Lauren Spierer (20) vanished in Bloomington, Indiana after a night out with male friends on June 3, 2011.
As some background into Lauren, she was born on January 17, 1991. Her parents are Charlene and Robert Spierer. She has a sister, Rebecca. Lauren grew up in Scarsdale, New York. Lauren attended Edgemont High School and graduated from there in 2009. She then went on to attend Indiana University, where she was studying textiles merchandising. Lauren moved to Bloomington, Indiana to attend university.
Lauren was active in the Jewish community at the university. One spring break, she travelled to Israel to plant trees on behalf of the Jewish National Fund.
Lauren was dating a male named Jesse Wolff at the time she disappeared. She met Jesse and a lot of her circle of friends at a summer camp, Camp Towanda, when she was a teen.
In Bloomington, Lauren rented an apartment at the Smallwood Plaza Apartments. She had a female roommate named Hadar Tamir. Charlene has spoken about feeling that the area was safe. “I didn’t have any qualms about saying goodbye,” Charlene said.
In September 2010, around nine months before she disappeared, Lauren was arrested on charges of public intoxication and illegal consumption.
The night of Lauren’s disappearance was Friday June 3, 2011. Hadar has said that Lauren left their apartment at around 12.30am. Some reports say that Lauren’s boyfriend Jesse decided to stay home and watch sports instead of going out with her. Other articles say Lauren told Jesse she was planning to stay in and go to bed.
Lauren went out with a neighbor named David Rohn. They went to the apartment of a friend, Jay Rosenbaum. There, Lauren met a man named Corey Rossman, who was Jay’s neighbor. Corey had a roommate named Mike Beth. This all may seem like a lot of people to remember but they will be important to the case as we go on. David left the group at some point and went back to his apartment at the Smallwood complex.
At around 1.45am, Corey and Lauren went to Kilroy’s Sports Bar.
The bar is still operational and has mostly decent reviews.
Legendary Sports bar, ranked one of the best college bars in America by numerous magazines and websites. They have some big names in The Atrium for concerts, and the bar has multiple floors and plenty of space. I highly recommend Kilroy’s Sports Bar!
As Lauren was underage, she used a fake ID to get into the bar.
At one point while they were at the bar, Lauren took off her shoes. There is said to have been a ‘sandy beach’ area of the bar so that explains why she removed her shoes. She and Corey left the bar at 2.27am. Lauren left her shoes and her cell phone behind. Witnesses said that Lauren was visibly intoxicated at the bar.
Corey walked with Lauren back to her apartment complex after they left the bar.
At 2.30am, Lauren can be seen entering her complex. A passerby named Zach Oakes noticed that Lauren seemed intoxicated and asked if she was okay. There are reports that at this time, Corey was involved in an altercation. Most articles do not go into detail about what happened, and this is a quote from reddit:
He was reportedly involved in an altercation at the apartment building with a group of four IU students. One of the students, confronted Corey after he noticed Lauren’s level of inebriation. The student reportedly punched Corey several times, knocking him to the ground. (When later questioned by investigators, Corey claimed to have no recollection of the rest of the night following the fight.)
Private investigator Mike Ciravolo spoke about what happened during the altercation when Corey was confronted. “They saw she was in bad shape to travel, and they were trying to do the right thing. They suggested to Corey, ‘Hey, you know she’s in bad shape. Why don’t you just make sure she gets back to a room down the hall?’”
And this is from ABC news about the incident:
“Apparently they don’t like the way [Rossman] is handling Lauren. And Rossman supposedly says something smart to him and this guy decides to deck him. [Rossman] goes down.”
Lauren reportedly helped Corey get back to his apartment after the altercation. He lived in a complex called 5 North Townhomes. It is believed that Lauren and Corey walked down an alley at around 2.48am and she was seen on CCTV at this time. The last footage of Lauren showed her exiting the alley at around 2.51am.
Lauren’s keys and purse would later be found on the route that she took through the alley.
Lauren and Corey are said to have arrived at his apartment shortly after 2.51am. Corey’s roommate, Michael Beth was there. Corey was said to be inebriated and he was struggling to walk. He vomited on the carpet on his way up the stairs. Michael has said that he put Corey to bed. He has said that he tried to persuade Lauren to sleep over for her own safety. According to Michael, Lauren declined and said she wanted to go to her own home.
Lauren still seemed to hang around though, and at 3.30am, Michael called up his neighbor Jay and asked him to take care of Lauren. Lauren had been trying to convince Michael to drink with her. He said that Lauren then went to Jay’s apartment.
While she was there, Lauren used Jay’s phone to call her neighbor David. Jay also made a call to try to find someone to give Lauren a ride home. Nobody answered these calls and no messages were left.
Jay has said that Lauren had a bruise under her eye at this point. It is believed she obtained it after she fell at a point earlier in the evening. Lauren told Jay that she did not know how she got the bruise.
Former FBI agent Brad Garrett spoke to ABC about this:
“Jay sees what bad shape Lauren is in and says, ‘Lauren, lay down on the couch. Go to sleep. Go home in the morning.’ And she won’t do it,” Garrett said. “She says, ‘I want to keep going, I want to go.’ Jay walks her to the door and he sees her walk up 11th street.”
Jay would say that Lauren left the apartment at 4.30am, presumably to return to her own home. Jay is the last person to have seen Lauren. When she left, she was barefoot, wearing black leggings and a white shirt.
Just to give you some insight into Lauren’s appearance, she was very petite at 4’11 and she weighed only 95lbs.
Later on June 3, Jesse texted Lauren. He received a reply from her phone from someone at Kilroy’s bar – this was where she had left her phone on the night out. Jesse reported Lauren missing that day.
The PI we mentioned earlier had this to say about Jesse reporting her missing. “After Jesse reported her missing later that afternoon. Jesse was like, ‘She’s dead. I know she’s dead.’ Well, how do you know she’s dead? So that’s Jesse Wolff,” PI Ciravolo said.
Lauren’s parents traveled to Indiana and arrived there on June 4, 2011 and the search for their daughter started.
When police searched Lauren’s room for clues, they found a ‘small amount of cocaine.’
Corey told police that Lauren had consumed alcohol, snorted cocaine and also taken crushed up Klonopin tablets on the night she vanished.
“I don’t think I realized to what degree, you know?” Charlene said about Lauren’s involvement in the party scene. “It was a little bit of a shock.”
Hundreds of volunteers joined the search for Lauren. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children dispatched a ‘rapid response team’ to Bloomington.
Lauren’s parents appeared on shows such as Good Morning America and CBS Morning News to raise awareness for her case.
By June 9, 2011, Lauren’s family had established a $100,000 reward for her safe return. Police said at the time that they were receiving many tips but that they had no suspects.
All four men who were known to have been with Lauren on the night she disappeared obtained lawyers.
On June 10, 2011, police announced that they had 10 ‘persons of interest.’ Corey and Mike were asked to submit DNA for the investigation.
By June 13, the search for Lauren had been scaled back from three per day to two. Over 500 people were still coming out daily to search for her.
The Indy Star reported that on June 14, 2011, the four men were said to be ‘persons of interest’, as was her boyfriend Jesse Wolff. According to News Nation, Jesse initially helped with the search for Lauren but he left town fairly soon after she disappeared. Jesse said that he passed a privately administered lie detector test and he declined to take one administered by the police.
No witnesses reported seeing Jesse out on the town that night. He would tell authorities that he watched the NBA finals that ended around midnight and he went to bed at 2.30am.
Lauren’s friends described him at the time as “the most loving boyfriend,” and said he couldn’t have harmed Lauren.
Charlene Spierer said at that time: “I start my every day hoping that today is the day. I go to sleep every night knowing that I have failed and that I haven’t done enough.”
By June 21, the search really wound down. Only 50 people searched for Lauren that day.
Some neighbours of those involved spoke to WXIN and said that they had not been questioned by police.
On June 27, 2011 Corey’s attorneys released a statement saying that he had cooperated with police and had passed a polygraph.
“I was not the last person with her and that’s all I can say, I’m sorry,” he told reporters in 2011. “But I just hope they find her as soon as possible and I am praying for her and her family.”
During the investigation, police spotted a white truck on CCTV, not far from where Lauren was last seen.
“Is there a possibility this vehicle could be involved? Absolutely,” a Bloomington police official said at the time.
In August 2011, police conducted a nine-day search of landfill in the area, looking for clues. The Bloomington PD, the Indiana University PD and the FBI all took part in this search.
On August 17, 2011, Robert and Charlene left Bloomington to go back to New York. It was Rebecca’s 25th birthday.
In September that year, Charlene wrote an open letter to whoever was involved in Lauren’s disappearance. “You are guilty of a heinous crime.” She describes what it was like to get the phone call from her husband about Lauren’s disappearance and says, “We will NEVER give up.”
In late 2011, the family were asked by media if they thought Lauren was alive. “We don’t know,” Robert Spierer said. “We hope she is.” Charlene added: “I think the odds are against us.”
By May 2013, almost two years after Lauren vanished, investigators had received 3,060 tips on the case. 100 of those tips were received in 2013.
In April 2015, the Bloomington PD announced that they were looking into a possible link between Lauren’s case and the murder of an IU student, Hannah Wilson. Hannah went missing on April 24, 2015 after leaving Kilroy’s – the same bar that Lauren was at on the night she vanished. “We are exploring the possibility of a connection,” Bloomington Police Capt. Joe Qualters told FoxNews.com.
Hannah had been told that she was too intoxicated to enter the bar. Her friends put her in a taxi and paid the fare for her to get home. She was last seen driving away. Her body was found the following day. Hannah died from blunt force trauma to the head.
Thankfully, her murderer did the least and left his cellphone behind at the scene. A man named Daniel Messel was arrested for her murder.
In July 2015, police said that the two cases were unrelated and any similarities were just coincidental.
In January 2016, the FBI investigated a property in Martinsville based on a tip. The property is around 20 miles from Bloomington.
Law enforcement issued a statement about the raid:
On today’s date, the Bloomington Police Department was assisted by the FBI at a location in Morgan County as part of the active and ongoing investigation into the disappearance of Lauren Spierer.
No other information will be released other than this confirmation that the Bloomington Police Department was the agency involved in Morgan County as previously reported by various media outlets.
Sources tell us police and FBI raid at home near Martinsville is related to a lead on missing IU student Lauren Spierer.
The property was connected to a man, Justin Wagers, who lived there with his mother and stepfather. Justin is a registered sex offender. He had previously been booked into the Johnson County Jail, charged with indecent exposure and bond forfeiture, according to the jail.
Wagers’ previous charges include a Class 6 felony charge of performing sexual misconduct in the presence of a minor, including touching or fondling oneself. Both charges occurred on Dec. 15, 2015.
In 2005, he also was sentenced to three years for a Class D felony of vicarious sexual gratification with a child, which Indiana defines as knowingly or intentionally directing, aiding inducing or causing a child to touch or fondle himself or herself or another child.
Investigators searched the property with cadaver dogs, which indicated potential evidence. Anthropologists conducted a dig and sifted dirt from the barn where the cadaver dogs hit, but found nothing.
Investigators also towed from the property a white truck belonging to Wagers.
Justin’s attorney Chris Eskew released a statement to the media. “Mr. Wagers has no knowledge regarding the disappearance of Lauren Spierer or any other missing person,” he said.
In 2016, former FBI agent Brad Garrett spoke to ABC about the white truck that we mentioned earlier. The truck was seen on CCTV in the area where Lauren vanished.
“Did he [the driver] happen to be driving down the street, saw her at this intersection and immediately pull over — because that’s what he’s looking for — talks her into the vehicle?” Brad asked. “That could have taken 10 seconds. At that point he’s got her and he takes her to wherever.”
Brad said that he uncovered that a man named James McClish, was just released from prison for assaulting his ex-wife at the time and drove a similar white truck. He was living in a halfway house about 10 minutes from where Lauren disappeared.
Brad said a woman from James past reach out and said, “You need to check him out. He was there. He’s made comments [like], ‘You know what happened to her [Lauren], the same thing could happen to you.'”
The woman alleged James had killed Lauren and then buried her on a farm in southern Indiana.
Brad got James to take a lie detector test in 2016. He repeatedly denied having anything to do with Lauren’s disappearance. According to the test, he was telling the truth.
In 2023, PI Ciravolo would say that he had only been able to speak with Jesse once in the investigation. He was hired by the family in September 2011, so that is a 12 year timeframe.
“He lets his father run interference for him. I would uncover some information and then I would get a call from Alan Wolff, Jesse Wolff’s father: ‘Where are you going with this? What are you doing? Could you tell me what’s going on?’” PI Ciravolo said.
He also said that he had spoken with the other men who had been with Lauren that night, except for Corey. Corey called the police on the PI when he went to his apartment to try to question him.
News Nation reached out to all the men in 2023 for comment. Michael Beth was the only one who responded and said he had ‘nothing to add.’
The PI said that the police have been resistant to working with him and the family. “We were told in no uncertain terms by (Police Chief Michael) Diekhoff that he would not be interested in having help; he would certainly not be willing to share any information with us. And he was also reluctant to accept any information that we had to offer to him,” he said.
On the 12 year anniversary of Lauren’s disappearance, her mother made this statement.
“Twelve years you have kept your secret. Twelve years we have continued our search. I write today as a reminder that we will never stop,” she said.
The police made a statement in late 2023 and said that “the investigation remains very active” and “over the last three to four years, investigators have received over 800 tips and executed at least 10 search warrants.”
Lauren’s parents filed civil lawsuits against Corey, Jay and Michael for their involvement with Lauren leading up to her disappearance.
The suits accused them of negligence and alleged that they gave Lauren alcohol after she was already ‘visibly intoxicated.’ They were also alleged to have neglected to get her safely to her apartment, which likely led to her death.
The family stated they hoped the lawsuit would lead to the defendants admitting more information about what occurred that night. “I truly don’t think it was a random abduction, I think that somebody that Lauren knew was responsible for the events of that evening,” Charlene said.
In 2013, judge Tanya Walton Pratt dismissed the suit against Michael, saying that he had no duty of care for Lauren.
The same judge dismissed the suit against the other two men in 2014. The judge stated “…there could be any number of theories as to what happened to Lauren and what, if any, injuries she may have sustained. Without evidence to prove these theories, it would be impossible for a jury to determine if whatever happened to Spierer was a natural and probable consequence of her intoxication, without any other intervening acts that would break the causal chain.”
Lauren’s parents appealed the decision but the dismissal of the suits was upheld by a federal appeals court in 2015.
THEORIES
The PI in Lauren’s case has said that he believes there are three things that could have happened.
One possibility is an opportunistic attack from someone who took advantage of Spierer’s drunken state. Another is her boyfriend doing something to her out of jealousy.
Ciravolo’s third theory has to do with Spierer’s health.
“Lauren, who had a bad heart and may have been overserved that night, could have passed; her heart could have given out while she was in their apartment in Rosenbaum’s apartment, and that they concealed her body,” he theorized.
Spierer had a heart condition called long QT syndrome, which can cause dangerous heart arrhythmias and in some cases may lead to cardiac arrest.
Lauren’s parents have said that based on her level of intoxication at the bar, they feel that she could have been drugged.
“We felt somebody could have slipped something into her drink at Kilroy’s,” said Robert Spierer.
Jesse Wolff’s mother spoke to the media and insinuated that Lauren had a drug problem. She said that Lauren had been asked to leave the summer camp that we mentioned earlier because of drug use. “This poor little girl is not with us today because of her drug abuse,” she said.
SOURCE LIST
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Lauren_Spierer
https://www.newsnationnow.com/missing/lauren-spierer
https://abcnews.go.com/US/lauren-spierer-case-years-vanished-hope/story?id=40084230
https://www.idsnews.com/article/2016/01/fbi-confirms-link-to-spierer-case-in-martinsville-raid
CLIPS USED IN THE PODCAST