Missing student Lauren Spierer’s parents expressed doubt in her friends and chose to sue three former college students who were the last people to have seen her alive.
Spierer, a 20-year-old sophomore at Indiana University, disappeared two years ago in Bloomington after partying with a group of friends
Her parents, Robert and Charlene Spierer, sued three men, identified as Corey Rossman, Mike Beth, and Jay Rosenbaum who are said to have seen her last, according to Fox News. The three men’s interaction with Spierer led to her “disappearance, death or injury,” attorney Jason Barclay told the network.
“Rob and Charlene Spierer authorized the filing of this lawsuit with great reluctance and only after we counseled them that they would lose certain legal rights if not exercised by the two-year anniversary of Lauren’s disappearance,” Barclay said in a statement obtained by the network. “We hope no one will misinterpret this action.”
Robert Spierer told Fox last month that he doubts that the men told the truth about what happened to his daughter or have been fully cooperative with authorities.
The suit alleges that her “abandonment in an intoxicated and disoriented state in the early morning hours of June 3, 2011 in an area known for criminal acts contributed to her disappearance, and presumed injuries and death,” according to WAVE-3 television.
“Certainly she was a very vulnerable individual,” former FBI agent Mike Harkins was quoted as saying. “Her petite size, her condition she was in would have made an easy target for someone looking to commit that type of a crime.”
The Associated Press reported that none of the men have been listed as suspects in the case. There have been numerous searches around the Indiana countryside but there has been no sign of her.
The parents believe that the three men have not been fully cooperative with investigators.
Investigators say that Spierer left her apartment with friend David Rohn before heading to Rosenbaum’s to consume alcohol, according to Fox. She later left with Rossman to a sports bar early in the morning.
Witnesses said that they confronted Rossman for not helping her back into her apartment after she was visibly inebriated later on, according to WAVE. According to Fox, there was an altercation when another man punched Rossman for not bringing her back to her room.
Rossman was last seen helping Spierer through an alley towards his apartment. Witnesses said they saw Spierer slumped on his back at one point.
He said he tried to get her to sleep on his couch but she refused and sought to go home. Later, Beth helped Spierer to go to Rosenbaum’s apartment, according to WAVE.
Rosenbaum, who said he was trying to contact friends to get Spierer home, ultimately let Spierer go home at around 4:30 a.m. Fox reported that Spierer was walking barefoot and without her cellphone.
“How they both got back to Corey’s apartment had to be a result of the initiative of Corey and certainly not Lauren, so I don’t know how bad a shape he could have been in because he was able to get both he and Lauren back to his apartment after he got hit at Smallwood,” Rob Spierer told Fox.
