Disappearance of Lauren Spierer and the harrowing survival of Jennifer Morey

In Houston, Texas in 1995, Jennifer Morey was a young lawyer living alone in an apartment complex she’d chosen because it seemed like a safe place to live. But after a night out with friends, Jennifer awoke to the feeling of someone on top of her. Then we examine the disappearance Lauren Spierer, an Indiana University student, who vanished nearly 10 years ago after a night out with friends in Bloomington, Indiana.

Sources:
https://forgeoffear.wordpress.com/2017/11/30/suspicious-secuirty/
"I survived" Season 1 episode 11, Jennifer/Sampson/Norina
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Lauren_Spierer
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9163467/Family-remembers-missing-IU-student-Lauren-Spierer-30th-birthday.html
https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/2nsldv/what_is_your_theory_of_the_lauren_spierer_case/
https://www.indystar.com/story/news/crime/2017/11/08/lauren-spierer-update-what-we-know-now/843937001/

Transcript

Emily: [00:00:00] Hey guys, welcome 
Liz: [00:00:01] back. You're listening to, that's a bad sign. I'm Liz and I'm 
Emily: [00:00:05] Emily, and this is a true crime 
Liz: [00:00:07] podcast. Normally we start with a recommendation from each of us, but this week we decided we were going to replace that with a segment call out one of our followers. Yeah. 
Emily: [00:00:16] We used to do this in the past and we kind of forgot about it, but we're excited to give a big shout out to.
Norway. 
Liz: [00:00:24] Whew. We see you Norway. And we love 
Emily: [00:00:27] you. I've said this in the past, but we're not being creepy. We can see what cities and countries are listening in. So we don't have too much data, but we have a general idea. And how many different countries did we have last 
Liz: [00:00:38] week? 10 or 11? 
Emily: [00:00:39] Yeah. So love being worldwide and Norway.
You're amazing. Thanks guys. I 
Liz: [00:00:44] also want to quickly call out that we did get to listen to in Alaska. 
Emily: [00:00:47] So Alaska, you know what we see you too. We see you too. 
Liz: [00:00:51] Okay. Well, I think you go first this week. I will. 
Emily: [00:00:55] So no cheers because yet again, listen, I are not drinking. 
Liz: [00:00:59] So boring. I'm waiting for Emily to finish sober January.
What are they called? Dry January clearly. I don't do it. 
Emily: [00:01:06] Let's that thing. Yeah. So next week I'll be able to drink again. I'm so excited. 
Liz: [00:01:11] I'm so excited because I don't like to drink alone. So I have been opting out so fake. Cheers, fake. Cheers.
Emily: [00:01:29] All right. So Emily speaking, and my story today is a story of Jennifer Mori. So my resources include forge a fears, which is a blog on WordPress by Brittany C. And then also I got most of my information from an I survived episode, specifically, season one, episode 11, it's Jennifer Sampson. And Norina. One note it's I survived episodes.
So clearly I have a lot of details on this case and the woman at the end survived. So just spoiler alert, I'm just telling you guys this. So this takes place in Houston, Texas on April 15th in 1995. Do you know the story? 
Liz: [00:02:08] I don't think so. Yay. 
Emily: [00:02:10] Okay. So Jennifer Maury was a 25 year old lawyer and she recently moved to the Houston Texas area and she decided to move into, I don't know if I'm pronouncing this right.
The Bay view park apartments. I get to buy you by you. How 
Liz: [00:02:24] do you know that? It was like when you're down in the Bayou, that's like a word. Okay. So by you park apartments, if it's the word I'm thinking of, it could not be, I don't know. 
Emily: [00:02:32] Well, I don't say it another time so we can move on. She decided to choose this apartment complex because she felt very safe.
There, there was a 10 foot fence around the whole area. And then also there's 24 hour onsite security provided by Pinkerton security. So she moved in and she got an apartment on the second floor. Now one night, she goes to the bar with her friends and they're out there partying. They're having a good time.
One of her friends drives her home and she gets home around 2:00 AM and she locks her door and she deadbolts built it. So she is safe inside her apartment. She goes to bed and then she wakes up in the middle of the night and she feels somebody pressing their body on top 
Liz: [00:03:14] of her. No. 
Emily: [00:03:16] And she's not even scared since this is an I survived episode, she talks about it and she just says she was just confused, 
Liz: [00:03:25] I guess when you're like, just getting out of your sleep, you're not, your brain is not fully functioning yet.
Exactly. 
Emily: [00:03:31] She just had no idea what was going on. And she said, she was just saying like, what, who is what's going on? She clearly just. Couldn't process it right away. And it wasn't until she felt the cold blade of a knife on her neck that she realized, Oh my God, someone's trying to rape 
Liz: [00:03:49] me. I, for sure I'm not going to sleep tonight.
Emily: [00:03:52] Honestly, this might be my biggest fear. Waking up with someone on 
Liz: [00:03:54] top of you. I was just going to say 
Emily: [00:03:56] that. She finally puts it together. What's happening. And she just starts fighting back. She's kicking she's screaming, she's pushing him away. And then he says, Jennifer, 
Liz: [00:04:09] the hell up. Okay. So he knows her name, which is even more terrifying.
Yeah, 
Emily: [00:04:13] exactly. So then she starts freaking out because she thinks he knows me and I probably know him. What is happening right now? So they keep fighting and she gets her hand out from underneath, and then she uses her hand to kind of push his hand in the blade away. And he, then he was almost trying to contain her, but the moment that she used her hand to push him away, he lost it.
And then he just started fighting back even more. And he used the blade and he just slashed her across the face. And since she's telling the story, she says a lot of it's a blur, but she remembers specific thought she had. So our first thought was I'm being raped. Her second thought was, I might know who this man is.
And then her third thought that she could remember was. Oh, my God. He just cut my eye out. Sorry. If you guys can hear that the ambulance 
Liz: [00:05:02] in the back. I mean, it's fitting. 
Emily: [00:05:04] Yeah. New York city. I'm just going to move on. He then slits her throat from ear 
Liz: [00:05:09] to ear. Oh my God. 
Emily: [00:05:11] And then he turns to her and he says, don't look at me bitch.
And she said the whole time she was fighting, but the moment that she thought he cut out her eye and slit her throat, she just stopped fighting. And she's a lawyer. So her mindset was fight. Get a good look at him. When I go to the cops later, I can, you know, put them away. I can figure out who he is. But after this happening for a few moments and she realized that he was trying to kill her, she just completely stopped putting out a fight because she just thought to herself.
I just want to live, you know, I'm not using my lawyer instincts. I'm using my human and space. Totally. So when she finally comes down, he stopped speeding her. Then he grabs her by the hair and drags her out of her bed. And then he throws her into the bathroom, but he notices that he forgot his knife in the other room.
So why she's lying on the ground? Bleeding out. He turns around to go get his knife and she instantly just closes the door smart. She's in the bathroom, the doors close now. And there's no lock on the door. So she just presses her body up against the door, but she thinks to herself, I'm losing all my blood.
I'm so tired. I can't hold this door. So, so brilliantly, she slides down with her back on the door and then she puts her legs flat on the ground and then puts the bottom of her feet on the tub. So now she's using her body and she's barricaded between the tub and the door. So now he cannot physically open the door.
Wow. 
Liz: [00:06:40] Very smart. Very smart. I don't know if I wouldn't think of that. 
Emily: [00:06:44] Well, now, you know, I've tested this out in my bathroom and it works. Oh my God. I don't know if this would work in your bathroom, Liz. 
Liz: [00:06:52] I don't know. I don't think so. Actually test it out, but I'll text you later and let you know. I 
Emily: [00:06:58] just advise everybody tested out.
It's actually a really good spot. If you, you know, you're in a one bedroom apartment and you need to hide, do this. All right back to the story. So she's barricaded in the bedroom, she's bleeding out. And then she turns to her toilet paper roll. She takes it off the roll or the, um, the holder. And then she just takes a giant thing of toilet paper and holds it up to her neck to stop the bleeding.
And she notices it gets really quiet because you know, there's no more commotion of them fighting and she's just in this bathroom alone. So she's waiting, she knows he's outside. And since it's quiet, she can finally hear him. And she just hears him scuttling around the apartment and then zip up his pants and then leave.
She's now sitting in the bathroom, bleeding out. She thinks 
Liz: [00:07:46] he left and this is 1995. So where their cell phones back then? No. Right. We'll 
Emily: [00:07:51] get there. So she gets up and she tries to open the bathroom door, but she's so weak. She's covered in bloods where hands are so slippery. So she can't open the door knob.
And then she just used her whole body weight to jam the door shut. So now the doors actually jammed. So she's working on this for, she says a minutes, but it feels like a lifetime. And she finally opens the door and gets out of the bathroom. So she tries to turn on the lights, but he cut the power. 
Liz: [00:08:18] Oh my God.
So 
Emily: [00:08:19] she then goes over to the phone and it's landline and that's also not working. So she's sitting on her couch in the dark and she can't get her phone and she thinks he might be in this apartment. I have no idea, like. He could be behind the couch. He could be in the kitchen. I don't know what to do, but then she remembers, she has a say, 
Liz: [00:08:38] Oh, okay.
So we do have cell phones in 1995. 
Emily: [00:08:41] So she takes her cell phone and she calls nine one one. And I heard the nine 11 call. Let's just say you. And I feel like we had a debate last episode about the JonBenet Ramsey episode, where a lot of people think that the mother JonBenet Ramsey, his mother. Her phone call was fake because when she called the police, she wasn't talking clearly and she wasn't making any sense.
And it seemed like she was trying to delay the police, getting there. However, when I listened to this phone call, it was very similar. She didn't call the police and the talk to dispatcher and say, hi, this is my name. This is where I live. Come help me. She says, quote, he cut my throat. He cut my throat. Who would do something like this?
Liz: [00:09:24] Well, that's like really sad, 
Emily: [00:09:25] right? She's just in such utter shock that I just thought it was really interesting that you and I had that commentary of how you should act on a nine one one call. But at the end of the day, if you're in a ton of shock, who knows what you're going to say? Yeah. It's so true.
So yeah, you can go listen to nine one, one call. It's so sad, but this dispatcher on the other end is keeping her calm. He's walking her through it and he's just trying to help her. What is his name? So, uh, his name was Richard Everett. We love him. Okay. They're talking, he finally gathers the information of what's happening and he sends the police environment to our apartment complex.
So he's staying on the phone with her. And then 15 minutes later, someone's banging on the door and she says, Oh, perfect. The police just got here. And the nine 11 operator says, no, I'm looking at my screen and they're not 
Liz: [00:10:15] there yet. Oh God. That is terrifying. 
Emily: [00:10:18] So, and you hear on the nine 11 call, she calls out and says, who is it?
And the other person says it's security. It's security. The police sent me and Richard Everett, the nine 11 dispatcher said, no, we did not contact the security guard there. I don't know why he's at your door. The security guard on the other end becomes really irritated. And he's very pushy. And he's saying, you have to let me, and you have to let me in.
So Jennifer's on the call with a nine one, one dispatcher. And she saying, can I just let him in? I just want to get out of here. I just want help. And he goes, If you do not know who's on the other side of that door. I don't care if they're saying their security do not open 
Liz: [00:10:58] it. Oh my God. I do love this guy.
Emily: [00:11:01] So she, he listens to the operator and she just sits there and she's waiting and she's bleeding out and she's confused because she doesn't know if the guy on the other end is really trying to help her. And she says, she's just waiting and it's only 15 minutes, but it felt like a whole entire lifetime, but then she hears a few different male voices on the other side of the door.
And the guy on the phone, the operator saying, the fireman just got there. You can open it now. So she crawls over the door and opens it and immediately collapses. And the last thing she remembers hearing is the security guard was injured too. Like she overheard a police officer say that the security guard was injured and she starts crying.
Cause she thinks, Oh my God, an intruder came in here and attacked TUPE 
Liz: [00:11:45] I'm just like in shock right now, listening to the story. I feel like my eyes are so wide right now. 
Emily: [00:11:49] Please start talking to the security guard. And he says I was outside. I saw the intruder jumped from her second floor window and he attacked me and then he ran it to the field.
So the police shine a light onto the field and they say, you know, there's no disruption to the greenery. There's no footprints. Your story's not really holding up. And then the police search Jennifer's room and they find a pair of underwear and knife and a security, the guard 
Liz: [00:12:17] cap. Okay. So the security guard is the one who broke in.
My God, what kind of world we live in that you can't even trust a security guard. So 
Emily: [00:12:26] they bring the security guard in for questioning. They have him take off his boots and he is wearing white socks that are covered in blood. They have him take off his shirt and he has blood all over him. And it's a mess match for Jennifer's blood.
Liz: [00:12:40] Oh man. 
Emily: [00:12:41] They arrest the security guard and they later find out that. Yes. He was the one who attacked her and then she put up a fight and locked herself in the bathroom. So his plan B was to leave, you know, quickly clean himself up and then go back pretending to be there, to help and then finish off the job.
Um, so just start wrapping up the story he's arrested and she's taking the hospital to recover. The police saw this pretty quickly. So they go to the hospital, a few of the tactics to talk to her and she says, they just walked into the room and they said, quote, girl, you put up one hell of a fight. When we got there, there was blood everywhere.
There was blood ceiling. Like you bought this map. And which I just loved that the police were so astonished that sh and like her wounds were horrendous, but she fought off this motherfucker. So the security guard, his name was Brian Wayne Gibson, and he was convicted of aggravated burglary with intent to commit sexual assault.
And he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. 
Liz: [00:13:42] Just feel like 20 is not enough, but 
Emily: [00:13:45] I agree. And also what about attempted murder? 
Liz: [00:13:47] Exactly. That's what I was going to say. Now. I have a 
Emily: [00:13:50] few like bullets. I want to go through on an end note, approximately 20 people in 15 different units woke up to her screams and not one of them.
I called nine one one. 
Liz: [00:14:01] I was going to ask if she was screaming or if, I didn't know if maybe because her throat was cut, she wasn't able to no, she was 
Emily: [00:14:07] screaming. The security guard R was with Pinkerton. Uh, so that's a security company, Pinkerton security for three years. He was removed from two separate assignments for his behavior.
And he was placed on this one as his third assignment and they just kind of put them in like, you know, you're taking the graveyard shift. This is your punishment. 
Liz: [00:14:27] He, I don't love that at all. 
Emily: [00:14:30] Also between 1991 in 1995, the security company had approximately 130 people who are security guards that were also convicted of felonies.
Why are we 
Liz: [00:14:41] allowing convicted felons to be security guards? I'm sorry. Exactly. 
Emily: [00:14:45] And so Jennifer actually found all this out and filed a lawsuit against them and she won the lawsuit and they paid her out and she used the settlement of her lawsuit to open a family law practice 
Liz: [00:14:58] firm. That's amazing. Cause she 
Emily: [00:15:00] was a lawyer.
So she, you know, she did some good with it. And Richard Everett, the phone operator. They're friends to this day and he went to her wedding. Oh my God. And if you just hear her talk about him, she says he's the most important person in our life because his intuition just saved 
Liz: [00:15:17] her life. It really did.
That's so scary. Cause she was about to open the door. I'll 
Emily: [00:15:22] have you see, you would want to open the door. If someone says they're security, like you think someone's here to help. 
Liz: [00:15:26] I'm always fascinated by the idea of being a nine one one operator. I 
Emily: [00:15:31] mean, you must get a lot of false alarms, but you also must hear some horrific 
Liz: [00:15:34] shit.
I'm definitely not calm enough to have that job. No, no, no, no. I'd be like open that door for that security guard. I'd be out here giving some pretty bad advice. So thank God for people like Richard. Well, that is 
Emily: [00:15:46] the amazing survival story of Jennifer Mori. 
Liz: [00:15:50] Incredible. And also, yes, my worst nightmare. All right, well break time.
Let's take a quick break.
I am covering a disappearance this week. Hmm Hmm. So this is a story of the disappearance of Lawrence spearer I think that's how you pronounce the last name. Okay. I did this story because one of my friends, Allie, shout out sent it to me because this girl was actually from Westchester New York, which is where Allie's from.
So she was telling me about how she remembers when it was all over the news. 
Emily: [00:16:31] I know exactly what the story is. Also shout out to Allie for being such an awesome 
Liz: [00:16:35] fan. I know she sent me a link. I think so here I am. We told you, we always will look into stories if you send them to us. Okay. So my references are Wikipedia daily, mail.com, Reddit, obviously, obviously, and indie star.com.
Okay. So a quick background, the years, 2011 and 20 year old Lauren spirit is getting ready to go out for a night with her friends. Where, so she's a student at Indiana university. So that's where she is. And she was studying for a degree in textile merchandising. So she probably wanted to go into fashion.
Okay. Girl, after my own heart, she had a boyfriend named Jesse Wolfe who also attended Indiana university. Just some, just some background. Okay. So let's just jump straight into the timeline of the night she went missing. It's June 3rd, 2011, Lauren and her friends, they were going out for a night of partying in Bloomington, which is where Indiana university is.
The pregame started really late. And I was honestly impressed because this was late for even me thinking back on my college days, the pregame started at 12:30 AM. Oh my God. Yeah. My pregame started at 8:00 PM. I know. Yeah, we stayed out late, but also the bars in Pennsylvania close it too, as we would both know, because we both went to school in Pennsylvania.
Yeah. So we couldn't even be out that late if we wanted to. Yeah. Wow. That's nuts. So at 12:30 AM Lauren left her apartment with a friend named David Rowan and the two of them headed to their other friend's apartment. Um, that friend was Jay Rosenbaum. So it was the three of them. And then a friend of Jay's named Corey Rossman.
So it's three guys and Lauren. Okay. Now I'm assuming that they had, you know, a bunch of drinks. That's what a pregame is for. Um, and there were accounts that Lauren was already visibly drunk. Yeah. That's a pregames for. So at 1:46 AM Lauren and the guys are seen entering into Kilroy's sports bar, which I can't, I just cannot fathom going out to a bar at 1:45 AM, but good for them.
She's there for a while. And then at 2:27 AM, Lauren is seen leaving the bar with Corey Rossman. So she has no shoes on at this point. And she also had left her phone inside the bar. Oh my 
Emily: [00:18:49] God. Was Corey drunk too. 
Liz: [00:18:51] Yeah. But Lauren was obviously very, very intoxicated. Yeah. Like, if you're leaving your shoes at the bar, you've had a rough night.
All right. So Corey was escorting Lauren home to her apartment complex where her friends, I don't know. It is a little odd to me that she was just out with the three guys. And I mean, totally, you can have guy friends as a girl, but it's just weird that like none of her other girlfriends are around. Yeah.
That's strange. So 2:30 AM. Lauren is seen entering Smallwood Plaza apartments, which is where she lived. But a passer-by named Zach Oaks noticed how drunk she was and he stopped her and asked if she was okay. And then it's reported that Corey responded to the guy and said, she's okay. I got it now. And that's not that weird.
No, it's not. But this guy who, I don't know if he knew Lauren or not, he responded back to Corey and said, you know, you really should take her to her room. And then I guess that annoyed Corey, because he cursed at the guy and then this Ochs person punched Corey in the face. So things escalated pretty quickly.
Wait, I'm 
Emily: [00:19:53] sorry, which one's Corey Corey's is the drunk friend. Yes. So this sober guy walking by punched the drunk 
Liz: [00:20:00] friend who was taking her home. Well, I mean, it's 2:30 AM. I don't know if he's sober. Okay. Yeah, I get what you're saying. Things escalated. Yeah. So then Corey claims that because of this punch to the face, he doesn't really remember the night.
Just something to keep in mind. Okay. So now it's 2:42 AM. Lauren and Corey are seen exiting the apartment building. What? So she never actually made it up to her apartment surveillance, video shows Lauren stumbling and then Corey helping her to her feet. And then both of them leaving the building a few minutes later, another bystander sees Lauren sitting down on a staircase outside somewhere and then falling backwards.
And she slammed her head onto the concrete and the noise was so loud that the bystander heard it and asked Lauren if she was okay. And then the woman says that Corey responded back again instead of Lauren. And he said, she's okay. I'll take care of it. What an idiot this boy is. I know, but also like he must be wasted also.
I don't know. Yeah. So then Corey and Lauren walked away and Lauren has seen a falling again and then a third time. So at that point, Corey picks her up and starts carrying her. So then they're seeing walking through an alley and towards an empty parking lot. And then Lauren's keys and purse are later found.
Along that route 2:51 AM the, to arrive at Corey's apartment. So I guess at some point they decided to instead go back to Cory's apartment instead of having Lauren go to sleep in her apartment where they already were. Okay. So that's already suspicious. Yeah. Okay. So 2:51 AM they arrive at Corey's apartment, a neighbor named Michael Beth was awake studying when he heard commotion in the hallway.
And Corey was visibly drunk at this point too. And he actually vomited outside of his apartment. So this guy, Michael ended up escorting Corey to bed. And then he tried to convince Lauren to sleep over of Corey's apartment because he was worried about her safety. Okay, because she was so drunk. She had no shoes on.
Yeah. Like just sleep it off. So that was 2:51 AM. When they arrived at Cory's apartment. The next timestamp is at three 30. I'm assuming it just took a long time for this guy, Michael, to help Corey like get in bed. But at three 30, Michael calls his neighbor, Jay, who is one of their friends that they had been with earlier.
I think they were at Jay's apartment earlier, the pregame. So Michael calls, Jay, I guess he knows that he and Lauren are friends and he says he wants him to help take care of her. He was like, this is your friend. And she needs help. Yeah. Michael says that Lauren was trying to convince him to go back to her apartment and drink with her.
And it's three 30 in the morning. This guy had been studying all night and he's like, you just need to go to sleep. Yeah. So she eventually does go to Jay's apartment and he sees a bruise under her eye and he asks her where she got it. And she says she has no idea. Then Lauren uses Jay's phone to make two phone calls.
One to her friend, David, who again, they had been with earlier and one to another male friend, which they didn't give a name. Um, neither person picked up and she didn't leave a message. Then at 4:30 AM. Jay says, this is when Lauren left his apartment and this is the last reported sighting of Lauren. He says that he saw her at the intersection of 11th street and college Avenue heading South.
And she said that she just wanted to sleep at her own apartment. Okay. Also, just to note, she was wearing black leggings, a white shirt and no shoes. So if you hours later in the morning, when people were waking up for the day, Lauren's boyfriend, Jesse texted her, but he received a text back from an employee at the bar, presumably saying that the phone had been left there before, but 
Emily: [00:23:38] didn't she call 
Liz: [00:23:39] her friends.
She called from Jay's phone. Got it. Yeah. Right. So Jesse is alarmed at this and then when he can't find her, he reports her missing later in the day. Now the investigation begins. Lauren's parents flew from New York to Indiana the next day. Obviously your child goes missing. Yeah. And then within days, multiple search parties are formed.
Thousands of volunteers searched all throughout Indiana university's campus and the surrounding area, hoping to find clues or anything about Lauren's disappearance, Indiana university actually even set up a $50,000 fund. To help with the search parties. Also a Facebook page called help find Lauren spearer was formed and quickly gained 12,000 followers.
So local state and federal law enforcement officers spend hours and hours searching for Lauren. One source says that Indiana state police deployed 192 officers to the case and they spent a collective 1300 hours searching for her. Oh my God. Yeah. So yeah. This was huge. There was thousands and thousands of people involved and they kind of come up with nothing.
Also sad. Also her story was showed on America's most wanted, which then gained national attention. One woman who didn't even know Lauren started at Twitter about the search and that account quickly gained over 29,000. 
Emily: [00:24:56] Wow. Just so many 
Liz: [00:24:57] people want to find her. Yep. And the spirit family was offering them $100,000 reward for information.
Unfortunately, after about three weeks, the Bloomington police held their last daily news briefing on the case that they had been doing daily updates. Yeah. Um, so three weeks in, they gave their last conference because they really just didn't have anything to go on and they had searched everywhere. So, I mean, Years go by and there's tips here and there that they follow up on, but nothing ever came.
I mean, no one's ever been arrested. They did have persons of interest quote unquote in the beginning, but they didn't say who any of them were. Um, but we'll get into some of those theories in a minute. Oh my God. I need to hear them. I also want to point out that in June, 2013, Lauren's parents filed a lawsuit against Corey Rossman, Michael Beth, and Jay Rosenbaum, because they were the three men that lasts all Lauren.
In their lawsuit. They claimed that these guys owed Lauren a quote duty of care, but they failed to help her get home safely. A federal judge dismissed the case because while he says he has great sympathy for the spirit of family, they really didn't have any evidence that the men were at fault for Lauren's disappearance.
Yeah. I just feel so bad for the family. Like you, you have no idea what happened. Oh, she just didn't go out that one night. Exactly. And it's scary because this could happen to anyone. I 
Emily: [00:26:23] mean, we all had those really bad nights 
Liz: [00:26:24] in college. Yeah. I mean, scares me. It could have happened to be, are you or any one of our friends?
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. 
Emily: [00:26:31] Keep going. I need to hear the Reddit theories. 
Liz: [00:26:34] All right. Let's jump right in Jay Rosenbaum told the authorities that Lauren had snorted cocaine and crushed up Klonopin tablets. Oh no. On the night she went missing. In addition to obviously consuming alcohol. Yeah, that's not good. So the most popular theory I, I would say is that Lauren overdosed or died of alcohol poisoning and her friends thought that they would get in trouble for it.
Somehow I read something that they were kind of drug dealers, her friends. I'm not sure if that's even true, but they freaked out thought they would get in trouble. So they hit her body. She also had a heart condition that would make her more susceptible to die from like alcohol consumption or drug use question 
Emily: [00:27:16] on that though.
But don't, they have the timestamps in cameras of where she was. So it doesn't seem like all three of the boys were with her and that could have happened. 
Liz: [00:27:25] So the last time she's on camera is that like two 30 in the morning before she gets back to Corey's apartment. Oh, The rest is just testimony from people.
Emily: [00:27:39] Got it. Okay. So people think something happened at Cory's 
Liz: [00:27:41] apartment? Yeah. Or apparently Jay Rosenbaum had some guests staying in his apartment. I think they're probably friends, you know, we used to visit each other at college. Yeah. So he had some people over. So one theory is that maybe the party was still going on at Jay's apartment by the time Lauren got there.
So if they had continued like drinking and doing drugs, then that would have been an opportunity for her to have like overdosed or passed away from alcohol poisoning. Yeah. And then those guys would have freaked out and they all covered it up. What I don't like about this theory is these are college kids.
They're not criminal masterminds. Like where's the 
Emily: [00:28:19] body, where is the body? And they never found it. No. 
Liz: [00:28:23] They're not sitting there sewing up a body and getting rid of it. Like, I just think that if that was what happened, someone would have found something. 
Emily: [00:28:33] So are there any theories that she was 
Liz: [00:28:36] attacked?
Yeah. So the next most popular theory I would say is that she was abducted by a stranger on her walk home. I mean, it was four 30 in the morning. She was alone and clearly intoxicated. I mean, she could barely walk earlier. Yeah. And she had no shoes on that. She's a perfect target. 
Emily: [00:28:53] I mean, I think you're right about the body thing.
A bunch of drunk college kids really can't dispose of a body. 
Liz: [00:28:59] Yeah, no way. Apparently a homeless man came forward and said that he heard a woman scream at 4:35 AM in the area where she had been walking home. Okay. I mean, it's kind of hard to verify that or use it as like any evidence, because also it's a homeless person.
Not that to say that this person was making it up, but not 
Emily: [00:29:19] the most reliable witness. Exactly. They would say in law 
Liz: [00:29:22] and order on June 15th. So 12 days after Lauren went missing, the police released an image of a white pickup truck that had passed through the area that she had been walking in twice. So they thought it, that was suspicious.
Um, but police did find the driver and they eventually cleared him. So that wasn't him either. I don't think this is what happened, but there's a theory about the boyfriend. Wow. 
Emily: [00:29:45] That came out of left 
Liz: [00:29:46] field. Right. So apparently Jesse had been watching sports with his friends at, I dunno if it was his apartment or one of their apartments, but that's what he was doing that night.
So he wasn't with her and he had a guest gone to bed at around 2:30 AM. But like, you know, you could leave. I wouldn't necessarily know if someone left my apartment and I was asleep. Yeah. So people wonder if he and Lauren had been having issues recently, because like we mentioned earlier, she did go out with three guys.
Maybe there was a little bit of jealousy involved. I don't know. But the theory is that either he found her when she was walking home and he did something or she actually walked to his apartment. Cause I guess it was only a 15 minute walk from where she was, again, it's a college kid, whereas he disposing of the body.
Emily: [00:30:29] So a few friends from Westchester who told me this story, they think that it was something to do with like the college kids and kids are lying and just not everybody's telling the truth. The 
Liz: [00:30:39] other reason that some people don't believe that theory though, is that it's been. I don't know, it was 2011. It's 2020.
It's been 10 years at this point. And not one of them has cracked. 
Emily: [00:30:51] I agree. Someone would have said something or heard something by now. Right. And the body would have been found. 
Liz: [00:30:57] I know that's what really blows my mind. Okay. So I have two theories left. One is that she was abducted and killed by this man named Daniel muscle.
What so Lauren's case was pulled back into the news of in April of 2015, because another Indiana university student named Hannah Wilson had been killed. Hannah had been abducted off the street in the early hours of the morning, probably also after being out. And she was also walking in a very similar location to where Lauren was walking.
Oh my God. So this is a hot theory for a while. Investigators were thinking it made total sense. Normally people like this have a zone that they would work in. Um, so it all kind of just like fit the bill. However, a few months after Daniel was arrested for that murder, they came out and said they looked into it.
And the two cases weren't related, we don't know that for sure. No. I mean, the police obviously did look into it, but like we'll never know they haven't, they didn't release any statements or anything with what he said or, you know, if he had an alibi or anything like that. So we don't actually know. Okay.
What's your other theory? My last theory randomly links up with my story from last week. Do you remember who I did last week? 
Emily: [00:32:16] Alaska 
Liz: [00:32:16] killer Israel keys, 
Emily: [00:32:18] to be fair. I said that I just whispered it. So I don't think anyone heard, she said they'll ask a killer. Cause I'm so taken aback. 
Liz: [00:32:25] Yeah. So remember how we talked about how he traveled around the country and committed crimes basically everywhere.
Yeah. And without a trace. So guess who was in Indiana on the day that Lauren went missing? No. Yes. Oh my God. He was actually on his way from Alaska to Maine where he killed that couple and he stopped in Indiana on the way. 
Emily: [00:32:48] You guys go listen to last episode, if you haven't already, because I, I believe 
Liz: [00:32:53] that the FBI did put this together.
And so I guess when they were investigating him or, I mean, questioning him, they showed his you'll keep a picture of Lauren. And when he saw the picture, he, I guess, got really agitated and like, just wouldn't say anything about it. So that makes me suspicious. And also he apparently told the FBI. That he committed another crime on his way to kill the couple that he killed in Maine, the couriers.
But he just never said what it was because you know how we talked about how he was always like giving them a little information, but really trying to make it more of a game. Yeah. He 
Emily: [00:33:28] didn't open up about every single one of his victims. Wow, 
Liz: [00:33:32] exactly. So, I mean, we'll never know because as we talked about last episode, Israel accused killed himself yeah.
In prison. So we'll never know for sure. I don't think, but. 
Emily: [00:33:46] I do too. I agree. The college kids doing it, it would have been cleared up by now. I just, 
Liz: [00:33:52] I just think so. And the missing body to me just seems like they couldn't have done it, but I don't know. And Israel 
Emily: [00:33:59] keys 
Liz: [00:34:00] knew how to dispose of a body. Do I think there's some things that these kids certainly did wrong in the situation.
Absolutely. But I just don't know that they. Killed her and, or covered it up. 
Emily: [00:34:09] Wow. Liz, did you plan the, I guess you didn't plan this? I didn't plan it because it was requests. So did your mind just get blown when you were? 
Liz: [00:34:17] Yeah. When I was starting to do, to be perfectly honest with you when I was starting my research, I typed in Lauren's name into Google.
And you know, when you type, start typing on Google things show up, like if you start typing, like how to, it'll be like how to. Yeah, oil and egg or like something like that. I that's something I have Googled before. So like it finishes the thought for you. Exactly. So when I typed in Lauren's name, I was like Lauren spear, spear, and Israel keys came up next to it and I was like, what the hell?
Wow. I know I was shook her poor family. So anyway, we're not sure if it was him or if it was someone else, but the point is someone knows something and I want to end on a quote from. Lauren's mom. She runs a Twitter account in Lawrence. Basically. It's like a missing persons Twitter because there's, they still haven't given up on trying to figure out what happened to their daughter.
I mean their child. Yeah. They, they have said publicly that they don't think that she's alive, which is understandable. Yeah. But they want to know what happened. She wrote on Twitter, Charlene spear, for those that know what happened to Lauren. Do you think about her? What's your life like now? Does it haunt you?
Do you think about her at night when falling asleep? What about when you're alone in the car, does your wife know? What will your kids think when they find out I'm going to cry? I know I've just, I had to include that. I just feel like it's so powerful. I hate cold cases. I know, but I love them. I hate them obviously, but you got to stop doing this to me now.
Um, but yeah, that is the story of the disappearance of Lauren spear. 
Emily: [00:35:48] You did a great job and shout out to Allie for recommending it. And then just a note to everybody message us on Instagram. We're very responsive. If you have a story you want us to cover 
Liz: [00:36:00] last week, you did one. Your friend sent this week.
I did one mindset. Keep them coming on that note. Everyone, please go follow us on Instagram so that you can DMS and Twitter 
Emily: [00:36:11] now as well. 
Liz: [00:36:12] Yes. And please rate, review, subscribe and tell your friends. All right. Bye everybody. We love you. See you next week. .