Book Review: College Girl, Missing

Anyone who has been in Indiana for any length of time has no doubt heard about Lauren Spierer’s disappearance. I attended Indiana University in the 1990s. I will always hold a special affinity for the campus.

The city? Not so much. Those of us who followed the case beginning in 2011 knew almost immediately the entire investigation was mishandled. Shawn Cohen’s new book, College Girl, Missing, confirms that. Cohen was a journalist at the time of Lauren’s disappearance for the newspaper in Lauren’s hometown. He has followed the case since the beginning. His new book details his efforts a decade after Lauren’s disappearance to try to solve the mystery of what happened to Lauren.

While he made a little headway, his efforts were stymied by the Bloomington Police Department (BPD), who still to this day refuse to share any information at all. That has been the department’s position since Lauren’s disappearance in 2011: a complete lack of transparency and an unwillingness to work with anyone to solve this cold case. Their motive seems obvious: they made critical missteps during their investigation that likely made it impossible to ever know what happened to Lauren.

Cohen begins his book by tracking Lauren’s whereabouts that evening: where she went, who she was with, what substances she ingested, etc. Cohen discusses the last people to see Lauren alive, the search for Lauren, and the seeming lackadaisical attitude the BPD initially took towards her disappearance.

Much of the book is a description of his recent attempts to reinterview people involved in the investigation, follow any new leads, etc. SPOILER ALERT: he really did not discover anything new, primarily because the BPD and the men who were with Lauren that night all largely refused to cooperate.

Cohen concludes his book by stating that, unless someone comes forward voluntarily with information, the mystery of what happened to Lauren Spierer will never be solved.