Lauren Spierer

Case background and investigation

Lauren Elizabeth Spierer was a 20-year-old Indiana University student from Scarsdale, New York, who disappeared in the early morning hours of June 3, 2011, in Bloomington, Indiana. A textiles merchandising major, she had gone out for a night in Bloomington's downtown bar district and never returned to her Smallwood Plaza apartment. Her disappearance drew national media attention and prompted one of the largest search efforts in the region's history, but more than fifteen years later the case remains unsolved with no arrests and no charges filed against anyone.

Spierer's last-known movements have been partially reconstructed through surveillance footage and witness accounts. Around 12:30 a.m. she left her apartment and later met up with acquaintances before entering Kilroy's Sports Bar at about 1:46 a.m. Cameras recorded her leaving the bar around 2:27 a.m., having left her cell phone and shoes behind, and she was seen re-entering the Smallwood Plaza building shortly afterward. Additional footage captured her walking through nearby streets and an alley, where some of her personal items were later recovered. According to accounts given to police, she visited apartments belonging to men she knew that night. The last reported sighting was placed at roughly 4:30 a.m. near the intersection of 11th Street and College Avenue. Witnesses described her as heavily intoxicated during the evening.

The men who reported being with Spierer at various points that night were interviewed by investigators, and several were reported to have taken polygraph examinations. None of these individuals has ever been charged with any crime in connection with her disappearance, and no suspect has been publicly named by authorities. They are referenced here only as people who were present or in contact with her that night, and their cooperation or non-cooperation with the investigation has been the subject of public dispute rather than any legal finding.

The Bloomington Police Department, assisted at times by Indiana University Police and the FBI, conducted extensive searches, including a multi-day search of a landfill in August 2011, and pursued thousands of tips over the years. Investigators later examined and ruled out possible connections between Spierer's case and other Indiana crimes, including the 2015 murder of student Hannah Wilson. Despite these efforts, no physical trace of Spierer has been found, and she is widely presumed dead.

Frustrated by the lack of criminal progress, Spierer's parents, Robert and Charlene Spierer, filed a civil lawsuit in 2013 against three men who had been with their daughter that night, alleging negligence in supplying her with alcohol while intoxicated and failing to see her safely home. The claim against one defendant was dismissed in 2013, and claims against the other two were dismissed in October 2014 by a federal judge who found insufficient evidence of causation; that dismissal was upheld by a federal appeals court in 2015. As of the case's most recent anniversaries, Bloomington police have characterized the investigation as still active, continuing to receive and pursue new tips while the disappearance officially remains unsolved.