going to give you a timeline of the events that took place on June 3, 2011. This timeline is put together based upon surveillance camera footage and the accounts of the people who were with Lauren during various times in the very early hours prior to her disappearance. 

* 12:30 a.m.- Lauren left her apartment at the Smallwood Plaza Apartments with her friend David Rohn. The two of them walked over to her friend Jay's town home not to far away, there they met up with Jays neighbors Cory Rossman and his roommate Michael. Lauren's boyfriend Jesse did not go out with her, but he was texting with her until he went to sleep. 

* 1:46 a.m.- Lauren and Cory leave Jays house and are seen entering Kilroy's Sports Bar where Lauren uses a fake ID to get in.

* 2:27 a.m.- Lauren and Cory are seen exiting the bar. Lauren accidentally leaves her cell phone and shoes at the bar. She had taken her shoes off because Kilroy's had a sand covered patio. The 2 of them walk to Lauren apartment complex.

* 2:30 a.m.- Lauren is seen entering the complex, where a passerby (also an acquaintance of her boyfriend Jesse) Zach Oakes notices that Lauren is very intoxicated at this point and asks her if she is okay. It's at this point that an altercation breaks out between Zach and Cory. 

* 2:28 a.m.- They leave the apartment complex for reasons unknown. Lauren enters an alley that runs between College Avenue and Morton Street. Security cameras show her exit the alley and walk towards an empty lot. Lauren's keys and purse were found along the route through the alley. At one point a witness saw Lauren sit down on a step and fall backwards, hitting her head on a concrete step. After they started walking again she lost her balance and fell for a 2nd time hitting her head on the ground without using her hands to guard her face. Cory picked her up and began to carry her. 

* Lauren and Cory arrive at his place shortly after. His roommate Michael is still up. He states that Cory was very intoxicated and stumbling. He was heading upstairs when he vomited on the carpet, Michael escorted him to his bed. He tried to convince Lauren to stay at their place for her own safety, but she said she wanted to return to her apartment and asked him to come with her so they could continue to party.  

* 3:30 a.m.- Michael calls his neighbor/Lauren's friend Jay asking to take care of her. She went over to Jays. He noticed a bruise under her eye and asked where she got it from, she told him she didn't know how she got the bruise. Presumably is was from one of the falls earlier. Lauren borrows Jay's phone and made 2 phone calls, one to David from earlier and one to another friend. Neither of them answered and she didn't leave a message. Jay tried to get her to stay at his place.

* 4:30 a.m.- Jay was unable to convince Lauren to stay longer, she left his place and that was the last reported sighting of her. Jay stated he told her that if she was able to walk steadily one block that he felt she was ok enough to walk home. She was able to. He last saw her at the intersection of 11th Street and College Avenue heading south on College. She was last seen barefoot, in black leggings and a white t-shirt. 

*A few hours later Lauren's boyfriend Jesse sends her a text. He received a reply, but it wasn't from Lauren. It was from an employee at Kilroy's Bar. Jesse reported Lauren missing.

Last sighting of Lauren

Now that you have a timeline of the events leading up to her disappearance i'm going to give you some facts about Lauren and then i'm going to give you some theories as to what happened to her. 

Lauren was a small petite woman, she was 4'11" and weighted 90 pounds. She suffered from a heart condition called long QT syndrome that she took medication for everyday. The condition is known to increase the risk of irregular heartbeat, with that it can result in palpitations, fainting or sudden death. 
Jay stated to police that on top of her consuming alcohol that she also did cocaine and crushed up Klonopin that morning. 

Here are some theories;

When something happens to someone, most of the time it's by someone that they know... 

The first and most talked about theory is that Jay, Michael and Cory know more than they are leading on. That Lauren died that morning while with them and they were afraid of getting in trouble for drug possession so they covered up her death. There are a number of factors that could have lead to her death; the multiple falls/hits to the head, the mix of drugs/alcohol and her heart condition. Here's some issues people have with this theory. Cory states he cannot remember what happened that morning, which isn't all that surprising because he was extremely intoxicated and took a few hits during the fight he was in. It would be difficult to believe that he had anything to do with it. If they tried to cover up her death because of the drugs then why would Jay have told police about Lauren even doing cocaine? There has never been any trace evidence found that point to them. They would have had a short time frame to clean up any evidence and to dispose of Lauren's body. Massive searches were done and nothing was found. They fully deny any involvement.

Now on to Lauren's boyfriend Jesse. His roommate states that he witnessed Jesse go to bed right around 2:30 that morning after staying in to watch the NBA finals. What is strange to people is that Jesse was involved in searching for Lauren following the days after her disappearance, but his parents ended up pulling him off of the search. Jesse's mom even slandered Lauren to the press, talking about how Lauren had a drug problem. Now this is not saying he was involved in anything, but it shows odd behavior from his parents. 

Although uncommon, but not completely ruled out is that a stranger was involved. 

There have been theories out there that Lauren could possibly be tied to other cases. David Messel was arrested in 2015 for the murder of IU student Hannah Wilson. Several women came forward to say that they had been sexually harassed or assaulted by Messel. He had a long history of violence.  He was charged for the murder of Hannah and the attempted rape of another IU student in 2012 that they were able to prove with DNA Evidence. His MO was to talk to young girls that were under the influence and try to convince them to get in his car. Lauren was within the area that he liked to lurk. Of course as we know, there is no evidence of any involvement. 

Lauren Spierer is presumed dead, but that doesn't mean that her family has given up. 8 years later they are still desperate for answers as to what happened to Lauren that morning. Police have gone through a number of leads without any luck. 

What do you guys think? Do you think that her death was covered up? Do you think that a stranger had something to do with it? Do you feel like it's tied to other cases?

Hopefully someday in the near future we all can get an answer. 

Police and Lauren's family urge anyone with information to contact investigators at 812-339-4477

See you all next week! 

Resources:

https://www.lifedaily.com/story/private-investigators-uncover-new-evidence-in-six-year-old-case-of-missing-student/2/
https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/4ar12w/lauren_spierers_heart_condition/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Lauren_Spierer
https://fox59.com/2016/10/28/mothers-of-hannah-wilson-lauren-spierer-believe-convicted-killer-could-be-tied-to-more-cases/
https://www.indystar.com/story/news/crime/2017/11/08/lauren-spierer-update-prosecutor-says-she-fell-inside-daneil-s-messedanger-zone-hannah-wilsons-kille/843163001/