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Spierer's parents concerned message isn't heeded

Robert Spierer has spent almost every waking hour since his daughter Lauren disappeared either searching for her or telling others to make wise choices.
Lauren Spierer has been missing since June 3.

BLOOMINGTON - The parents of a missing IU student are expressing some concern that other young college women may not be getting the message about safety.

Nearly three months after Lauren Spierer disappeared - and with no break in the case - her parents decided it was time to see what happens on the streets of Bloomington in the middle of the night.

Robert Spierer has spent almost every waking hour since his daughter Lauren disappeared either searching for her or telling others to make wise choices.

"We saw people walking, this was between 2:45 a.m. and 4 a.m., we saw people walking, many of them were inebriated, some were walking by themselves," Spierer said.

It appears not everyone is getting the message.

"There were certainly a lot of drunk people walking around and we are talking about areas where the streets are not very bright and there were not a lot of people around and this tended to be during a period of time when the bars let out, sometime shortly after 3:00," Spierer said.

Lauren Spierer was last seen early in the morning of June 3, just a few blocks from the Indiana University campus, the very area her parents watched people walk around alone in the middle of night.

"I thought it was odd that people...that our message had not registered with people," Spierer said.

The fall semester has started this week and campus and city is packed with students. Lauren's father has a new poster, a handout with a poignant message.

"You can not walk by and expect somebody else to do the right thing. You have to take it upon yourself to do the right thing and that is the message we want people to hear, understand, absorb and incorporate into their behavior," Spierer said.

The message has not fallen completely on deaf ears. Lauren's parents have been told by the university and police that behavior by some students is changing, but it still has a ways to go.

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