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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

More details in search of homes related to Spierer

Event for Lauren Spierer

Two properties were searched Thursday in connection with Lauren Spierer, who disappeared June 3, 2011. Property owners confirmed that law enforcement accompanied by cadaver dogs searched their properties in and outside their homes.

Spierer, 20, was reported missing June 3, 2011. She was last seen walking south on College Avenue from 11th Street on her way back to her apartment in Smallwood Plaza on College Avenue.

The FBI has confirmed the investigation of a Martinsville, Indiana, residence, a previous residence of Justin Wagers, 35. 

The Indianapolis office of the FBI assisted the Bloomington Police Department with the investigation, special agent Wendy Osborne said.

The FBI did not search the property in Trafalgar, Indiana, Osborne said, but she added that BPD may have conducted a search there independently. The BPD has not commented further on the investigation since Thursday evening. 

Property owners Lisa Walker and Doug Wagers both said law enforcement found nothing on their properties and that to their knowledge, officers took nothing with them when they left.

“They tore up everything, they went through our entire home, and they didn’t find anything,” Wagers' mother Lisa Walker said Saturday. “They tore up our lives.”

Though the media crews and cop cars were gone by Saturday, the aftermath of the hours-long FBI investigation remained. Along Walker's driveway, a black fence adorned with blue Christmas lights was broken where the FBI cars entered the grass near her barn. In Trafalgar, Doug Wagers, father of Justin Wagers, was dumbfounded. 

"I'm trying to just figure out, why Justin?" Doug said, holding his small dog, Didi. Doug said on Thursday, Didi growled so loudly in his arms at the arrival of the cadaver dogs that she started shaking. 

Wagers is a registered sex offender. He is currently serving time in the Johnson County Jail, charged with indecent exposure and bond forfeiture, according to the jail. He has not been named a suspect or charged with anything in  connection to Spierer.

Wagers’ previous charges include a Class 6 felony charge of performing sexual misconduct in the presence of a minor, including touching or fondling oneself. Both charges occurred on Dec. 15, 2015, and are still 
pending.

In 2005, he also was sentenced to three years for a Class D felony of vicarious sexual gratification with a child, which Indiana defines as knowingly or intentionally directing, aiding, inducing or causing a child to touch or fondle himself or herself or another child.

Hannah Alani, Lindsay Moore and Samantha Schmidt

A timeline of events following Spierer's disappearance June 3, 2011:

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