Over 10 years since her disappearance, Lauren Spierer's family has never given up hope.
For her mother, Charlene Spierer, it has been a difficult journey. Lauren was just 20 years old and a college student at Indiana University when she disappeared. Charlene reflected on it in June 2021, the 10-year anniversary of Lauren's disappearance.
"This is what I know. What happened to Lauren was shocking. It is inconceivable to have spoken to Lauren hours before discovering it would be for the last time. Shocking that someone so loved could vanish without a trace but entirely possible. It did happen and ten years later I still struggle," she wrote on the Facebook page where her family has worked to continue traction in the case.
"The space that once held hopes and dreams for Lauren will never heal. It is replaced by an ache fueled by the not knowing. I have 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."
Lauren was out with friends the night of June 2, 2011. The 20-year-old may have been intoxicated while returning to her room in the early morning hours of June 3. Witnesses and surveillance footage put her on a block near her Indiana University dorm room, and from that point forward, she was never seen again. The Bloomington Police Department, the Indiana University Police Department, and the FBI joined forces in a nationwide search, but no progress was made in the case.
Three months after Lauren's disappearance, her parents enlisted outside help from Mike Ciravolo, a private investigator and chief of investigations at the New York-based firm Beau Dietl & 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 New York Police Department detective lieutenant told Inside Edition.
Officials still receive tips on Lauren's disappearance and consider her case active, though nothing concrete has come up. Mike Ciravolo also continues his work into the case. Now Kyra Breslin, the granddaughter of legendary newspaper columnist Jimmy Breslin, has stepped in with her true-crime podcast series, Finding Lauren.
Lauren's story hit all too close to home for Kyra, who attended Indiana University in late August 2011, just months after Lauren vanished. Kyra lived in the same off-housing apartment units as Lauren, went to the same bars in downtown Bloomington, and even had mutual friends.
"I thought if I could offer a new perspective of a college student living in similar circumstances, it might provide insight to the culture and bring attention back to this story," she shared.
