<p>Dust Bin Drama? Who knows what to make of such “news”.
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<p>Investigators were looking at surveillance video Friday afternoon to determine who left the bag.</p>
<p>Today is the last day of the first summer session so I would think there would be some residents moving out. Seems like those clothes could belong to anybody.</p>
<p>[Truck</a> no longer considered in Spierer case | City & State | Indiana Daily Student](<a href=“http://idsnews.com/news/story.aspx?id=81971]Truck”>http://idsnews.com/news/story.aspx?id=81971)</p>
<p>Latest news. Leads aren’t panning out.</p>
<p>According to the press conference today, the parents are very unhappy that so few of their daughter’s friends have come forward with information. Several of the daughter’s “friends” have lawyers and are not making statements. The last one who saw the daughter alive got a lawyer almost immediately after Lauren was reported missing and also left campus immediately. Apparently, according to blogs, etc… the young lady was involved in drugs as were many of her friends.</p>
<p>[Lauren</a> Spierer search: Only one of missing IU student’s friends has called police with info, mom says: HeraldTimesOnline.com](<a href=“http://www.heraldtimesonline.com/stories/2011/06/22/news.qp-4391232.sto]Lauren”>http://www.heraldtimesonline.com/stories/2011/06/22/news.qp-4391232.sto)</p>
<p>IMO, the daughter’s “friends” who immediately got lawyers and clammed up are at the very least scumbags, more worried about themselves than helping to locate a missing girl.</p>
<p>In a case with so few leads and drunken behavior, I would have insisted that my son get a lawyer immediately. We have taught him from the time that he was in elementary school that police officers are there to help you if you have a problem, but that if they question you, you are to request a lawyer, refuse to speak without a lawyer or parent present (even in a school situation), and to never consent to a voluntary search of person including house, dorm room, vehicle, etc. It is heartbreaking that there have been no real leads, and I am so sad for her family, but I would never allow my own child to deal with cops lying in interrogation (which is a legal method) or the tactics that often result in false confessions.
As a former student at IU, I am watching this case with dread. We may never know the truth of what happened that night.</p>
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<p>REALLY??? This blows my mind. I would never ever ever have considered teaching my children this. And, heck, DH and I both are lawyers.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I think the fact that friends and acquaintances lawyered up, shut up and left town points to the fact they were involved in illegal activity such as underaged drinking and drugs. They do not want to incriminate themselves. It makes me also wonder if they were somehow involved in her disappearance, directly or I directly.</p>
<p>And the timing is unfortunate. Given that it was summer, it made it easy for everyone to leave, and not return for months.</p>
<p>camathmom, we have seen too many sketchy things happen where he was growing up (Bay Area) to give any law enforcement the option to cut corners with his rights. When the Supreme Court just ruled that they have to take age into account for Miranda, our S brought up to us that if he were the young offender, it would never come to that. </p>
<p>BTW, when he was in 7th grade, he was brought into the police station. One of his friends was late to dance class so he was running (while black). When the cops stopped him, they asked to search his backpack. My DS yelled across the street that he didn’t need to consent, so when the student chose not to, the cops decided to go after my 12 year old for disturbing the peace and interfering with a police investigation. He immediately asked for a lawyer and charges were never filed.</p>
<p>mizzbee: I totally get that the rules are different if one is black. I would do so the same and instruct my kids appropriately if we were black. But for white kids (like us and for the Bloomington young lady’s friends), I find it very troublesome that the young lady’s friend acted this way.</p>
<p>It is an unfortunate fact of life that you are not necessarily going to be awarded for stepping up and cooperating with the police. You have no idea what their main agenda is and if you are involved in some scurrilous activity underlying some main event like the Lauren Spierer disappearance, it may not be in your best interest to offer any information, especially if it doesn’t seem relevant. You just might get turned over to the Drug Enforcement department for instance and be questioned up the whazoo about every little drug activity on campus. Your name may also be released to the university, and you can be in trouble there, not to mention your reputation shot. Now if your info was helpful in the case, it is certainly worth while, but if you had no relevant info in that area, but are now involved in other questioning… well, that is a whole other story.</p>
<p>I suspect the young man who is reported to be the last one who saw LS was not the only one with her after she dropped off her injured friend and left that unit. I think he is the only one who has stepped up and, boy, is he undergoing a lot of flak. The report is that he is out of town, out of the country. He didn’t come off looking good–none of them did that night, and he was probably pretty blitzed himself, but I’ll bet he was not alone. I don’t think he and Lauren were having a tete-a-tete together. There is a cluster of apartments there, and the implication is that there were a number of kids having an early morning gathering of sorts that doesn’t sound like it was making eggs and toast.</p>
<p>My child is white. He has just learned that his rights should never be taken for granted.</p>
<p>mizzbee: If your child is white, then I respectfully disagree with your approach.</p>
<p>cptofthehouse: We are talking about a missing girl who has been missing close to three weeks now. I am sorry, but I can’t really get too upset about how a young man may be treated regarding his illegal drug activities on campus. There is a young lady who may be dead! I have no respect for the young men like this who have chosen to protect themselves over helping to find this young woman.</p>
<p>I agree. But it may be on the advice of attorneys. It may truly not be in their best interests to step forward when they have no information about Lauren. </p>
<p>And as for anyone who is directly responsible, of course they are going to lie low and just hope they remain unnoticed. Just maybe they’ll get away with this. </p>
<p>On a separate note, Camathmom, you don’t have to be a person of color to run into some bad cops that make you very, very cautious in dealing with them. I’ve had the misfortune of having to deal with some that out and out lied. Fortunately, with one, his partner refused to collaborate, and with another there was enough video information, but it caused us a lot of trouble. I do have to agree that it is best to respectfully ask for one’s attorney if being questioned about something. You don’t know what you are dealing with.</p>
<p>In this case, with a missing person, every single person who knows anything saw anything or was even in the area during that window of time should come forward, and the police should make that mass appeal. All of those strangers and acquaintances and folks who really can only search are busy helping, when the ones who might hold the answers have run away.</p>
<p>My son is white and says he and his friends get hassled by the cops in our town all the time, but especially if one of their black friends is with them. It’s very discouraging. I still tell him that they are mostly good guys, but he’s gotten very cynical about them and I can’t blame him.</p>
<p>Gently steering this back to Lauren… </p>
<p>The weekend search turned up nothing. That poor girl’s parents. You can tell they just want to find her. Not knowing is the worst. </p>
<p>Now I hope and pray something different – that one of these kids, anonymously or not, will realize the hell these poor people are going through and will help the police find Lauren. Where ever she may be.</p>
<p>I don’t think the fact that they have lawyers alone implies they are withholding information. If I had been involved in illegal activit in their positions (although obviously not in her disappearance) I would both find a lawyer and tell the police absolutely anything that could be relevant (even if my lawyer advised against it). I guess though there may be information that they have convinced themselves isn’t useful but that could subtly affect the investigation.</p>
<p>If Rosenbaum doesn’t have anything to hide then he should be willing to answer any and all police questions, and he should be out there with the other searchers trying to find this girl instead of hiding behind his lawyer.</p>
<p>Also, what was this girl doing at 4:30 getting wasted and most likely drugs when she has a heart condition? Hope they find her, but how stupid can one be?</p>
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<p>Your experience of how stupid people can be is due to be increased considerably starting a few months from now. You might want to consider withholding judgment until then.</p>
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<p>I think he was specifically instructed not to do that by the police.</p>
<p>By the way, the police could almost certainly get whatever meaningful information these guys have by offering “use immunity” – that they would not use anything a witness told them to prosecute that witness. The problem is that if one of the people they give use immunity to turns out to be the murderer, his eventual prosecution could be badly compromised. So no one will be getting even limited immunity here until the police are certain he is not involved in the disappearance/killing.</p>
<p>Again I suggest that people check out the events surrounding the death of Len Bias. Despite the fact that there was apparently evidence that he obtained drugs himself–his brand-new sports car was observed cruising a known drug area hours before his death, and the license number recorded–the friend who was with him AND WHO CALLED FOR HELP when he collapsed was prosecuted for dealing/possession, as were several other friends. The other friends had their charges dropped in exchange for testifying against the friend who called for help. All of them suffered negative consequences to their athletic careers. I’m not saying that these guys were faultless victims, but they certainly did not appear to be guilty of the death of Len Bias.</p>
<p>It appears that Lauren chose to drink, and quite possibly do coke or another drug that is dangerous for a person with a heart condition, of her own volition. It is possible that she died as a result. There is every reason for anyone who was with her if this happened to fear that the police would try to pin felony murder on them. Even if she died from some other cause, there is every reason for people who had nothing to do with that cause at all to fear that the police will prosecute them for drug or underage alcohol offenses. There is every reason to believe that the police will attempt to use such charges to blackmail them to implicate someone else. That is what the police all too frequently do.</p>
<p>The situation is terrible and my sorrow and sympathy for her family is enormous. But if MY kid had spent time with her that night–especially if he had been drinking underage, or had given her a drink, or had so much as smoked a joint and not shared it with her–although I would encourage him to share anything he could about her whereabouts, I would definitely make sure he had a lawyer before he talked to the police.</p>
<p>[Lauren</a> Spierer: Attorneys for last person said to see missing IU student say hes cooperating: HeraldTimesOnline.com](<a href=“http://www.heraldtimesonline.com/stories/2011/06/28/news.qp-3857730.sto]Lauren”>http://www.heraldtimesonline.com/stories/2011/06/28/news.qp-3857730.sto)</p>
<p>from the article in the link:</p>
<p>“Attorneys for the man who reports he was the last person to see Indiana University student Lauren Spierer before she went missing say their client has cooperated with police and passed a polygraph.”</p>
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<p>I still feel that whatever happened to her is directly related to the people she was partying with that night.</p>