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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

Week 3: Police still in information gathering stage in the case of missing IU student

Friday’s press conference was the last in the Lauren Spierer case unless there is a break in the case, BPD Capt. Joe Qualters said on the day that marks third week since Lauren’s disappearance.


“We still have a missing persons case involving Lauren Spierer,” Qualters said.

When asked if the police had a better idea of what happened to Lauren than they did three weeks ago, he said “No, no ... Unfortunately not.”

Qualters said the investigation was still in the information gathering stage.

He also confirmed what Lauren’s mother, Charlene, said on Wednesday, that only one of Lauren’s friends has talked to the police. He also added that the police had to track this person down to talk to them.

Qualters called this, “curious, perplexing, disturbing and unfortunate.”

However, the police remain open minded and that they are trying to convince Lauren’s friends that the police and Lauren’s family need their help, Qualters said.

Robert Spierer, Lauren’s father, thanked the volunteers and organizations that have helped with the volunteer searches to find Lauren, saying that they had done far more “than what you would expect a stranger to do.”

He also said that Saturday would be “Find Lauren Day” with expanded searches starting at 8 a.m. Saturday leaving from McNutt Quad. The searches will be focusing on areas outside of Bloomington.

Charlene Spierer, Lauren’s mother, offered a little bit of information about Lauren: She loves music.

Charlene said that when the family is on road trips, Robert often quizzes everyone about music history and that Lauren had a knack for memorizing lyrics.

She broke into tears as she recalled hearing a song on the radio the other day that reminded her of Lauren. “I miss everything about you” were the lyrics.

“We’re really ready to go home,” Charlene finished, “we just need Lauren.”

For full audio of this press briefing, click here.

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