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Video Of Missing New York Coed In Israel SurfacesJun 08, 2011 (WPIX-TV - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- BLOOMINGTON, Indiana -- Reports out of Bloomington, Indiana say the local bar where an underage, college student from New York spent a night drinking, before her disappearance, will be investigated by authorities. Police said they still haven't identified a suspect in her case. Video was released showing a smiling, enthusiastic Lauren Spierer, as the 20 year old from Scarsdale planted trees in Israel two months ago, along with her older sister. Spierer has been missing since last Friday morning, when she disappeared in Bloomington, after spending a night on the town with college friends. Spierer had just finished her sophomore year at Indiana University, studying merchandising and design. On the video, a beaming Spierer wears a black, baseball cap backwards, as she smiles in the Israeli sunshine and thanks friends and family who donated towards her trip, part of a "spring break" program to promote development in the Negev desert. "This project is really awesome and meaningful to us both," Spierer says on camera. "The Olive Tree is such an important symbol to Israel. We just want to thank all our friends and family who donated." Wednesday in Bloomington, Spierer's parents--who left their Westchester County home over the weekend to fly to Indiana--resumed the search for their younger daughter, who vanished from a street just three blocks from her apartment building. Overnight, police detectives used a battering ram to get into the security room at Spierer's complex, seizing computer "hard-drives" as potential evidence. Spierer had briefly returned to the building, after spending the night at Kilroy's, a local Bloomington bar, and then stopped at a friend's house. She disappeared while walking home again, barefoot. She had left her shoes, purse and cell phone at the bar. Her keys were found on the ground, on the route to her home. A police official told reporters Wednesday: "We have video of Lauren going into the building ... and coming back out." Her mother, a social worker in New York City, spoke to Indiana reporters about her daughter, once again today: "She is just as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside," Charlene Spierer remarked, "She's just a giving, loving person who would go any distance for a friend." Spierer's father, Robert--an accountant--was asked about the huge billboards and posters with his daughter's image that are plastered all over Bloomington. "Seeing the photos, of course, is hard," Robert Spierer observed, "but it's a way of getting her face into the public eye." The missing student story has gone national, and her parents want to keep it that way. "Our goal is to keep this going and going and going until we find Lauren," Charlene Spierer said. To see more of WPIX-TV, go to http://www.wpix.com/. Copyright (c) 2011, WPIX-TV, New York Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com. |