# The disappearance of Lauren Spierer **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 19, 2011, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-disappearance-of-lauren-spierer/586006 "2011-06-19T03:17:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-disappearance-of-lauren-spierer/586006/1 "2011-06-19T03:17:55Z")
[Lauren Spierer,](http://www.google.com/search?complete=1&hl=en&source=hp&biw=1238&bih=684&q=lauren+spierer&aq=f&aqi=g-z4&aql=&oq=) a 20 year old Indiana University student, has been missing since June 3rd. Bloomington, Indiana and the surrounding areas have been captivated and shocked by this case, which has completely dominated the local news for the past weeks. It has now gone national, with several important celebrities including Lady Gaga and Stephen Colbert now expressing their concern with solving the case. Search and rescue teams, including dozens of volunteers, have been combing the area along with the police and National Guard. But the trail is basically cold, and it doesn’t look like there’s going to be a happy ending to this. There has also, unsurprisingly, been a variety of social debates now ignited by the issue; the major ones are the typical “people only care when a pretty white girl goes missing” complaints, and the less typical but more interesting “if this had happened to a townie, there wouldn’t be nearly the amount of press, but since it happened to a rich IU student from New York, suddenly everyone cares.” In fact, a local woman named [Crystal Grubb](http://www.google.com/search?complete=1&hl=en&source=hp&biw=1238&bih=684&q=crystal+grubb+bloomington+indiana&aq=1&aqi=g2g-v8&aql=&oq=crystal+grubb) did disappear several years ago, and, as many have pointed out, we’re hearing more about the incident NOW as an _example_ of how nobody cares compared to Spierier than we did when she actually disappeared! My own theory: Spierer ODed on drugs and her “friends”/dealer/whoever panicked and concealed the body. An abduction and presumed subsequent rape/murder/sex-slavery/whatever is more sensationalistic and compelling, but I think it’s less likely. I went to IU and I lived here all my life. We all know how the people here party, and sometimes they party too hard. The list of students who have died in alcohol/drug incidents is far too long. Is anyone else here aware of this case? Any thoughts? ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-disappearance-of-lauren-spierer/586006/2 "2011-06-19T11:36:30Z")
We’ve been hearing about it in Chicago, of course. It sounds like her parents are partially behind the push for publicity since they’re naturally concerned about their daughter. I hadn’t heard about the celebrities getting interested, but since social networking is so huge now, it’s not so hard to get some case noticed if you do enough of a push. Oddball theory: Another reason they might be getting more publicity over this may be somewhat due to recent allegations that Notre Dame mishandled rape cases (especially when student athletes were the alleged assailants). One victim even killed herself after it apparently felt to her like she was being ignored by campus police/officials. Local universities may feel like they need to at least appear like they are going all-out to solve things like disappearances of their students, and may be helping publicize this beyond the usual level. ---
**Author:** ![papergirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/aca169/32.png) [@papergirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/papergirl)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2011, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-disappearance-of-lauren-spierer/586006/3 "2011-06-19T23:38:17Z")
I’m in Bloomington, and of course it’s big news here. Part of the issue, I think, is fact that this is one of those cases where someone seems to disappear into thin air…from one of her known destinations to another is such a short distance, and it’s right in the middle of town. I used to deliver papers in the area, and it’s rarely completely deserted, but there’s always a lull in the early morning. I remember the Crystal Grubb case too. It seemed like there was quite a bit of publicity; it was in the papers nearly every day until they found her (iirc). The main difference, I think, is that she had companions who gave information that directed the search into certain areas (even if they weren’t truthful at first). So there wasn’t the widespread search area, and truthfully there were not the large numbers of volunteers showing up. Again, though, I think the situation was different enough to explain the discrepancies (lots of college students involved in this search, for instance). I had the impression (with Crystal’s case) that the police were doing their best, just as they are with this case. My 10 year old daughter is traumatized by Lauren’s disappearance. She has a suspect in mind, and she just reported that she heard a scream outside that sounds just like it came from someone who looks like Lauren looks in her pictures. ☹ It’s terrible. ---
**Author:** ![lavenderviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/cdc98d/32.png) [@lavenderviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lavenderviolet)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-disappearance-of-lauren-spierer/586006/4 "2011-06-20T02:05:14Z")
Going by [this facebook conversation](http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=149126144574&topic=17143) the Grubb family sounds pretty angry at the cops. I can understand being angry, since I would probably be just as angry if someone I cared about had been murdered. Unfortunately I’m not sure that it is realistic to expect the police to have made an arrest. Even if the police know that the boyfriend and his buddies were the ones who killed her (which sounds likely to me based on the details provided), proving it in court is a very different battle and I’m sure they are trying their best to get the evidence they need to prove the boyfriend did it. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-disappearance-of-lauren-spierer/586006/5 "2011-06-20T03:48:29Z")
Rich people pay more money to get their kid into the news. That’s the only thing that make sense. Just being white is obviously insufficient, since nearly ever missing person shown at Walmart around here is always white. But we’s all po 'round these parts. I mean, nearly 100,000 people go missing every year. Even if we take half off for men, and are generous and assume only a quarter left are adults, that’s 12.5 thousand women a year. Why do none of them make the news? ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-disappearance-of-lauren-spierer/586006/6 "2011-06-20T04:31:05Z")
Our local news carries stories when a local person is missing. I think that the national news won’t pick up a story if it doesn’t have something exceptional or interesting about it. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-disappearance-of-lauren-spierer/586006/7 "2011-06-20T05:19:36Z")
Missing cute white girls make news. My cousin works at CNN, he confirms this. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-disappearance-of-lauren-spierer/586006/8 "2011-06-20T10:46:41Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I mean, nearly 100,000 people go missing every year. Even if we take half off for men, and are generous and assume only a quarter left are adults, that’s 12.5 thousand women a year. Why do none of them make the news? There wouldn’t be time for anything else if that many missing people were on the news. Maybe Nancy Grace could be convinced to show more missing people if you can stop her from acting like a vulture over her pet story of the day/week/month. That being said, Chicago’s local news stations are constantly doing quick “please watch out for” alerts on the latest “just went missing” people, and they aren’t all cute rich white girls by a long shot. I’ve seen lots of elderly people, kids/teens, people who stopped taking meds for things like schizophrenia/bipolar disorder and didn’t come back home after some outing, etc., and of all different races. Probably the most famous still-unsolved case is the [Bradley sisters](http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2011/01/20/missing-girl-would-turn-20-today/) who disappeared from their own home at ages 10 and 3, respectively; if you don’t feel like clicking through, they’re black, and disappeared almost 10 years ago. They left a note saying they were going to play at a park, and disappeared. Probably the next-most famous are white women, Kathleen Savio and Stacy Peterson, but it’s hard to beat the news hook that both might well have been killed by their ex-husband/then-husband (respectively), a now-ex-cop named [Drew Peterson](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drew_Peterson). Stacy’s body still hasn’t been found, and Kathleen Savio was found ‘drowned’ with blood in her hair in a drained bathtub. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-disappearance-of-lauren-spierer/586006/9 "2011-06-20T11:57:06Z")
This is why I love Wikipedia, it has a page on Missing White Woman Syndrome > **[Missing white woman syndrome](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_white_woman_syndrome)** > > Missing white woman syndrome is a term used by social scientists and media commentators to denote media coverage, especially on television, of missing-person cases involving young, attractive, white, upper middle class women or girls compared to the relative lack of attention towards missing women who were not white, of lower social classes, or of missing men or boys. Although the term was coined in the context of missing-person cases, it is sometimes used of coverage of other v American news a... ---
**Author:** ![The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Peyote_Coyote)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2011, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-disappearance-of-lauren-spierer/586006/10 "2011-06-20T16:15:45Z")
I expect some hunter will find her remains this fall. It only takes about 30 to 60 minutes to travel from the area she disappeared in to some sparsely populated, heavily wooded regions. I understand from today’s \*Bloomington Herald-Times \*that police and volunteers searched Sunday in Morgan and northern Monroe counties, but found nothing. It’s a very sad case. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2011, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-disappearance-of-lauren-spierer/586006/11 "2011-07-05T07:37:00Z")
[Perhaps sooner than that.](http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/07/05/indiana.missing.student/index.html?hpt=hp_t2) Actually, in these circumstances, I tend to hope it is the missing person, as opposed to a totally different person being dead, and the missing-person case still unresolved. ---
**Author:** ![LurkerInNJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ed655f/32.png) [@LurkerInNJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkerInNJ)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2011, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-disappearance-of-lauren-spierer/586006/12 "2011-07-05T17:17:48Z")
> [@Rilchiam](#): > > [Perhaps sooner than that.](http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/07/05/indiana.missing.student/index.html?hpt=hp_t2) Actually, in these circumstances, I tend to hope it is the missing person, as opposed to a totally different person being dead, and the missing-person case still unresolved. Nope. \*The body found in a lake near Indianapolis is not missing Indiana University student Lauren Spierer, a medical official said Tuesday. Forensic tests found no link to Spierer and have determined the body belongs to an African-American female, said Alfarena Ballew, chief deputy coroner for Marion County. \* ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2011, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-disappearance-of-lauren-spierer/586006/13 "2011-07-05T20:37:09Z")
See, that I hate. No closure for the Spierer family; renewed grief for the family of this woman. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2011, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-disappearance-of-lauren-spierer/586006/14 "2011-07-05T21:10:39Z")
> [@Rilchiam](#): > > See, that I hate. No closure for the Spierer family; renewed grief for the family of this woman. Assuming the family of the body of the woman found was also distraught and ‘seeking closure’ the same way the Spierer family is, it seems this is just as favorable an outcome as if the body had been that of Laura Spierer. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2011, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-disappearance-of-lauren-spierer/586006/15 "2011-07-05T21:25:23Z")
True. But that family would have had some hope… ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2011, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-disappearance-of-lauren-spierer/586006/16 "2011-07-05T21:43:06Z")
> [@Rilchiam](#): > > True. But that family would have had some hope… By that logic, the Spierer family continues to have hope. ---
**Author:** ![nonacetone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonacetone/32/2819_2.png) [@nonacetone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nonacetone)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2011, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-disappearance-of-lauren-spierer/586006/17 "2011-08-04T01:13:51Z")
This was on our local news tonight: [http://www.wthitv.com/dpp/news/local/Possible-search-warrant-issued-in-Lauren-Spierer-case](http://www.wthitv.com/dpp/news/local/Possible-search-warrant-issued-in-Lauren-Spierer-case) ---
**Author:** ![nonacetone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nonacetone/32/2819_2.png) [@nonacetone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nonacetone)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2011, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-disappearance-of-lauren-spierer/586006/18 "2011-08-16T13:22:43Z")
Our local news just announced that the FBI did receive the search warrant they requested, and they are at the landfill now. [http://www.wthitv.com/dpp/news/crime/Law-enforcement-Sycamore-Ridge-Landfill](http://www.wthitv.com/dpp/news/crime/Law-enforcement-Sycamore-Ridge-Landfill) ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2011, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-disappearance-of-lauren-spierer/586006/19 "2011-08-16T18:21:11Z")
> [@nonacetone](#): > > Our local news just announced that the FBI did receive the search warrant they requested, and they are at the landfill now. > [http://www.wthitv.com/dpp/news/crime/Law-enforcement-Sycamore-Ridge-Landfill](http://www.wthitv.com/dpp/news/crime/Law-enforcement-Sycamore-Ridge-Landfill) > [@](#): > > News 10’s Amanda Jarrett is on the scene and will have updates as they become available. Amanda obviously has one of the plum reporting jobs at that station. “Hang out at the landfill till we need you, Amanda!”