Lauren Spierer’s parents: It’s unlikely she’s still alive

Video: Lauren Spierer’s sister: We’re doing the best we can

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   >> thanks. it has been nearly a year since 20-year-old indiana university student loren speier disappeared. she was last seen june 3rd , 2011 , after a night out with some friends. on thursday the bloomington police department said it has investigated more than 2500 tips and this is still an active case. rob and charlene speier are loren 's parents and rebecca is her older sister. good morning to all of you. good to see you.

   >> good morning.

   >> thank you for being here.

   >> thanks for having us.

   >> hard to imagine that a year has passed and no word on what happened to loren . i guess the first question is, charlene , i'll start with you, how are you guys doing? how is the family holding up?

   >> well, i think we're, you know, committed and we're driven and, you know, we just go through every day thinking about what we can do to make a difference and what we can do to try to get closer to finding loren .

   >> rebecca , this is one of the first times you've spoken out. i can only imagine it's very heart wrenching. what made you want to talk about this now?

   >> well, we've been dealing with it together every day and the year is upon us . we could have never imagined still a year later not having the answers that we so desperately want. but every day we're just trying to stay together and we're leaning on each other and just doing the best we can.

   >> rob, for those who aren't as familiar with what happened here, just remind everybody what we do know about the case. loren was out, she was a college student . she was out at a bar until about 3:00. then what do we know about what happened?

   >> there's been a lot published about the events of the evening. what we do know is that loren was with some people. she was out at a bar, was drinking at the bar, left, and went back to her apartment. for some reason never made it to her apartment. and ended up going back to someone else 's apartment. she was reportedly last seen leaving an apartment on 11th street in bloomington , indiana. so what we do know is that the people that were with her that night really did nothing to help her. and that's, you know, part of the tragedy here is that we believe that the events would have been completely different had somebody reached out, called for help, taken her to a hospital, taken some kind of action.

   >> and at a minimum you feel her friends let her down. here she had been drinking and was in no position to be walking home alone . is that how you feel, charlene ?

   >> exactly. i mean, i think that we're aware of the fact that loren was not in great shape and the idea that loren was on the floor of her apartment building and steps away from her apartment and she could have been taken home and was not is unconscionable.

   >> do you feel that those around her have been forthcoming and helpful to police in their investigation?

   >> well, look at it this way. the -- in the days after -- immediately after loren 's disappearance, the people that were with her or had some knowledge about the events of the evening did speak to police but, yet, shortly thereafter everyone lawyered up. the lines of communication became either nonexistent or severely limited and to this day many of those people, most of those people have not taken police polygraphs, which is what we've asked for from the beginning, given the fact that we don't know exactly what happened to loren . having information from people helps us narrow down the possibilities.

   >> and the police have said that this is a, quote, very active investigation. have they given you any hint, charlene , about what they're working on, where they think the leads are going?

   >> we are in constant communication with the bloomington police department but they do not share any of the specific investigative information which they have.

   >> i want to ask you a question that to be honest is hard to ask. do you have hope that she still could be found alive?

   >> you know, you always have hope but after a year i don't think it's likely.

   >> you have to be realistic. as parents, you know, you just think about yourself. you have children or you have a loved one. if they were to just disappear and be out of your life, it's ae's an extremely, indescribable position to be in. you always have that small element of hope but as time goes by of course you become more and more realistic about the possibility of her being alive and, of course, that would take a certain set of circumstances to have happened that night, so we just don't know.

   >> i know you do want answers and you certainly deserve those. thank you for coming here and sharing your story and helping us keep focused on her case.

   >> thank you.

   >> we appreciate it.

   >> there is something i can say. you know, there was a segment on preceding us about teenagers and communicating. it's critical. i can tell you that in our case either charlene or i spoke to loren every single day. we had the communication. but there is just so much that you can do. hopefully the kids make the right choices. i think it's clear that in this country under age drinking is rampant. it goes to the high school level . it goes to the college level. you go to any of these college towns and you will find under age drinking going on in these bars, including kill roys where loren was the night that she disappeared. so it's a big problem in this country and i think if other states like indiana pass this life line law which allows people who are with someone who needs help to contact police, take them to a hospital, and not to be subject to prosecution, those are the kinds of things that we need to do in addition to communicating to try to make things better.

   >> absolutely. to shine a light on those issues. rob, charlene , rebecca , thank you again for being here. if you have any information on loren 's whereabouts you are asked to contact the bloomington police department at 812-339-4477. and for more information, you can visit find loren .com.

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