Lauren Spierer was truly happy when she got into Indiana University in 2009, thinking that the best days of her life were just about to begin. Lauren never thought in her wildest dreams that in two years, her life would turn into an unsolvable mystery.
The night she disappeared was like any other in Bloomington. On June 3rd, 2011, Lauren took the path that many Indiana University students take on nights out. The surveillance data also confirmed that she wasn’t alone and went to public places.
No one could figure out when or how the Indiana University student went missing. But before understanding the complexity of her case, it is crucial to know Lauren Spierer.
Who Was Lauren Spierer?
Lauren Spierer was an outgoing young woman. She was the youngest child of Robert and Charlene Spierer. Born on 17th January, 1991, she grew up in an upscale neighbourhood in Scarsdale, New York.
The Spierers were a close-knit family, deeply rooted in their spiritual beliefs, reflected in the way they brought up their kids. She was active in the Jewish community of her college.
Months before Lauren Spierer’s disappearance, she visited Israel with her sister Rebecca during spring break. They were planting trees with the help of the Jewish National Fund.
Throughout her school days, Lauren spent her summers at a camp called Camp Towanda in Honesdale, Pennsylvania. It was there that Lauren first met Jesse Wolff, who was dating her for about three years before disappearing in 2011.
Camp Towanda was really important to Lauren because it was where she met many people who would later attend Indiana University with her. She met many of her friends at Indiana University, at Camp Towanda.
Lauren Spierer was creative and driven. After she graduated from Edgemont High School in 2009, she enrolled in Apparel and Textile Merchandising at Indiana University.
She was often described as smart, kind, and sociable. She had an innate ability to make people feel included, according to her family and loved ones.
What led to Lauren Spierer’s Disappearance?
On the night of June 2nd, 2011, Lauren Spierer was watching the NBA playoffs, having a good time with her friends. She was at an apartment in Smallwood Plaza, a few blocks away from her own place in the same neighbourhood.
That night, Lauren texted her boyfriend, Jesse, that she was going to bed early because she had a migraine. Contrary to that, she went out to a party with David Rohn before a game.
The party was at Jay Rosenbaum’s apartment at Smallwood Plaza.
At midnight on 3rd June, she left the apartment with her friend David and walked to Jay’s apartment. They were at the party by 12:45 am. Jay’s neighbours, Corey Rossman and Corey’s roommate, Michael Beth, were also in attendance.
The pre-game party was in full swing by the time they joined. According to the police reports, the group was under the influence of alcohol and prescription drugs like Klonopin. After an hour of partying, Lauren and Corey were on their way to Kilroy’s Sports Bar, while Mike and Jay remained at Jay’s Apartment.
At 1:46 am, they reached Kilroy’s Sports Bar, where she lost her shoes and cellphone.
Sources speculate that Lauren might have removed her shoes to walk through the sand-filled patio of Kilroy’s Sports Bar. Then she would have proceeded to forget about them, due to her inebriated condition.
During the police investigation, witnesses from the bar also confirmed that Lauren seemed heavily intoxicated on the night of June 3rd.
Her family also suspected that someone at the party might have spiked her drinks to incapacitate her.
By 2:27 am, they left Kilroy’s Sports Bar and walked to Lauren Spierer’s Smallwood Plaza apartment, which was just two blocks away. Nearby CCTV footage also captured Lauren walking home without her shoes and phone.
Things got intense when Corey was confronted by Jesse’s friend, Zachary Oakes, in the 5th-floor elevator lobby. Zachary was concerned about Lauren’s safety and asked Corey to take her home safely.
But allegedly, Corey refused and said things that provoked Zachary to knock him down by punching him in the face.
After the whole punch saga, the duo made their way out of the apartment together at 2:48 am. A few minutes later, they stumbled into the alley, barely able to walk. In fact, at one point, Lauren dropped her keys, purse, and security card, which were later recovered during the investigation.
Around 3 am, they finally made it to Corey’s Townhouse. His roommate, Michael, was also awake and realised both of them were beyond “just drunk”. He also saw a beat-up Corey run up to the upstairs bathroom and throw up.
After witnessing the whole fiasco, Michael realised it might not be the best bet if Lauren went home by herself. He urged her to call it a night in their apartment, but she refused.
Eventually, Lauren agreed to let him walk her back to Jay’s, where the party actually started.
According to some reports, when Lauren arrived at Jay’s apartment, she panicked because she couldn’t find her phone or shoes. By 4:15 am, she even called two of her friends, to no avail.
Finally, she left for her own apartment at 4:30 am, despite both Michael and Jay insisting that she stay at their respective apartments. Jay remained on the balcony as Lauren made her way to the intersection of 11th Street and College Avenue.
That was the last time Lauren Spierer was ever sighted before her puzzling disappearance. Whoever knows what happened to Lauren Spierer has kept that secret for over a decade.
The Aftermath of Lauren Spierer’s Disappearance
It was the morning of June 3rd, 2011, when Lauren’s boyfriend Jesse tried to reach her over text. He sent multiple messages, as a result of which an employee at Kilroy’s Sports Bar found her phone. They informed Jesse that Lauren left her cellphone and shoes at the bar last night.
The revelation sent him into a panic, and he immediately contacted Lauren’s roommate, Hadar Tamir, for a spare key to Lauren’s place.
Back at Lauren’s apartment, Jesse saw that everything was intact in a way that implied she never made it back home last night. By this time, the news of her disappearance had made it to her inner circle.
Her closest friends, Blair Wallach and Becca Lefkowitz, immediately started tweeting to find leads about her whereabouts. Everyone close to her was worried about her safety.
Some sources stated that her boyfriend dreaded that something sinister might have led to her demise. Despite his friends telling him not to worry, it was very difficult to stay optimistic in a situation where someone had just disappeared without leaving any trace.
Some friends even speculated that Lauren might have slept in someone else’s apartment.
By 4:30 pm, he decided not to waste any more time and filed an official missing-persons report with the Bloomington Police Department.
Jesse also informed her sister Rebecca, who later relayed it to her parents.
Lauren’s father, Robbie, called Jesse to get a clearer picture of the situation. The moment he understood the gravity of the situation, he and his wife took the earliest flight to Indiana and arrived there by June 4th.
As soon as they arrived, the Spierers started calling and enquiring about her in the local hospitals. They also started passing out flyers in the hopes that someone might have seen her.
The news of her disappearance made its rounds on social media. People started creating Twitter and Facebook accounts to share information and get updates on the case.
Amongst these channels, NewsOnLaurenS began to gain over 19,000 followers. Facebook groups were created by her own family to add updates about the case. Someone even started the hashtag #FindLauren on Twitter to help the family find her.
This level of engagement was viral back in 2011.
On June 5th 2011, the first search party was organised and headed by her father, Robbie. It was a small team of 20 community members. They gathered at Smallwood Plaza and then searched for her in the local lakes and the surrounding area.
Lauren Spierer was nowhere to be found.
By that time, people understood that this was no ordinary disappearance. By June 6th, hundreds of volunteers chipped in. Prominent members of Indiana University, such as Hillel’s Rabbi Sue Silberberg and men’s basketball coach Tom Crean, were also among them.
The volunteers organised regular searches three times a day. These were people who knew the area and understood the neighbourhood like the back of their hand.
The Indiana University Dean of Students also sent a campus-wide alert about her disappearance.
People wanted her to return home safely because the circumstances of her disappearance were so mundane that it could have been anyone.
The most haunting part was that despite the efforts, there were no definite answers.
Investigation of the Haunting Disappearance
Lauren Spierer was reported missing on 3rd June 2011. The Bloomington PD started working on her case alongside the FBI and other law enforcement agencies to find her whereabouts.
They scrutinised the CCTV footage and began interviewing people who came in contact with Lauren before she went missing.
After that, on June 7th, the Bloomington PD had to break into a room in the lobby of her apartment with a battering ram to obtain surveillance data. They also had a search warrant to comb through her apartment. Upon searching, they retrieved 4 CD cases and three computer towers.
This was also the time around which the Bloomington PD got a tip that her body might be found in Lake Monroe. They immediately sent divers to scour the lake, but again, no trace of Lauren was found.
Then came June 9th, when police officially revealed the persons of interest. Initially, at least ten people made the list, including Jesse, Corey and Michael.
According to Lt. Bill Parker, everyone was cooperative during questioning. Later, DNA samples were also collected from all of them.
Amongst all persons of interest, Corey Rossman found himself in hot water. He told the officers that he was unable to recollect the fight due to a concussion he suffered from Zach’s punch. He also affirmed that he was not the last person with Lauren before she disappeared.
He even went forward and gave a statement to the reporters early on: “I was not the last person with her, and that’s all I can say, I’m sorry. But I just hope they find her as soon as possible, and I am praying for her and her family.”
Her family was not satisfied with their response. In fact, her mother, Charlene, was disappointed that only one of Lauren’s friends willingly went to the police.
The police were able to track her movements leading up to her disappearance and even timestamped it with the help of CCTV footage. During the investigation, they noticed a clue that could change the course.
Bloomington PD spotted a white truck near her right before she went missing. It was a white Chevy pickup truck that circled the neighbourhood right around the time when she was last seen. They also released the car’s description on June 14th in an effort to generate more leads.
On June 19th, a resident reported a suspicious stench in a wooded area southwest of Martinsville. The state police also dove in headfirst, but Lauren Spierer was still missing.
Eventually, the investigation slowed, and Bloomington PD announced that they were shifting focus to investigating leads rather than conducting daily foot searches.
By August, they had dug through more than 4,000 tons of trash at the Sycamore Ridge Landfill near Terre Haute and could not find Lauren’s remains.
Even as the Bloomington PD began scaling down the investigation, her family never lost hope. They even increased the reward money for leads from $100,000 to $250,000 in 2012.
36000 leads later, there was still no progress. During this period, Charlene and Robbie were also unhappy with Michael, Jay, and Corey.
They were the last people to see Lauren Spierer; naturally, investigators had many questions for them. But they lawyered up during the initial stages of her disappearance. It was very difficult to connect with them regarding the case.
While they maintained their previous statement, Robbie was not taking any of it. He even told the media, “I don’t know how bad a shape he could have been in”.
By June 2013, the Spierers filed a civil lawsuit against Corey, Jay and Michael. The lawsuit stated that their negligence was the reason why Lauren disappeared.
The lawsuit was later dismissed by the federal court, officially closing all the legal avenues for the family.
The year 2015 was pivotal for the case when Hannah Wilson, another IU student, disappeared. The patterns of her disappearance were eerily similar to Lauren’s. However, she ended up getting murdered by Daniel Messel.
The case gave a new life to Lauren’s investigation. But sadly, there were no ties linking the tragedies to each other.
They hired a private investigator to look into the puzzling disappearance. Mike Ciravolo began investigating Lauren’s disappearance in the fall of 2011.
Ciravolo was previously a detective with the New York PD. He led the Zodiac Killer task force in the 1990s and currently heads his New York-based firm, Beau Dietl and Associates.
Despite the combined efforts of law enforcement and the Spierers, Lauren hasn’t been found to date.
The Legacy of Lauren Spierer
Her parents stayed in Indiana until 17th August, 2011. They made every possible effort to find their missing daughter. The family’s efforts did not stop even when police scaled down the investigation.
From rewards to private investigators, the family did everything in their power to bring their daughter back.
Every year on the anniversary of Lauren’s disappearance, her mother, Charlene, wrote heartfelt public statements. While talking to Indianapolis Monthly, the grieving mother expressed –
“As every June 3rd approaches, I am faced with the dread of reliving all the horrific minutes of that day and the days which followed.”
In 2024, Journalist Shawn Cohen published the book College Girl, Missing, shedding light on a series of events that led to Lauren Spierer’s disappearance.
Today, it has been 15 years since she went missing. Her case still remains unsolved.
Lauren Spierer’s legacy was never just an infamous disappearance. Lauren was a girl with dreams, ambitions, and a capacity to love that left a mark on everyone around her.
Maybe that’s why, fifteen years later, the people who knew her still haven’t given up.
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