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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

Remains found in Illinois not related to missing student Lauren Spierer

Update as of 2:20 p.m. April 4, 2012

The remains found March 10 in Newton, Ill., are not related to the case of missing IU student Lauren Spierer.

Jasper County, Ill., Coroner Jason Meyer confirmed Wednesday that forensic anthropologists identified the remains as male, although they are still looking at further tests for identification of the body.

Meyer said he has been in contact with Bloomington Police Department. BPD Cpt. Joe Qualters said Tuesday that the department was waiting for these results, as it does with any others in case they had any relevance to the city’s active missing persons case.

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Bloomington police are waiting for information about skeletal remains found March 10 in Newton, Ill.

Newton is about 100 miles west of Bloomington.

Other news agencies reported Tuesday that this case is related to missing IU student Lauren Spierer’s disappearance, but police said they are waiting for more information before they determine if it is related to the Monroe County case.

“We, like many other agencies with an active missing persons case, are waiting for the results from their investigation to see if it has any relevance to our case,” BPD Capt. Joe Qualters said.

Jasper County, Ill., Sheriff Ed Francis said they discovered the remains March 10 and that the following Tuesday, the remains were given to an anthropologist.

“There are no results as of yet,” he said. “(The investigation) is primarily, at least, to give us direction of the sex of the person.”

Francis said he does not know how long it will take or how much detail they will receive.

“Once we get that, we can eliminate some requests,” Francis said.

Awaiting information about found remains has become standard practice for Bloomington police since Spierer went missing June 3, 2011.

Just one month after the disappearance, a body was found in Indianapolis that turned out to be unrelated to the case.

A similar incident occurred in October 2011 after a body was found in a field near
Bloomington, Ill.

— Claire Aronson, Mary Kenney, Michael Auslen

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