Fashion Student Lauren Spierer Missing From Indiana University Since Friday
June 6, 2011 — -- Search parties fanned out today looking for an Indiana Univesity student with a dangerous heart condition who has been missing for four days.
Lauren Spierer is a pint-sized student who weighs less than 100 pounds and is 4-foot-11 and had just completed her sophomore year at the school's Bloomington campus.
She was last seen at about 4:30 a.m. on Friday morning walking to her apartment. The Indiana Daily Student reports that Spierer was at Kilroy's Sports Bar Thursday night and then at a friend's party. She was last seen at the intersection of 11th Street and College Avenue. Surveillance footage from her apartment at Smallwood Plaza shows that she never came home.
Her keys were found a block away from where she was last seen, but there have been no other traces of the missing student.
"Lauren is an amazing person and friend. She's artsy, fun, and different," says Becca Lefkowitz, 19, Lauren's best friend since seventh grade. "I can't imagine anyone doing any harm to her."
According to Lefkowitz, Spierer suffers from a condition called Long QT Syndrome, which is a heart rhythm disorder for which she sometimes needs medication. This disorder can cause uncontrollable and dangerous arrhythmias.
Spierer is an apparel and merchandising major and has interned with Anthropologie in New York. She planned to continue there after completing a summer course in Indiana.
Lefkowitz spoke to Spierer's mother today and said the family is "in complete shock" and wanting to wake up from this "nightmare."
Spierer is from Edgemont, N.Y., where her parents Robert and Charlene Spierer still live. They arrived in Bloomington on Saturday and her sister and uncle are on their way there today to join the search.
Friends and supporters have taken to social networking to get the word out. A Facebook page created for her has over 4,000 members, with messages like "Keep the momentum going strong!" and "I am praying every second for you all."
Spierer's mom has used the page to ask people to call in any tips to the Bloomington Police Department, "no matter how insignificant you may think it is."
A Twitter page created @NewsOnLaurenS has over 2,000 followers and continues to grow.
Blair Wallach, 20, has been Spierer's roommate at Indiana University for the past two years and they have been friends since attending camp together at the age of 9.
At home in New Jersey for the summer, Wallach says, "I just hope they find her. She's my best friend and we just need to know that she's okay. We're hoping a miracle happens."
Spierer was last seen wearing long, back stretch pants, a white shirt, and no shoes. A website in Indiana has been set up to organize volunteers and the family is asking that any tip be reported to the Bloomington Police Department at (812) 339-4477.
