Police collected more evidence from the Smallwood Plaza lobby Tuesday night, hoping for more clues to 20-year-old Lauren Spierer’s disappearance.
They used a battering ram to knock down two doors and seize several computer hard drives from the security room and mail room of the apartment building after obtaining a search warrant earlier Tuesday.
Video surveillance stored on the computers might give police an idea of who entered and left the Smallwood apartment building on College Avenue, where Spierer lives, the night she went missing. It is unclear why officers used force to enter the security room or why a key wasn’t available.
Police still believe Spierer never returned to her apartment early Friday morning after a night out with friends.
Parents of the missing IU student updated the community on the hunt for her late Tuesday morning, saying the search parties will continue.
Bloomington police Lt. Bill Parker said at a press briefing that police suspect foul play and have pieced together much of Spierer’s actions the evening before she was reported missing, using reports of friends and surveillance video to confirm she was at Kilroy’s Sports Bar on North Walnut Street.
From there, at about 2:30 a.m., Spierer and a male friend went to the Smallwood apartment complex on North College Avenue, where she lives.
She and the friend then walked north a few blocks to another apartment complex at 11th and Morton streets, where the friend lives.
Spierer later visited another friend in that same building and, at about 4:30 a.m., decided she would go back to her apartment. The friend watched her walk to the corner of 11th and College and, Parker said, “she’s never been seen since.”
Parker said Spierer, an Indiana University student, left her cellphone and her shoes at the bar, which has a sandy area on the patio. Police also found keys and a small purse identified as hers along the Morton Street route she generally used to get from her apartment to the friend’s apartment, but Parker said police believe those items were left there on the way to the friend’s apartment.