<p>Our world has been a scary place for the vulnerable for quite a long time, from the time my kids were born decades ago at least, I think. It seems our world was a bit more forgiving and safer when I was a child many decades past. :(</p>
<p>^^^I actually disagree. I think that the 24/7 news channels with advertising to sell and screen time to fill has made it SEEM as if things are worse, but really when I was growing up in NJ, if a college student in Indiana was missing, it wouldn’t have been reported on, on the local or 7pm national news. The Star Ledger probably wouldn’t have put anything in about it, unless there was a local connection. We are more aware of things on a national (and even international) level whereas in the past we only heard about local tragedies. </p>
<p>My mom grew up in England in the 30’s. She said every year or so a kid would go missing and they’d never find them. And that was in her immediate area; they certainly never knew what was going on in the next couple of towns over, especially before TV.</p>
<p>I disagree too, I think the world has always been a very potentially dangerous place, but that the 24/7 media has made us more aware. Also, I think a lot more people report sexual assaults and things like that now, whereas in the past, people were ashamed and/or afraid to do so. </p>
<p>I try not to let fear rule, but also not to be complacent. I grew up (years ago!) in the ‘safe’ suburbs and was the victim of a sexual predator as a teen, but I was afraid to tell anyone. I felt it was my fault. I could so easily have been murdered, but was fortunate.</p>
<p>I agree with you paperplane. From what I can tell by most crime statistics, crime rates were similar in the 70s as they are today, and crime has reduced on all accounts since the crack epidemic of the 90s. Sexual crimes were rarely reported, and child sexual abuse was never talked about. I remember as a teen watching an Oprah episode and feeling that I wasn’t alone.</p>
<p>I totally agree with the last four posters.</p>
<p>RobD, paperplane, MizzBee, starbright – I’m with you. I had a pretty sheltered middle class life, but one day at a summer camp, we came upon a dead man who had washed up on the shore. Dead. With a cinderblock chained to his neck. He was face down, thank God. I was 7.</p>
<p>Then on a poorly supervised trip to England when I was 14, our teacher/chaperone decided it would be a good idea to go to the pub, where some 40 year old guy bought me drinks and followed me outside (heading to the loo). He picked me up, and was carrying me to his van when my friends realized I’d been gone a long time and came out to find me. If they hadn’t done so, I definitely would have been raped and possibly killed.</p>
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<p>Let us not forget the possibility that the kids are telling the truth and have told all they know. She may indeed have left on her own, then been picked up by a stranger. </p>
<p>The case of the little boy in NYC and the stories of posters here show how easily one can encounter the wrong person. And it is certainly reasonable to think that a predator looking for a vulnerable young woman would be likely to select an area where many young women are known to be walking around at night, possibly alone. A pretty little slip of a girl who was not entirely sober, as seems likely, would be an attractive target.</p>
<p>For the sake of per parents and family and all involved, including those potentially innocent students now under a cloud of suspicion, I hope that she is found soon and the culprit[s] identified. (Of course, it would be even better if she were found alive, like Elizabeth Smart and Jacy Dugard.)</p>
<p>I am going the route of believing that those kids are telling the truth that they do not know what happened to LS and had no direct doings in her disappearance. However, I suspect that there were some activities that some indulged in with her or while they were with her that could incriminate them and they, therefore, are advised by their attorneys to invoke the fifth when asked any such question.</p>
<p>For example, if that young man who is reportedly the last one to have seen her (as of now), admits that he was taking and providing certain drugs to her while she was there, and if she is found with lethal amounts in her system, federal and state laws put him in the hot seat for homicide charges. Plus the parents can sue for civil damages if that is the case. If some arrangement could be made to exempt this sort of thing from happening, there might be more information forth coming. However, if that is the extent of the involvement that person should have, it isn’t going to help finding Lauren. All that would do is have him confessing to what could be a felony and contribution to her missing state. </p>
<p>It’s been a very difficult situation, not only for the Spierers,but for those families whose sons are implicated in this tragedy. At best, the young men come across as unchivalrous, and are being portrayed as murderers in some forums. It has hurt the communities terribly.</p>
<p>rockvillemom posted this heartbreaking letter from Lauren’s mother Charlene on the Jewish B student thread earlier today:
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<p>as RVM said, sorry about the length, but there really is no way to edit it sensitively.</p>
<p>ouch…</p>
<p>Was reading a bit about this investigation today - and so many questions lead to Corey Rossman. There is the convenient loss of memory regarding that evening. There is the supposed story that Lauren walked HIM home - but there is videotape available that supposedly shows her so intoxicated that she could not stand up - so there was no way she was walking anyone home. I believe that Charlene Spierer is correct and Lauren’s “friends” know what happened to her.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.fox59.com/news/wxin-attorney-for-spierer-acquaintance-reacts-to-details-of-video-20110722,0,1987324.story[/url]”>http://www.fox59.com/news/wxin-attorney-for-spierer-acquaintance-reacts-to-details-of-video-20110722,0,1987324.story</a></p>
<p>While there are various plausible explanations of what may have happened, my feeling from the start was that Lauren’s disappearance did not involve strangers. </p>
<p>While pure speculation, one possibility is that she accidentally died of overdose or a mix of what was in her body, that became toxic, especially given her medical condition. Friends may have panicked because they were using illegal substances too and may have given them to Lauren and when she died unexpectedly, rather than call for help, they covered it up. For this age group, the anxiety that they may get in trouble themselves, is pretty strong. Still, after all this time, it is kinda surprising that not one single person has broken a silence (speculative if there is something being kept secret) out of deference of doing what is right and caring about this girl. </p>
<p>I realize no friends may have been involved but too much else went down that night between the partying and even a fight, to believe that she ran into danger with strangers. And with so much drugs and drinking involved, behaviors can get real out of hand. </p>
<p>In any case, I cannot fathom the depths of despair that Lauren’s parents must endure. </p>
<p>(and if there are other young people who are considered suspicious, but in reality did nothing wrong, I feel badly for them too, but I do think that one or more persons whom she knew were involved in a negative capacity)</p>
<p>My gut tells me this case will open up once kids come back to school. Let’s hope.</p>
<p>RM, just because Lauren may have been stumbling drunk does not mean that Rossman was not equally so. The fact that she chose to accompany him home, whatever her state, seems solid. It was already known that she left her phone and shoes in the bar, and that she apparently dropped her keys and wallet along the way to Rossman’s apartment, so having a video that shows she was unsteady on her feet is hardly a revelation.</p>
<p>The problem with laying this at Rossman’s door is that there are TWO kids who are willing to admit that they were alone with Lauren AFTER he was. Why on earth would they place themselves in jeopardy if that were not so? When Mike Beth says they put Rossman to bed, that leaves him alone with Lauren: not good for him. Then the third kid says that she went to HIS apartment alone, which takes suspicion off Beth and Rossman and puts HIM in the unenviable position of being the last person known to be alone with Lauren. Why on earth would he say this if it were not true? If the three of them were present in either apartment with her and something happened to cause her death, they could much more easily have said that she was there and left, against their advice. There doesn’t seem to be a reason to make up a story that exculpates some amongst them if that happened, and no reason why the third kid would have agreed to be the “goat.”</p>
<p>In addition, we have the fact that the police searched their cars and apartments. Is it safe to assume that they did thorough DNA testing of traces found in the cars? (Of course, since they failed to canvass the neighborhood in which she disappeared in a timely manner, one never knows…)</p>
<p>Whether the third kid is lying about seeing her walk away is an open question. If she did go to his apartment, and died there, he would be motivated to admit that she was there because he could not take the chance that someone saw her go in, not to mention DNA potentially showing that she had been there. I suppose it is possible that Rossman revived and got up after being put to bed, and went out and intercepted her after she left the third kid’s apartment, but it seems unlikely. It seems even more unlikely that he would have had the presence of mind at that time of that night to dispose of her body without leaving any trace in his car–and without drawing anyone’s attention.</p>
<p>Don’t you think that if he did get up and kill her, or she died while with him but not by his hand, and he appealed to his friend(s) to help hide the body, that the attorney of one of the others would by now have brokered a deal whereby they told what happened in exchange for immunity, or at least a reduced charge of moving a body, or something?</p>
<p>It just doesn’t make sense. But of course, people’s behavior is not always driven by logic. I continue to hope that Lauren will be found and that some light, at least, is shed on what happened that night. The suffering of her parents is unspeakable.</p>
<p>The crux of the story lies with the young man who is the last person to admit seeing Lauren. He says he saw her on her way home at 4:30 AM. His family and Lauren’s have known each other for many years. His grandparents are neighbors of hers. However, he has not been forthcoming with much information than to say that Lauren was with him and that she left on her own 2 feet. </p>
<p>It is suspected that none of the players were in good condition those early morning hours. No evidence exists to even categorize anyone as suspects in the disappearance but none of them are willing to admit to felonious use of drugs. Don’t know how that would help find LS if their stories are indeed true, and the whole lot of them were dealing and taking drugs. </p>
<p>The fact of the matter is that LS either walked out of that young man’s apartment as he says, at 4:30AM or she did not. If she did, it is likely that she was picked up, perhaps by someone she knew, maybe only marginally, and something happened then. If she did not leave that place on her own at 4:30 AM, the young man is lying, and who knows what happened when. Can’t prove that he is lying or telling the truth. He has taken a private lie detector test, and his lawyer is comfortable with him making the official statement that he saw LS walk out of his place at that time, and he has no idea what happened to her thereafter. It leaves us at an impasse as there were no cameras on her route home and no witnesses about at 4:30 AM so any perpetrator had a clear scene to do whatever. </p>
<p>The cars and apartments of the 4 young men named as persons of interest have been scrutinized. No cadaver scents present. Apparently the young man who last saw him did not have access to his car that day. So what to do now? For now, it is a missing persons case.</p>
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So why did LS’s parents make a national plea for more information when what they were looking for was (literally) right next door? I guess so he’d feel more pressure. Meanwhile, what about all the other people/strangers in Bloomington and elsewhere who tried to help? Tsk. I mean, unless there’s some reason to believe there was someone else involved who picked up an attractive, petite young girl who was also drunk, at 4:30 in the morning, in some deserted alleyway and took her, I can’t help but think it’s Corey Rossman.</p>
<p>I’m getting confused ; I thought it was Jay Rosenbaum who was the ‘supposed’ last person to see her, not Rossman?</p>
<p>You are correct, rodney. (I couldn’t recall his name in my post, above.) Which is why I can’t understand why some people are still pointing at Rossman.</p>
<p>I just find it not credible that Corey Rossman has lost his memory of what transpired that evening - how convenient. I also do not believe Jay Rosenbaum’s story that he supposedly saw her leave at 4:30am - walking away - on her own. These young men were all former fraternity brothers and I think they are covering for each other. And this is why the Spierer family keeps begging one of Lauren’s “friends” to tell the truth. The Spierer family clearly believes that the answers they seek are with Rossman, Mike Beth and Rosenbaum.</p>
<p>Rodney, my mistake about the name mix-up. Even my post #75 doesn’t exactly clear up this. </p>
<p>Is Corey Rossman the one who got beat up, lost his memory and had to be put in bed, while Jay Rosenbaum reports as saying he saw LS at 4:30? And who’s the boyfriend and where was he in all this? And why hasn’t there been much discussion/news about this fight? I bet this is related too. I imagine it’s either about a drug deal that went bad or (less likely) something about involving love interests.</p>