It was the summer of 2011 when Lauren Spierer went missing in Bloomington, Indiana. The 20-year-old Indiana University student disappeared without a trace after partying on the night of June 3. The last images of her leaving her Smallwood Plaza apartment wearing black leggings and a white t-shirt and carrying a jacket are forever burned into my brain and the story made national news.

I was still living in Bloomington at the time and had graduated from IU with my masters the May before, but like many others, struggled to find a fulltime job post graduation. I had just been hired at my current employer, but my lease wasn’t up on my B-town apartment until mid-June, so I was commuting back and forth for a few weeks until I could get everything moved and finally close the chapter on my time at IU.

When Lauren went missing, it sent shock waves through the town and I experienced it first hand. I vividly remember the billboards that went up on 37 for years after she disappeared and in truth, it freaked me out a bit because there were many times I waited for a bus alone, walked through downtown Bloomington without another soul around or walked home from class by myself. It could have been me.

Now, 13 years later, the reporter who covered the case extensively, has written a book about the events that unfolded and where things stand with the Lauren Spierer case.

“College Girl, Missing” by Shawn Cohen is an easy read and very clearly outlines all the people who were involved with Lauren Spierer the night she disappeared. A lot of the details still don’t quite make sense based on the changing stories of the guys who were with her and may or may not have had something to do with her disappearance.

Another positive to this book is that there are some new details we haven’t heard before – will it help solve the case? That’s unknown, but the fact that Cohen is a very well established writer and has the blessing of Lauren’s family to share this story, gives the book credibility that many other true crime books don’t have.

Cohen was also able to get in touch with both Corey Rossman and Jay Rosenbaum who were with Lauren that night. Their recollections and stumbling memories add some depth and new information to this story and caused me to wonder if they really did harm her, how are they all keeping quiet about it for so long?

Did the police bungle the investigation or was there really not that much evidence to go on? The New York private investigators certainly seemed to think Bloomington PD had no clue how to handle the case and I learned they didn’t even interview some people she’d had contact with that night.

One thing Cohen didn’t cover – the raid in Martinsville and Trafalgar a few years ago. At least if it was in the book, I somehow missed it and that was my oversight! Not much is known about why the raid happened and records are sealed, so we may never know. But I was always curious about that connection, especially since it happened a number of years after Lauren disappeared.

In case you’re wondering, I think Lauren probably never left the apartment and accidentally overdosed. The guys, also intoxicated, panicked and decided to either throw her in the construction site nearby or dumped her body elsewhere. Other theories about kidnapping and serial killers seem too far fetched.

Lauren’s family still hopes for a breakthrough someday and maintains the Find Lauren web site.

True crime isn’t usually my go-to genre, but because of how close this story hit to me personally, I knew I had to pick this one up. I read the book all in the same day and while it didn’t solve anything, I hope that for the sake of Lauren’s family, it might prompt those who know what happened to finally come forward to give them some closure.

4/5 stars