<p>Exegenesis, JR is in a very tough situation as a person of interest who was the last one to admit to seeing Lauren alive. The whole case comes down to whether or not she left his place pretty much as he has told the authorities, …or not. There is apparently no evidence to be sure either way. He danged well better have an attorney advise him on what to say. He has been told by the police and his lawyer that he is not to speak about the case to anyone other than the police and his attorney, and is probably not allowed to contact the Spierers even if he wanted to do so. That is standard operating procedure. He is not permitted to be searching for Lauren, he, and a number of other POIs. Even those searching, by the way, are asked not to discuss the case and sign a statement saying they will not discuss any discoveries during the search with anyone. </p>
<p>So, what should Rosenbaum do and say? He is doing and not saying, just as he has been told. It is better for him to be out of town. If he is innocent of any direct harm to Lauren and has no idea what happened after seeing her off as he says he did, then what can he do to help this case, what can he say? I’ve yet to read constructive advice for him. </p>
<p>And if he is guilty of doing the worst things that may have happened, he has clearly made his decision to sit tight, stay mum and hope that the authorities never make the connection to him. He might well get away with it, if no breaks come in the case. He is presumed innocent even when charged and on trial. He isn’t even a suspect at this point. There is no evidence, none to support he did it. Just that he could have.</p>
<p>Consolation, really? Two parents are heartbroken, not knowing where their daughter is or the circumstances around her disappearance, your kid might have relevant information or even have seen something which could break the case, and your only thought would be to hire a lawyer?</p>
<p>Gosh, tough crowd here. And if it were YOUR kid who had disappeared? You’d be content knowing that your kids friends first thought was to cover their own rear ends instead of being anguished that somehow they could help your kid if only they’d come forward?</p>
<p>This may be a dumb question, but why have some of Lauren’s friends been specifically ORDERED to not help with the search? Is that a standard legal procedure?</p>
<p>aajjc – it seems to me a collision between what I think are punitive drug laws and trying to solve a crime. If I were LS’s mom, I would tell the DA, please.please waive, in writing all drug or alcohol charges and just ask for help. Maybe the family has done this already. I don’t know. I think our country’s drug/alcohol laws need to be re-examined. What if it turns out that LS was alive, but kids were afraid to call 911? </p>
<p>Only thought? No. As I said–apparently you missed it–I would encourage my kid to share any knowledge of her whereabouts. BUT I would not let him talk to the police without a lawyer. A lawyer’s guidance would best enable him to share whatever knowledge he might have of her movements without giving the police grounds to prosecute him or blackmail him for irrelevant “offenses” such as underage drinking, smoking pot, etc.</p>
<p>I tend to think that the police would LIKE to find out what really happened. Failing that, they will want to find someone they can pin it on to get the press and the parents off their back. I would not let my kid volunteer to be the sacrificial lamb.</p>
<p>These kids have the audacity to call themselves Lauren’s friends? While they’re sitting around and not being forthcoming with info that could help locate Lauren, her family continues to suffer. Not one of them is in Bloomington searching or offering emotional support to Lauren’s family. Nor are their parents. And why are these kids and their parents showing such a lack of interest? I think it is because they know what happened that night and they fled back home to Westchester so mommy and daddy can protect them. </p>
<p>And then there is her boyfriend. Does he really believe that sitting on his couch in NY tweeting short I love you messages is going to bring Lauren back? If he can’t participate in the search, he could at least hand out water and register searches. Sadly, TOTAL STRANGERS and INDIANA LOCALS are showing more support, love and care than these so called friends and their parents.</p>
<p>To her “friends” Corey Rossman, Mike Beth, Jay Rosenbaum and David Rohn: Stop being spineless and give her family the closure they deserve. As irresponsible and shallow as I find her behavior that night to be, nobody deserves to go through this.</p>
<p>This Wall Street Journal article is slightly off-topic, focusing on the recent influx of New York area students to Indiana University and the tension between students from Indiana and these students. This Indiana/New York conflict is not directly relevant to this investigation, as I believe most of the students in question (with the exception of Jay Rosenbaum from Michigan) are from the New York area. Still, if you were wondering as I was (having known Bloomington in the 80’s), why there are now so many students from New York at IU, here’s your answer:</p>
<p>Thanks camathmom – very interesting article. </p>
<p>Even though it was written in 2008, I see that kind of thing going on now – I just read something about kids trying to find their friend groups before they set foot on campus. Isn’t college about meeting new people?</p>
<p>I’ve lived in the NYC area for 20+ years and sometimes the rudeness and entitled behavior still floors me.</p>
<p>This incident is just another example of the old adage " nothing good happens after midnight". I used it often in raising my two DD’s. What parent hasn’t argued with their young adult on date night to extend a curfew. Wisdom we all learned from being young once now used to protect that which we cherish most ! When we send our kids off to college, we pray that we educated them about safety. I remember that first day during orientation it was a high priority of the university. Unfortunately, it seems this young lady is a victim of youthful arrogance. My prayer is that she is found soon!</p>
<p>The despair, fear and grief her parents must be experiencing right now. And anger. Someone knows something, and yet that person or persons are subjecting these parents to hell on earth.</p>
<p>Hell on earth indeed- while the parents of the friends are busy hiring lawyers (no 20 year old kid can afford a top criminal lawyer without parental intervention) instead of pleading with their child to tell the truth about what happened.</p>
<p>Those of you who would do the same with your children- really? You didn’t teach your kids from the time they were 2 years old to tell the truth regardless of the consequences? You didn’t teach your kids that they need to do the right thing even when it’s personally painful? So the kids have all lawyered up and left town, and Lauren’s parents get to agonize over who knows what but won’t tell.</p>
<p>At this point, has it been determined very unlikely that it was a stranger/kidnap type disappearance as she made her way home? Or, conversely, is it possible that the kids are telling the truth about not knowing anything?</p>
<p>This is so awful…her parents are left to wonder what happened to their baby. There are kids with attorneys so that their rights are being protected. If they didn’t do anything wrong they wouldn’t need protecting…disgusting human beings and their parents are nothing more than pieces of &%#^. This is so infuriating that it makes me cry for her and her parents. What did these kids do to this girl?</p>
<p>Some of you have got to calm down. At this point, I think one has to say it’s likely that she was murdered, and that the only person who knows what happened to the body/where it is is the murderer. And that person won’t be coming forward voluntarily.</p>
<p>If – as has been speculated – she died as a result of her drug use, or something like that, and one or more of the boys disposed of the body because they were afraid of being prosecuted or disciplined for drugs . . . that deal would have been worked out long ago, and the relevant information given to the authorities one way or another. At least that’s what I think. The information had the highest bargaining value right at the outset – when it would have saved the parents heartache, when it would have established someone’s bona fides as a cooperator, and when it wouldn’t have risked being completely devalued by an independent discovery. If, despite the fact that the boys were all represented by competent, sophisticated counsel, no deal was done on that basis, I have to conclude it’s probably because none of the boys had that kind of information to offer. That’s not to say one of them might not be a murderer. But I don’t think it’s likely that anyone who didn’t actually kill her knows where her body is.</p>
<p>I think they know where her body is. I hope they live in utter hell for the rest of their miserable lives. </p>
<p>As for the “sophisticated counsel” representing these kids …they too should spend their lives wondering how they could let a pig or pigs get away with this. I could never really understand what makes a person knowingly represent guilty people. It makes me wonder about the morals of those who enter this profession but of course there will be the standard responses for that statement. My response before anyone says anything…tell it to this girls parents.</p>
<p>momma-three, you’ve got it totally backwards. If someone is afraid, and you want that person to do something for you that he may be afraid to do (like tell you where a body is), the thing you want most is for him to have a knowledgeable, competent person he trusts completely who will show him how to give you what you want without making his situation worse (and possibly making it better). That’s how you get what you want fastest. Not by leaving him terrified with no idea how to resolve his dilemma.</p>
<p>Sure, if he doesn’t have a lawyer you or someone else may be able to beat the information out of him. But you are going to have to beat a lot of innocent people, and follow a lot of completely fictitious leads you have gotten through torture, in order to find the few people who know anything. And then we’ll be living in Syria, or Libya, and you may not like the overall experience that much.</p>
<p>Criminal lawyers don’t spend a whole lot of their time getting murderers off. It does happen from time to time, but that’s not really what they do. More often, they are making it easier for someone to take responsibility for his actions, by convincing him that’s what’s really in his best interest.</p>
<p>JHS- they are all innocent until proven otherwise. I have no beef with that. And they are all entitled to counsel; again, no disagreement.</p>
<p>But parents on this thread have said that if it were their kid, they’d be more concerned with protecting their child from prosecution for drug use, or whatever else went down that night, than encouraging their kid to be absolutely forthcoming with law enforcement about what they saw, observed, etc. And that’s what upsets me.</p>
<p>Another parents child is missing and you’re worried about drug possession or underage drinking? Didn’t we all teach our kids that actions have consequences? You’re going to worry about your kid getting caught up in a drug sting when someone else is going to bed not knowing where their kid is buried?</p>
<p>So fine, hire a lawyer. And then tell your kid that whatever the cost, he/she is to tell the truth. And the lawyer’s job is to try and get the least onerous punishment possible- but if you’re going to do drugs and a friend of yours ends up dying a few hours later, hey, you made a bad choice and now you’re paying for it.</p>
<p>Kid in my neighborhood drove drunk a few years ago. His girlfriend died in the passenger seat of his car. His parents only concern was keeping him out of jail. ***? Your kid broke the law, killed his girlfriend, could have killed any number of other people when his car plowed into a sidewalk, and you DON’T want him to suffer the consequences? What lesson is he learning doing community service at an animal shelter? And they took away his passport, poor baby.</p>
<p>Once again, distortion of what I, anyway, have said. Let me repeat it once more in hopes that it will penetrate: I would tell my kid to reveal information that was RELEVANT to her possible fate or location. The lawyer would be there to enable him to reveal that without incriminating himself on some irrelevant thing. </p>
<p>I fail to understand why you cannot grasp this distinction. I do not think that revealing that a kid smoked a joint with friends–not including Lauren–during the course of the evening, just to pick a hypothetical example, is relevant to Lauren’s fate.</p>
<p>I also agree with JHS’s assessment of the situation. At this point, if she died of an accidental overdose or heart failure, and they hid her body in a panic, I bet that at the very least one of them would have made a deal to testify against the others in exchange for immunity. But of course, we don’t know.</p>