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Last updated on Tuesday, June 3, 2014
(BLOOMINGTON) - Lauren Spierer has been missing three years and the Bloomington Police Department is still investigating leads.
"The most recent tip was received May 29," Bloomington Police Department Captain Joe Qualters wrote in a press release. "No additional details about the case will be discussed at this time. While the number of tips received may not be at the level they were just after Lauren's disappearance, it is important to note that tips are still coming in as evidenced by the fact that information was just provided in the last few days."
Robert and Charlene Spierer will mark the third anniversary since their daughter's disappearance today. They continue to suspect that Mike Beth and two friends had something to do with it, and that the 20-year-old Indiana University student may never have left their townhouse complex alive after she arrived there, unsteady and with bruising to her face, following a night of heavy partying.
Having been frustrated by the lack of progress by police and their own private investigators, Lauren's parents are using the lawsuit to try and force more information from the two remaining defendants, Jay Rosenbaum and Corey Rossman. They believe the men, who have long since left the university town and are pursuing careers out of state, are still withholding information about their time with Spierer in the hours leading to her disappearance.
Lawyers for Rosenbaum and Rossman maintain Spierer left the housing complex on her own and that the young men bare no responsibility.
The lack of answers has left the Spierers trapped in time. They accept that their daughter is dead but are unwilling to move on. Her room remains as it was the last time she visited.
"It seems like this just happened, like it was just this past June," Charlene says. "I still have Lauren's text messages on my phone, her voice message. It's almost like we're still waiting."
Yet this year for the first time since Lauren's disappearance, they've been trying to figure out how to move on with their lives, trying to convince themselves that it's OK to pursue happiness with Lauren missing. They are spending more quality time with their older daughter, Rebecca, a social worker who this past year moved with her husband to Massachusetts.
Qualters says investigator continue to follow-up on information as it comes in. Police have received more than 3,000 tips.
"Our commitment to the case is unwavering," He added. "We remain hopeful that someone with knowledge of the circumstances surrounding Lauren's disappearance will do the right thing by stepping up and contacting our agency."
On the night she disappeared, Lauren was partying with several male friends. Her boyfriend, Jesse Wolff, said he did not go out with Spierer or her friends that evening. He said he was texting back and forth with Spierer before going to bed. According to witnesses, Spierer was very intoxicated. Using video surveillance footage and witness statements, Bloomington police were able create a timeline of Spierer's whereabouts before her disappearance.
The Timeline:
Friday, June 3, 2011
12:30 a.m. - Witnesses report that Lauren left her apartment with a friend named David Rohn. The pair went to Jay Rosenbaum's apartment and she met up with Cory Rossman, Rosenbaum's neighbor.
1:46 a.m. - Spierer is seen entering Kilroy's Sports bar with Cory Rossman.
2:27 a.m. - She is seen exiting the bar with Rossman. Lauren left her cell phone and shoes at the bar. She had taken off her shoes when she walked out onto the sand-covered patio. Rossman walked with Spierer to her apartment complex.
2:30 a.m. - She is then seen entering Smallwood Plaza apartments, where her residence is located. A passerby named Zach Oakes noticed her level of inebriation and asked if she was okay. Rossman reportedly replied: "She's OK, I got it." Oakes stated that he told Rossman to take her back to her room. Rossman cursed at Oakes, which led to an altercation in which Oakes punched him, knocking him to the floor. Rossman claimed that this blow caused him to lose his memory of the evening.
2:42 a.m. - Exits apartment complex. Police reported that Spierer did not go to her fifth-floor apartment during this short visit. Surveillance video shows Spierer stumbling and Rossman helping her to her feet and walk out of the building. A few minutes later, she is witnessed by a bystander sitting down on a staircase and falling backwards, hitting her head on the concrete step. The noise of the impact was loud enough for the bystander to hear it and ask whether she was all right. According to the woman, Rossman replied, "She's OK, I'll take care of it." After they continued up the street, she is witnessed falling again. Because of her intoxication level, she didn't raise her hands to cushion the blow and her face hit the ground unguarded. A few steps later, she fell a third time. At this point, Rossman began carrying Spierer.
2:48 a.m. - After she left the apartments, she entered an alley that runs between College Avenue and Morton Street. Security cameras mounted on nearby apartments show her exit the alley at 2:51 a.m. and walk toward an empty lot. Spierer's keys and purse were found along this route through the alley. Spierer and Rossman arrived at Rossman's apartment shortly after. Michael Beth, his neighbor, was in his own apartment studying. Rossman himself was very intoxicated and stumbling. He vomited on the carpet on the way upstairs. Beth stated that he escorted Rossman to bed. He then tried to persuade Spierer to sleep over for her own safety. He claimed Spierer said she wanted to return to her own apartment.
3:30 a.m. - Beth said he then phoned his neighbor, Rosenbaum, wanting him to take care of her. Beth said that Spierer was attempting to get Beth to drink with her at her own apartment. She eventually went to Rosenbaum's apartment, where he observed bruise under her eye, presumably sustained in the falls earlier in the evening. She told him she didn't know how she got the bruise. Two calls were placed from Rosenbaum's phone shortly before she is reported to have left. Rosenbaum said Spierer placed both calls, one to Rohn and one to another male friend. Neither picked up and no messages were left.
4:30 a.m. - Rosenbaum reports that she left the apartment. This is the last reported sighting of Lauren Spierer. He reported last seeing Spierer at the intersection of 11th Street and College Avenue, headed south on College. She was last seen wearing black leggins, a white shirt, and no shoes.
Several hours later that morning, Jesse Wolff sends Lauren a text. He gets a reply back from an employee at the bar. He reports her missing.
In August 2011, Police conducted a nine-day search of the Sycamore Ridge Landfill in Pimento, south of Terre Haute for clues in the disappearance. The landfill is where is where trash from Bloomington gets hauled after a stop at a transfer station. The Bloomington Police Department, Indiana University Police and the FBI took part in the search.[
Anyone with information about the case is encouraged to contact the Bloomington Police Department at 812-339-4477 or by e-mail at policetips@bloomington.in.gov
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