MARTINSVILLE, Ind. -- The FBI raid conducted in Martinsville Thursday is connected to the disappearance of Indiana University student Lauren Spierer, sources told Call 6 Investigates.
FBI vehicles were seen near a property in the 2900 block of Old Morgantown Road Thursday.
Sources told Call 6 Investigates that police searched the location for a possible body in connection to the Lauren Spierer case. No body was found. However, some evidence was removed from the scene. The property was released back to the owner.
Justin Wagers, who is currently in jail in Johnson County accused of stalking women and exposing himself, was living on the property prior to his arrest.
“Mr. Wagers has no knowledge regarding the disappearance of Lauren Spierer or any other missing person. The family has no further comment at this time and asks that the media respect their privacy," a statement from his attorney Chris Eskew said.
Bloomington Police released the following statement about the investigation:
On today’s date, the Bloomington Police Department was assisted by the FBI at a location in Morgan County as part of the active and ongoing investigation into the disappearance of Lauren Spierer.
No other information will be released other than this confirmation that the Bloomington Police Department was the agency involved in Morgan County as previously reported by various media outlets.
Sources tell us police and FBI raid at home near Martinsville is related to a lead on missing IU student Lauren Spierer.
— Todd Connor (@ToddConnorRTV6) January 29, 2016
Spierer was last seen in June 2011, walking toward her apartment in Bloomington after a night of partying. The petite 4’11” coed with blonde hair and blue eyes seemingly vanished without a trace.
PHOTOS: The search for Lauren Spierer
Lauren, a Greenburgh, N.Y. native, was studying fashion merchandising at Indiana University at the time of her disappearance. She had just finished her sophomore year.
Lauren’s boyfriend, Jesse Wolff, reported Lauren missing after sending her text messages and getting a reply from an employee at Kilroy’s, where she had left her phone.
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Weeks after Lauren disappeared, her New York parents were still posting flyers, vowing not to leave town until they found her.
From the very beginning, her parents believed three young men -- the last ones known to have seen Lauren alive -- knew something about her disappearance. But the three denied any wrongdoing and returned to school that follow to continue their education.
A couple of weeks turned into a couple of months, a couple of years and now more than four and a half years.
Search crews have scoured acres and acres, police even searched a landfill.
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Despite holding out hope for Lauren to come home alive, her parents eventually admitted she was probably dead.
"Perhaps it was a terrible accident that happened. We can deal with that. We can deal with whatever happened. What we can't deal with what we don't know," Charlene Spierer said.
It's been a long four and a half years for Lauren's family since she went missing, with lead after lead going nowhere. But their private investigators are still hard at work. In fact, Thursday night one of them followed a completely different lead that took him to the Marion County Jail.
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