Every Town - Lauren Spierer’s Cold Case Disappearance - Bloomingdale, IN

Episode Date: September 2, 2022

💀Exclusive Online World Premiere of our new movie, don't miss out! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/anangryboy/a-scary-movie-from-the-creator-of-scary-mysteries--------------------------------------------20-year-old college sophomore Lauren Spierer simply disappeared off the face of the earth after a night on the town in 2011 in Bloomingdale, Indiana. She was with male friends that evening she went missing,  but all of them cooperated in the investigation and still no one was held accountable for the vanishing.--------------------------------------------💀 Exclusive Video Content & Access https://www.patreon.com/scarymysteries 🥇 Watch This Episode on Youtube!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utnrYDWKDgI&ab_channel=ScaryMysteriesSOCIAL👁 Videos not found on Youtube check us out on TikTok @andrewfitzgerald💀 Instagram @andrew.fitzg💥 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scarymysteriesofficialPODCAST🎧 Scary Mysteries Podcast for more content from ushttps://www.buzzsprout.com/1235579 Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Hey guys, it's Andrew, and if you've been following our podcast for a while now, you may be aware that I've been working on a feature film that I wrote and directed last fall called an Angry Boy. It's a revenge thriller about a teenager who goes on the hunt for a sadistic cult, so I think it's right up your alley if you like our content. I'll keep it short right now because I know you want to get to the podcast. And there's more information over on our Kickstarter page, but we have some awesome rewards over there, like getting your name on a scary mysteries video,

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If you want to see some of the movie, rewards and more info about it, then please visit the Kickstarter link in the description. Thank you guys so much, and now enjoy the episode. Every town has a dark side. There are many things that can break a parent's heart with regards to their child.

Knowing they're bullied at school, losing in a competition, experiencing their first breakup, or going through a health crisis, or all things a parent doesn't want their child to go through. But nothing crumbles a parent's world like losing a child. 20-year-old college sophomore Lauren Sperrier simply disappeared off the face of the earth

after a night on the town in 2011 in Bloomingdale, Indiana. She was with male friends that evening she went missing, but all of them cooperated in the investigation and still no one was held accountable for the vanishing. I'm Andrew Fitzgerald and welcome. to another episode of Everytown. Today, we're looking into the cold case of Lauren Sperrier's disappearance. This is her true story, which was once listed by Time Magazine,

as among the top five most mysterious disappearances of all time. Lauren Sperer was the only daughter of Robert and Charlene, who came into their life on January 17, 1991. Since Robert worked as an accountant, the family managed to live in Scarsdale, an affluent town in Lower Westchester County, New York. In 2009, Lauren graduated from Edgemont High School in Greenville. The teenage girl was fond of joining summer camps, and in one of those outings at Camp Towanda in the mountain town of Honsdale, Pennsylvania. Lauren met her boyfriend, Jesse Wolfe, and her friend Jay Rosenbaum.

Then, in the fall of 2009, she enrolled at Indiana. University, where she took up textiles merchandising. This meant moving from their house in New York to an apartment in Smallwood Plaza, which is now called the Avenue on College, in downtown Bloomington. When Robert and Charlene dropped Lauren off for her freshman year at Indiana U in 2009, they felt that she was in a safe place. Charlene said, I didn't have any qualms about saying goodbye. Lauren moved in a circle of friends. She earlier met at Camp Tawanda, who also enrolled at Indiana University. She apparently enjoyed her early years in college as she actively got involved in the Jewish community at the university. In fact, she spent the spring break

joining a tree planning activity in Israel on behalf of the Jewish National Fund. Clearly, the petite college girl standing just four foot 11 and weighing around 95 pounds. with blonde hair and blue eyes was having the time of her life. The Lauren was far from perfect. She suffered from a rare heart condition called Long QT syndrome, a condition in which the repolarization of the heart after a heartbeat is affected. But despite her sensitive heart condition, according to her boyfriend's mother, Lauren allegedly was asked to leave Camp Tawanda summer activity because of drug use.

On September 2nd, 2010, she was arrested on her boyfriend's mother. charges of public intoxication and illegal consumption. What Lauren's parents later learned from investigators was that Bloomington, like many college towns, has its dark side. Some students described rampant alcohol abuse and a thriving drug scene, of which Lauren was allegedly a part of, and these became some factors investigators considered when tragedy happened to Lauren. On the night of June 2, 2011, Lauren was with two friends, in her apartment watching an NBA playoff game while drinking wine. Her boyfriend Jesse didn't join them,

and was just in his apartment texting back and forth with Lauren before going to bed. Around 12.30 a.m. on June 3rd, witnesses saw her happily leaving the apartment with a friend named David Rohn, and they headed to the apartment of her other friend, Jay Rosenbaum. At the party there, she met Jay's neighbor, Corey Roseman, and in the next four hours, Lauren was moving along. among different parties and the company of these men. At around 1.45 a.m., she was seen entering Kilroy's sports bar, but stayed there for just a half hour.

When she left that bar, Lauren also left behind her cell phone and had taken off her shoes when she walked out onto the sand-covered patio. And then Lauren walked to her apartment complex with Corey. While she was seen entering the premises of small wood plaza apartments where she was residing at 2.30 a.m. A passer-by saw how inebriated Lauren was and asked if she could manage. In the hallway on the fifth floor where her apartment was, Lauren and Corey saw a group of young men that sources suggested were friends of her boyfriend. One of the men allegedly punched Mr. Roseman in the face, which he later claimed erased much of his memory of the night.

Almost 20 minutes later, the college sophomore left her apartment and entered an alley that runs between College Avenue and Morton Street. Security cameras mounted at nearby apartment showed her exiting the alley at 251 a.m. And she headed towards an empty lot. Strangely, Lauren's keys and purse were found along this route through the alley. Surveillance footage also showed Corey carrying a clearly intoxicated Lauren over his shoulder. When the two friends arrived at Corey's apartment shortly after, Mr. Roseman's roommate, Michael Beth, was there as well. Michael saw how Corey was very intoxicated and stumbling and witnessed him vomiting on the carpet on the way upstairs to his bed.

Michael escorted Corey to bed and then tried to persuade Lauren to sleep over for her own safety, but she wanted to return to her own apartment, according to him. Michael decided to phone his neighbor, Jay Rosenbaum at 3.30 a.m. and told him to take care of Ms. Sparrier since they were good friends. The drunk college girl seemed to crave for more alcohol, so much so that she tried to get Michael into drinking at her apartment. Michael refused, so Lauren ended up going to Jay's apartment next door. He noticed a bruise under Lauren's eye and presumed she must have fallen earlier in the evening. But Miss Sparrier herself wasn't aware how she had obtained it, perhaps due to her extreme intoxication and what have you. According to Mr. Rosenbaum, he tried to persuade her.

Wade Lauren to sleep on his couch, but she refused. Using Jay's phone, she then placed two calls to her friends, David Rohn, and another unidentified one, but both calls were unanswered, and she didn't leave any message for them. An hour later, at 4.30 a.m., Jay reported that Lauren left his North Townhome's apartment barefoot, wearing a white shirt and black leggings. She was walking at the intersection of 11th Street and College Ave headed south on College Ave into downtown Bloomington. She intended to walk the two and a half blocks to her apartment, and that was the last time Lauren was seen alive. Several hours later in the morning, Jesse sent his girlfriend a text message, but since Lauren left her phone at the bar, he got a reply from a bar employee instead.

It was then that Jesse reported Lauren missing. Since Lauren's reported disappearance, Bloomington Police spent hours combing all the security footage in order to establish the whereabouts of Lauren before she disappeared. As expected, the authorities also thoroughly questioned the male friend she was with during the hours leading up to her disappearance. Corey Roseman, Michael Beth, and Jay Rosenbaum. Then the investigation turned public. The Bloomington Police Department, the Indiana University Police Department and the FBI, joined forces in a nationwide search, along with volunteer groups, and explored numerous lakes and forested areas, abandoned quarries, even a landfill, as well as conducted countless interviews.

One of the efforts law enforcement took on happened in August of 2011 when police conducted a search of the Sycamore Ridge landfill and Pimento for 11 days in order to find clues in Lauren's disappearance. This landfill is where trash from Bloomington is hauled after stopping at a transfer station. Sadly, the search didn't yield any helpful results, but the publicity of the case generated led to the pouring in of tips from the public. Three months after, Sparrier went missing. Her parents hired Mike Saravolo, a private investigator and chief of investigations at the New York based firm Bo Dietl and Associates. I've never seen a case where there's no suspect, no body, no DNA, no arrest, no autopsy, no court.

documents nothing. The former NYPD detective, Lieutenant said in disbelief. It may have 2013 almost two years after Lauren's disappearance. Investigators had received over 3,000 tips related to her vanishing. But again, the efforts to find a lead in the case didn't result in something encouraging. In 2015, authorities thought that they would have a crack on Lauren's case when another a mysterious disappearance of a young lady happened at Kilroy's. The same bar, Miss Sparrier went to on the night that she went missing.

On April 24, 2015, an Indiana University student named Hannah Wilson visited Kilroy's. She was last seen in front of the bar, about to take a taxi ride. The following morning, and his body was found in rural Brown County, about 23 and a half miles from Bloomington. A cell phone was discovered near the remains of the victim. and that was traced to Daniel Messel. Investigators then speculated a connection of Hannah's murder to the disappearance of Lauren. But Mr. Saravolo, the private investigator hired by the Sparrier family,

concluded in July of 2015 that there was no connection between the two cases, and any similarities were purely coincidental. One of the tips investigators received led them on January 28, 2016, to a property on the 2,900 block of Old Morgantown Road and Martinsville, approximately 20 miles north of Bloomington. They wanted to make a follow-up on the leads in Lauren's case based on a tip they got. That property was the residence of a certain Justin Waggers and his parents. Mr. Waggers was a suspect in publicly exposing himself to a number of local women.

And such a reputation made him a person of interest in Lauren's disappearance. Investigators searched the property with cadaver dogs, which indicated potential evidence. anthropologists then dug and sifted through dirt from the barn where the cadaver dogs hit, but nothing was found. Investigators also towed a white truck from the property belonging to the Waggers. No arrest was ever made, and authorities didn't make any public statement about it. Over the years, Lauren's heartbroken parents, Charlene and Robert, appeared at press briefings and even offered a reward of $100,000 for their daughter's safe return.

News of her mysterious disappearance captivated the nation and caught the attention of celebrities including comedian Stephen Colbert and reality star Kim Kardashian when it began trending on social media. Many news programs, true crime shows and podcasts like this

highlighted Ms. Sparrier's case as well. But still, the case wasn't an inch in progressing. Since Lauren's disappearance has caught national interests, many theories have emerged. Her parents, for one, had stated that they believed that their daughter had died because of the level of her intoxication and the possibility that she was drugged at the bar she had gone to. Mr. Sparrier said, We felt somebody could have slipped something into her drink at Kilroy's.

Lauren's parents also suspected the involvement of her male companions that night, including her boyfriend, who had an alibi for not going out with her. These men refused to take police-issued polygraphs and retain lawyers. soon after Lauren's disappearance. While the Sparrier couple didn't make any specific accusations, they believe the guys knew more than what they were telling the police so far. In defense, the men responded that they took privately administered polygraphs, as well as one from the FBI. Since they don't trust the Bloomington police, they have retained lawyers.

Mr. and Mrs. Sparrier also stated that they didn't believe that Lauren was randomly abducted, although police didn't discount the possibility that a stranger snatched her out on the street on her way home to her apartment early in the morning. There were also speculations that Lauren died of an overdose as a result of drinking too much alcohol and taking drugs at the same time. Her boyfriend's mother even quipped. This poor little girl is not with us today because of her drug abuse. It was proven by the police when after her disappearance a small amount of cocaine was found

in the 20-year-old university students' room. Jay Rosenbaum informed investigators that on that fateful June night, Lauren not only drank alcohol excessively, but also snorted cocaine, and crushed up clonopin tablets, which is a medication for anti-seizure and anti-anxiety, among others. Worst of all, downing alcohol and drugs in her system may have worsened her heart condition.

Lisa considered the possibility that Ms. Sparrier may have fatally overdosed, and those she was with when it happened may have hidden her body to avoid criminal liability. But this was contradicted by the Sparrier family hired investigator who said that a fatal drug overdose couldn't be enough motive to hide her death. He also cited that drug abuse was common at Indiana University where every kid is buying pot, cocaine, drinking, and taking pills. Years after the tragedy that befell the Sparrier family,

Robert and Charlene filed a lawsuit against Mr. Rosenbaum, Roseman, and Beth, who were all with more than the night she disappeared. They were accused of negligence with an allegation that they supplied Ms. Sparrier with alcohol, despite being visibly intoxicated without assuring her safety as she then disappeared on her way to her apartment. The Sparier couple hope that if the case prospered, these men would be compelled to admit more information about their daughters vanishing. Charlene said, I truly don't think it was a random abduction. I think that somebody that Lauren knew was responsible for the events of that evening. But in 2013 and 2014, those cases were dismissed and was upheld by a federal appeals court in 2015, despite the appeal by the sparriers.

The men's lawyers stated that their clients all cooperated with the police and private investigators and passed private polygraph tests. To date, none of the defendants have been named as suspects in Lauren Sperrier's disappearance. On the 10th anniversary of the disappearance on June 3rd, 2021, Bloomington police stressed that her case is not a cold one, but it's still active. Chief Michael Deccoff said they continue to investigate leads and work with the FBI to find Lauren. He said their department has received more than 36,000 tips since Sparrier vanished, and they're working on it. He encouraged the media to keep Sparrier's story alive and for anyone with information to contact the authorities.

Private investigator, Saravolo, also has continued to search for answers. He said, people often ask me, well, what do you think happen to Lauren? I wish I had the answer because we wouldn't be doing this interview now 10 years later. Someone knows something and this family deserves closure. This family deserves an answer as to what happened to their daughter. Where is she? And we are not going to rest until we can bring closure to this very sad story. Suffering the most are, of course, Lauren's parents who relentlessly make sure her case remains in the public's radar.

Commemorating the 10th year, her daughter disappeared, Charlene has this to say. I've learned to manage my days, months and years. But in an instant, something will happen, which sends me reeling back to the day it all happened. I try my best. I will survive. I will never forget. I do not need a day like today to remember. Because every day is a day of remembrance. If you know anything about Lauren's disappearance, you may call the Bloomington Police Department at 812-33-9. 447 or email help find Lauren at gmail.com.

You may also call private investigator Saravolo at 212-557-3334 or email him at Mike at Investigations.com. Thanks so much for tuning in, and if you want even more preppy stories from us, then check out our YouTube channel and podcast called Scary Mysteries. Over there on the YouTube channel, you'll find each episode of Everytown as well, complete with a cool video component if you'd rather watch it like a show. And if you really want to show us some love and support and watch truly terrifying videos, then check us out at patreon.com slash scary mysteries.

There's a new video every week over there, plus the chance to get involved with ideas and picking the videos that we post each week. So head on over there to get involved. I'll see you soon. So that's it for this week's episode of Everytown. Tune in next week for another one filled with scary, strange, and mysterious stories. Because who knows?

Maybe your town will be next.