View Full Version : 20 year old female student missing from local college
A 20 year old female student went missing from I.U. in Bloomington, IN last Friday. She hasn't been seen since. There are hundreds of volunteers combing the city/countryside. Her parents have come in from New York, along with family friends from there to help search for her. There are lots of agencies involved. But no sign of her and of yet, no leads. Unfortunately, I think she was probably quite inebriated when she left a bar without her shoes or her cell phone around 4:30 a.m. She was a very small gal....4'8" and about 90#. Her purse and keys were found in an alley that she usually took to her apartment.
After almost a week of no word from her, its getting rather frightening to think of what might have happened to her.
Whatever you believe......whatever powers of the universe that you believe in, or if you just believe in the power of positive thinking........please send prayers and good thoughts to this family that her child can be found safe and brought home.
Oh no. VIolence against women is so ubiquitous... I am sorry. I hope she's ok.
Creepy. I just watched a show on television about a month and a half ago, a murder mystery/missing persons show, and outside of NY, women (small women) have been going missing at a high rate, and their bodies and remains are being found scattered all along a stretch of highway. What creeps me out about this case is on the show it showed an area map reflecting the vast area where women are reported to have gone missing (small women), and it extends over several states.
They haven't found anything yet.
Just a couple years ago, a young male student went missing from Purdue. They searched and searched. 2 months later, they found him in a transformer room, having been electrocuted. They think he went in there, trying to get into a dorm where he had left his jacket. The door to this transformer room was supposed to be locked. It was a very tragic case. Hopefully it taught the other schools around here to check every single room everywhere.
And about 9 years ago, another female student from I.U. went missing when she went on a bike ride out in the country. They found her remains years later and did find her killer. Her mother and the mother of the male student from Purdue are helping with this search. What a horrible "club" to be in.........those who have lost children. :(
I'm just hoping that someone has her imprisoned somewhere and she is still alive. I just can't imagine what the parents are going through............
Oh dear. When we send our young people off to college all sorts of things go through a mothers mind. How horrible for these parents. My thoughts are with them.
It does seem to be a high risk-taking time for them. I guess all we can do is tell them over and over how to handle things. But.......that doesn't always work, despite all our good intentions.
Today on the news word is that the authorities are considering calling in the National Guard to look for this girl. They've already got other national organizations involved, including a horse search and rescue group out of Texas.
Personally, and unfortunately, I think she's dead. Mostly because in the beginning her parents said that she desperately needed her heart medication.
Anyway, as soon as I heard about the possibility of the National Guard, I was frustrated. Every once in awhile someone goes missing in Columbus, IN, which is only about 30 miles away. And the NG is NOT called in! Why does this girl get special treatment? Because her parents are rich? Because school is not in session and it tops the list of things to do in town? Yes, she's missing. But NG? Not called for, IMO.
Still no sign of her. They have posted a blurry pic of a truck that drove around the area at the time of her disappearance. Seems like they could find that truck quickly through the BMV, doesn't it?
Someone could have snatched her in a car and had her in another state within an hour......but they're still looking close to her apartment. ??
Jan, do you remember when Wade Steffey went missing at Purdue? Unfortunately, they found his body 2 months later in a transformer room that was supposed to be locked, but wasn't. I keep thinking about his case. Seems like the only people looking for him then was a volunteer missing person's group from Indiana.
I, too, have been wondering about all that has been done for Lauren Spierer..........An equestrian search group from Texas, various other professional search groups, drone airplanes, etc. I do think alot of it has to do with the resources of the parents.........but also the volunteers and how hard they are pushing.
I often wonder if the Steffey parents wonder why all this wasn't done for their son too. It wouldn't have helped, but they suffered 2 months longer than they needed to.
I think the CSI type shows that are on TV today make us think that finding someone is alot easier than it is. Like that blurry pic of a pick-up truck. On TV, they would be able to clarify the picture. Then we think the law isn't doing their part, because they can't clarify the picture. Its hard to know what reality really is, in terms of solving crimes.
I'm just hoping that someone is holding her, to abuse her. That sounds awful, but at least she would still be alive.
I just can't understand people who do this. I just can't. My heart breaks for Lauren's parents. What a nightmare for them.
I remember the Steffey incident. That was just so bizarre. In that case he evidently was drunk. Much like this girl probably was. Sad.
The way I figure it, the guy in the truck was a sexual predator, saw who he thought was a teenage girl (5', 90 lbs) and thought he'd get away with things. But once news got out about her being missing there was nothing he could do but kill her. Or he may have killed her very early on, even if accidentally. If he had planned on a ransom request, I suspect that would have happened by now. And those things never work, not even on TV.
Maybe I sound a bit harsh about declaring her to be dead. But really, if the authorities didn't think that was a probability it seems to me that they wouldn't have people on horseback searching the woods. Or searching from the air.
I wondered the same thing about someone thinking she was a young girl, since she was so small.
And I also wondered if they had considered it might have been someone with a grudge against the father. I don't know what profession he's in, but he seems to have alot of money.
I guess that Mrs. Steffey was helping with the search, as were Mr. and Mrs. Behrman (another I.U. student who was abducted and murdered in 2000).
Its a really bad sign that there's been no trace of Lauren yet. I wonder how long they'll keep looking.
I'm talking off the top of my head, but I believe she has a heart condition for which she was taking medication--drugs that are incompatible with recreational drug/alcohol intake. There's some speculation she may have died accidentally and potential witnesses haven't come forward.
Yeah, I think she may have died while in the hands of her abductor. Possibly a cardiac response to physical abuse. I'm thinking the abductor got himself more than he bargained for. And I think that white truck is an important find.
Is it really that hard to find a certain vehicle? Doesn't the BMV have that info? Seems like there must be a data base for cars/trucks, listed by make/model/color, etc.
I'll bet there is a database, and I'll bet the authorities have already gone through it. But they'll want to leave the phone lines open for tips that might help track the activities of that particular vehicle. Particularly if it's owned by a company rather than an individual.
I was thinking today while at the B'ton Farmer's Market. Her purse and some jewelry were found in an alley near her apartment. I wonder if she tried to run, had no shoes on, got caught, put up a fight, lost that, got stuffed in the truck. I'll also bet there were 2 abductors: 1 to drive and 1 to hang on to her.
Well, still no sign of her after 3 weeks. The truck on the video is no longer a possibility. I feel so awful for the parents. They're having another search tomorrow, but what is anyone going to find, 3 weeks after the fact? I think they are getting frustrated that not many people are showing up for the searches.......but they've searched everything there is to search. I can't blame them for not wanting to give up though.
The mother keeps talking like she believes something happened to Lauren while with her friends and they felt guilty about it, and must have hid her body. She keeps begging them to come forward.
How do you ever "resolve" this??........if you can never find your child??
You had to know that eventually people who have no personal collateral in the situation will stop trying to help and move on with their own lives. Sad as it is for the mother, she needs to not make up scenarios that place blame on innocent people.
Even if they do find the body, there will always be heartbreak.
I think she's at the bottom of Lake Monroe or Lake Lemon and may never be found.
I have friends whose son disappeared in a remote village in Southeast mid-Asia, in 2006. They went over to meet him in a pre-arranged trip, and he never showed up. This is the essence of what happened:
" XX was teaching English in China when he travelled to Laos on vacation. He was last seen on or about March 13, 2006, leaving the Khemkong Guesthouse in Xiangkok, a remote river village in Northwestern Laos.
His backpack, clothes, money, passport, boots, and toiletries were all discovered in his room. Approximately three weeks after the reported disappearance, local villagers discovered hiss camera, room key, and T-shirt four kilometers north of Xiangkok. The condition of the items indicates they had been kept inside and out of the rain."
His parent looked for him for years. I cannot imagine living with this... I would look forever.
Blessings on this young woman's family.
iris lily
6-25-11, 12:27am
Is it really that hard to find a certain vehicle? Doesn't the BMV have that info? Seems like there must be a data base for cars/trucks, listed by make/model/color, etc.
There was a nationally broadcast case here just a few years ago where a young boy was nabbed and pulled into a truck, a white Nissan 20 year old beat up truck.
DH looked out the window one day to see police stopped by his truck--a white Nissan 20 year beat up old truck--they were running the plates and sniffing around for boys.
This news story ended very well because a teenage boy had seen the truck, was able to provide very specific information about it, the cops tracked it down and found the abducted boy as well as another boy abducted years earlier. It was a very big deal and in the newspaper for weeks. That teenage boy who had total recall about the truck he had seen was one of those kids who was fascinated by trucks and he was the hero of the story. A local car dealership gifted him with his own brand new pick-up up truck the day he turned 16.
Redfox.....that is sooooo sad.
I can't blame the parents of this girl for wanting everyone to continue to look, but what are they going to find? I think they're looking in all the same places.
I'm letting my imagination go wild here.....but I wonder, since she looked young and pretty, if she was abducted for the sex trade?
Seems like someone could have yanked her into their car and were easily into another state by morning.
I just don't know if the parents will ever be at the point of just going home empty handed. I would want to stay there forever, but your life has to go one sometime......
It makes me so sad just thinking about where they must be in their heads.
Hadn't thought of the sex trade. It is a very serious problem in this country. Far more than people realize or want to admit. From a speech I listened to just last week, given by the IN Attny Gen's Director of consumer Protection: "An estimated 244,000 children and youth are at risk of child sexual exploitation in the US."
It seems to me that those parents have to go home sometime. Surely he and/or she has a job?
Surely the police/FBI have considered the sex trade. Seems like she'd be too old and smart to not seek out help somewhere along the line though....even in another country.
I think her parents probably would like to go home, but they feel closest to her in Bloomington. They feel they are abandoning her if they leave.
They and the police are saying that none of her friends have come forward, except for those 2 guys. I don't understand that. If she had been my friend, I would have given them every piece of info I could. Surely the police have sought them out and interviewed them.
I wonder if they used blood-hounds at the beginning?
iris lily
6-28-11, 10:24pm
Oh the "sex trade," that's the latest genned up victim "crises." Look, there have always been pimps who take advantage of wayward youth, using drugs and influential persuasion to take control of the youth. I am skeptical that this is much more than an effort to get more government dollars flowing to whatever social programs address this so that those newly minted MSW degree holders will have work.
I know someone who just got a degree in sex slavery etc. and is out stomping for work, offering herself as a speaker for $$$. She was a sex slave herself back in the day. Only in my day (and she's about my age) we called it wild-child-runaways doing whatever they need to do to live on the streets.
I believe that kidnapping a person of majority age in this country to sell into the sex slave trade is pretty rare.
I believe that troubled children on the street is pretty common, and what happen to children who aren't protected by their families is not pretty. I'd like it not to be viewed as the trend of the moment.
Oh the "sex trade," that's the latest genned up victim "crises." Look, there have always been pimps who take advantage of wayward youth, using drugs and influential persuasion to take control of the youth. I am skeptical that this is much more than an effort to get more government dollars flowing to whatever social programs address this so that those newly minted MSW degree holders will have work.
Wow. That's pretty cynical... a ginned up victim crisis?
iris lily
6-29-11, 12:02am
Wow. That's pretty cynical... a ginned up victim crisis?
Oh I know, I just happen to dislike, distrust, and disrespect the person I know who is now going about as spokesperson for the sex slave community here. She is irresponsible in real life with an interesting facade of ladylike ernestness, but she is bad news. She's pretty much burned her bridges here in my neighborhood.
One person's behavior does not negate the facts that slavery, including of a sex nature, is beyond rampant in the world, including the US.
Read the local news this morning. Apparently, another girl is missing from TN. She looks like the missing I.U. girl....same features, size, age.
Bloomington police said they didn't think there was a connection. Dang. I hope Bloomington police are smart. Why wouldn't you make a connection and check it out?
TN isn't that far from IN.
Am I expecting too much from law inforcement? Maybe I've been watching too much CSI, L&O, etc.
I have a pretty analytical mind and it drives me crazy when some professionals don't.
Then again, I'm sure there might be alot that the police aren't sharing with the public.
Call me a cynic too, because I remember when satanist cults torturing children and killing babies was all the rage (McMartin Preschool anyone?)--though I don't remember a degree program (good grief). I tend to think sex slavery fears are way overblown too, though I understand slavery of various kinds exists in this country and others.
I wonder if they've called in any psychics. I would definitely give them a try if my child was missing. But definitely not Sylvia Brown. haha
I imagine there are ones that don't advertise and keep a low profile are out there, working with various police departments that are fairly reputable.
If the FBI thinks a police department isn't doing enough, can they take over?
Well, they found the decomposed body of a woman in the river on the northeast side of Indy. They're doing an autopsy Tuesday morning. It was too decomposed to tell if it was Lauren or not. Those poor parents are waiting to hear.
I'll bet it's not her. Sounds to me like it was too decomposed for being only a month in. Probably that older woman that has been missing for a lot longer.
Wonder if there'll be anything on the news tonight or if we'll have to wait until tomorrow.
Apparently it was someone else. I thought it was too decomposed to be her or even the older lady, who has been missing for a shorter time. Too many people going missing! They said it appeared to be a young black woman. I think there are alot of cold cases.
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