IN - Lauren Spierer, 20, Bloomington, 03 June 2011 #25

imkeylime said:

The jacket baffles me. As you note, she may have left it at JR's, and we just haven't heard about it. If she took it to Sports, she'd have taken it off, I think ... hung it on the back of a chair, perhaps. She could have tied it around her waist, but IDK if she'd have done that, being a fashion major. Maybe somebody took her jacket from Sports and doesn't want to admit it, under the circumstances. A lot of clothes disappear from our local high school ... some kids take what they find.

I actually thought that her jacket might show up in the landfill even if LS didn't. If the jacket didn't have pockets, maybe she kept her phone in her wristlet and just had it out for whatever reason. That's weird, too, though ... since CS said LS didn't use it after leaving SW. Maybe she was waiting for a call/text or using it to check the time? Or did she have a watch on? Actually, having her cell out might have been instinctive ... which would make her leaving it even stranger.

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I'm really not sure why it is assumed to be a jacket in the first place. The initial description (and missing person report) had her with a white long-sleeve button down.

bx2 said:

I'm really not sure why it is assumed to be a jacket in the first place. The initial description (and missing person report) had her with a white long-sleeve button down.

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Not sure ... her shirt is white in the pix, but what she's carrying looks off-white or even beige to me. I suppose it could be a white long-sleeve button down ... with the color affected by SW's walls? Regardless, I wonder where it ended up ...

I recall there being some discussion about LE having her clothing description wrong. I believe there were other things in the beginning, which were falsely described. Things are beginning to run together in my head, after this much time. I can't recall if we blamed this on them being men and not that into fashion, or if perhaps one of them said that, or both. I just recall somewhere, where the button down was restated as a jacket. Am I wrong on that?

or she took the wrislet off to pee, cuz it is hanging on her wrist and gets in the way if it had multiple keys on it.

Saw this...

Missing Woman was Beheaded (not Lauren)

http:///viewArticle.action?articleId=281474980668416

http://newsok.com/okla.-police-seek-fbi-help-in-girls-dismemberment/article/3616940

You know, that terrible story above kind of made me think... All this time, I've thought that the odds that a stranger was involved in Lauren's disappearance were very low -- based both on the facts of the story and behavior from certain POI. But crazy random violence does happen and sometimes I wonder if that night could have just been a perfect storm of bad circumstances.

Check out this article from IDS (the student paper in Bloomington) from March 2011:

Local Man arrested in assault, robbery investigation. While the title says "Local man", the article is actually about two guys suspected of assaults in the Bloomington area where girls were knocked down and robbed/assaulted on the way home from bars late at night -- in one case described, breaking the woman's jaw.

The suspects appeared to target female IU students who were walking home from the downtown area late at night, or from other areas students might frequent, such as restaurants or apartment complexes, according to the release.

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(!) Scary, huh? Scarier to do a search of "assault" on this website and see how many stories come up, given how many people have described feeling totally safe walking home in this area alone late at night. Anyway, I'm not suggesting that there is a link between these cases... I hope these people were both in jail by then (although it's not clear from this article). It just has me wondering if I'm maybe a little naive about the possibilities of random violence, and reconsidering some of the scenarios I dismissed early on in this case... :waitasec:

imkeylime said:

I'm trying to recreate it ... 1. CR gave her a ride on his back since she had no shoes and it fell from her wrist, 2. she stumbled and dropped it without noticing, 3. something spooked her and she dropped it, 4. she was carrying something else and it slipped out of her hand. The last has happened to me (keys vs. keys with a wristlet), but IDK what she would have been carrying. I opt for 1. or 2. With either, the fact that she didn't notice could validate her condition, as you note.

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I also opt for 1 or 2. I can't help but think of the disturbing image suggested by TG's witness (although I know the time and place doesn't match) of her stumbling, falling and being thrown over someone's shoulder.

AbbeyR said:

You know, that terrible story above kind of made me think... All this time, I've thought that the odds that a stranger was involved in Lauren's disappearance were very low -- based both on the facts of the story and behavior from certain POI. But crazy random violence does happen and sometimes I wonder if that night could have just been a perfect storm of bad circumstances.

Check out this article from IDS (the student paper in Bloomington) from March 2011:

Local Man arrested in assault, robbery investigation. While the title says "Local man", the article is actually about two guys suspected of assaults in the Bloomington area where girls were knocked down and robbed/assaulted on the way home from bars late at night -- in one case described, breaking the woman's jaw.



(!) Scary, huh? Scarier to do a search of "assault" on this website and see how many stories come up, given how many people have described feeling totally safe walking home in this area alone late at night. Anyway, I'm not suggesting that there is a link between these cases... I hope these people were both in jail by then (although it's not clear from this article). It just has me wondering if I'm maybe a little naive about the possibilities of random violence, and reconsidering some of the scenarios I dismissed early on in this case... :waitasec:

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BBM
So true about the "perfect storm" - considering all the times when people (including myself) have been in a vulnerable situation and nothing bad happens; this could be that one-in-a-millionth time when some bad does happen.

Carina's resemblance to LS is downright eerie IMHO...

AbbeyR said:

I also opt for 1 or 2. I can't help but think of the disturbing image suggested by TG's witness (although I know the time and place doesn't match) of her stumbling, falling and being thrown over someone's shoulder.

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I think I can speak for most of us who have had too much to drink at one point in our lives. All of a sudden, something that sets our adrenaline going sobers us up a bit so that we realize a bit of reality. No matter how drunk you may be, you know danger. I believe Lauren may have dropped those items for a reason, as in, "help me." Perhaps the perp took her and threw her over his shoulder. Her first instinct is to get help but no one could hear her screams, so she drops her belongings, as if to tell us something went wrong here, look for me, help me.

JMOO

Pedrosmom said:

I think I can speak for most of us who have had too much to drink at one point in our lives. All of a sudden, something that sets our adrenaline going sobers us up a bit so that we realize a bit of reality. No matter how drunk you may be, you know danger. I believe Lauren may have dropped those items for a reason, as in, "help me." Perhaps the perp took her and threw her over his shoulder. Her first instinct is to get help but no one could hear her screams, so she drops her belongings, as if to tell us something went wrong here, look for me, help me.

JMOO

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The timing seems off, though. I believe the keys/wristlet were found almost immediately after LS and CR walked through the alley ... her being carried off at that point makes little sense unless everyone is lying from that point on. That could be the case, but it begs the question as to why MB and JR would put themselves on the line and say she made it to SW ... unless they, too, were involved.

I agree that you can sense danger when intoxicated ... but not so much if you've totally passed out.

IDK ... but it does seem like a pivotal part of the night.