She Left the Bar Without Her Shoes or Phone. By 4:30 a.m. She Was Gone. Lauren Spierer.

At two-twenty-seven in the morning on Friday, June 3, 2011, a security camera in Bloomington, Indiana, recorded a young woman leaving a bar near the Indiana University campus.

She had left her shoes inside. She had left her phone inside.

Over the next two hours, people saw her in several places around the neighborhood. Her keys and her purse were later found in an alley along her route.

At about four-thirty, she was seen walking south on College Avenue. Barefoot. Black leggings. A white shirt.

That is the last time anyone reported seeing Lauren Spierer.

She was twenty years old. She has never been found.

Who was Lauren Spierer?

Lauren Spierer was born on January 17, 1991, and grew up in Scarsdale, New York, a suburb north of New York City. Her parents are Charlene and Robert Spierer.

She graduated from Edgemont High School in 2009 and went to Indiana University in Bloomington, where she studied textiles merchandising. She was active in the campus Jewish community.

She also had a heart condition called long QT syndrome. It affects the heart's rhythm, and it can make alcohol and drugs more dangerous.

Before her disappearance, she had spent a spring break in Israel, planting trees with the Jewish National Fund.

The night out

At about twelve-thirty in the morning, Lauren left her apartment at a complex called Smallwood Plaza with a friend. They went to another friend's apartment. There, she met one of the friend's neighbors.

At one-forty-six, a camera recorded her walking into Kilroy's Sports Bar.

Friends later told police she had been drinking that night, and had used drugs.

At two-twenty-seven, a camera recorded her leaving the bar with the neighbor she had met earlier.

She did not have her phone. She did not have her shoes. She had walked out barefoot onto the bar's sandy patio and left them behind.

The alley

At two-thirty, cameras showed her going into her apartment complex. A passerby noticed she was very drunk.

Between two-forty-eight and two-fifty-one, cameras showed her walking into an alley between College Avenue and Morton Street, and then coming out of it, heading toward an empty lot.

Her keys and her purse were later found along that route.

After that, she went with the neighbor to his apartment. He was very drunk. His roommate put him to bed, and then tried to convince Lauren to stay the night.

She did not stay. The roommate later called another neighbor.

3:30 a.m.

At about three-thirty, Lauren went to the apartment of another neighbor.

Someone there noticed a bruise under her eye.

Two phone calls were made from a phone in that apartment. Neither was answered.

At about four-thirty in the morning, someone reported seeing Lauren walking south on College Avenue from 11th Street. She was barefoot, in black leggings and a white shirt.

That is the last reported sighting.

Missing

Later that morning, a friend texted Lauren.

The reply came from someone who worked at the bar. Lauren's phone was still there.

The friend reported her missing.

Lauren had a boyfriend at the time. He told police he had not gone out that night, and that he had texted her before he went to bed.

The search

The search was huge. Lauren's case drew national attention.

In August 2011, police and the FBI spent nine days searching a landfill near Terre Haute. Nothing.

By May 2013, investigators had received more than three thousand tips.

Investigators built Lauren's last hours almost minute by minute, from security cameras and witness statements. What they could not build was the part that mattered most, what happened after four-thirty.

In January 2016, the FBI and police searched a property in Martinsville, Indiana, linked to a man suspected of indecent exposure. Cadaver dogs reacted inside a barn. But a dig found nothing. No charges were filed.

The lawsuit

Lauren's parents believe she is dead. They have said they think she may have been drugged at the bar, and they do not believe she was taken by a stranger. They believe someone she knew was involved.

They sued three of the young men who were with her that night for negligence. They argued the men gave alcohol to someone who was obviously drunk, and did not make sure she got home safely.

We are not naming any of them. None of them has ever been named a suspect.

The courts dismissed the lawsuit. In 2013, the case against one man was dismissed. In 2014, the case against the other two was dismissed, because the judge said there was no way for a jury to figure out what actually caused her disappearance. In 2015, a federal appeals court agreed.

The men's lawyers said they cooperated with police and passed private lie detector tests.

They did not take police polygraphs. Neither did Lauren's family members.

Another case

In 2015, police looked at whether Lauren's case was connected to the murder of another IU student, Hannah Wilson, who had also last been seen leaving Kilroy's. Police concluded the two cases were not related.

But in 2017, a county prosecutor said he believed the man convicted of Hannah Wilson's murder could be connected to Lauren's disappearance.

That man has never been charged in Lauren's case. We are not naming him in connection with it.

Lauren's case has been covered on national television, including a 2019 HLN episode, and on many podcasts. Some critics have pointed to it as an example of what is sometimes called missing white woman syndrome, the pattern of national media giving far more coverage to missing young white women than to other missing people. That criticism is about the coverage, not about Lauren. Her family's search for her is no less real.

What we still don't know

Police have never ruled anything out, including abduction by a stranger.

We do not know where Lauren went after four-thirty. We do not know how she got the bruise under her eye. We do not know who, if anyone, she was with when she walked down College Avenue barefoot.

What we know is this. A twenty-year-old woman spent her last known hours moving between a bar and a few apartments, all within a few blocks. She was very drunk, without her phone, without her shoes. And somewhere in those few blocks, she vanished.

If you have any information about Lauren Spierer, contact the Bloomington Police Department.

What do you think happened to Lauren?