IN - Lauren Spierer, 20, Bloomington, 03 June 2011 #27

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cluciano63 said:
Oh her poor parents and sister...I can't stop thinking about them, waits like this must be torture. Why should it take so long? It is a month now; almost anything can be accomplished in that time these days. They could have checked the dental records within 2 days or so, and sent for DNA by the second week in July. I am hoping they did, and not just this past week. I am sure the Spierer family would even have paid any charges to get it expedited. Frustrating...
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If it is her I wonder what happens behind the scenes. For example, does the family file legal paperwork as for a civil suit right away? Are detectives sent to observe the boys' in the days following the news? Anything like that...if you know based on other cases, thank you.
 
Does anyone know: What is the relationship with this case or any of the families and the UK? That is quite an extensive article in the Daily News.

I know news articles are published in the European version of the WSJ, but they are brief, and last summer the Missing poster was published in it as well.
 
Jupiter812 said:
Does anyone know: What is the relationship with this case or any of the families and the UK? That is quite an extensive article in the Daily News.

I know news articles are published in the European version of the WSJ, but they are brief, and last summer the Missing poster was published in it as well.
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I wondered about that also. I have several friends in the UK so I think I'll ask them how common or uncommon it is to have that kind of detailed news on an American missing person. I'll post any relevant answers I get if any.
 
I searched on the Daily News site for Mickey Shunick and there are several in-depth articles about that case. I know it is an int'l newspaper read around the world, but the length of the articles surprise me. And FWIW, 9 comments to the article about Lauren seems like a lot.
 
I don't think this is going to have any tie-in with LS, but I do hope it brings closure to someone out there looking for answers.

When people are describing the skull as an adult's without any analysis, does anyone know what they are basing that on? Are they merely differentiating it from an infant/child, and if so, is size the determining factor?

Here's another picture of the location (from January) taken from an article related to the homeless, who clearly had a presence under the Raymond Street bridge: picture.
 
cluciano63 said:
Oh her poor parents and sister...I can't stop thinking about them, waits like this must be torture. Why should it take so long? It is a month now; almost anything can be accomplished in that time these days. They could have checked the dental records within 2 days or so, and sent for DNA by the second week in July. I am hoping they did, and not just this past week. I am sure the Spierer family would even have paid any charges to get it expedited. Frustrating...
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The actual isolation of DNA and molecular analysis can be done within a couple of days. So, it should have been out within a couple of weeks at most. So, it is hard to understand why it takes that long. It does not make sense. On the other hand, it is possible that if they have a match, the police dont want to release that information yet. Maybe they are looking for additional clues in that area.
 
British said:
The actual isolation of DNA and molecular analysis can be done within a couple of days. So, it should have been out within a couple of weeks at most. So, it is hard to understand why it takes that long. It does not make sense. On the other hand, it is possible that if they have a match, the police dont want to release that information yet. Maybe they are looking for additional clues in that area.
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In cases profiled on the ID Network it seems there is usually a backlog of cases in the laboratory.
 
British said:
Hair DNA (mitochondrial DNA) is not as reliable I think. The fact that they are extracting a tooth for the skull and sending it for further analysis, strongly suggests that it is LS in my opinion. Why? Because it is likely that they are sending it for DNA analysis to confirm it belonged to LS. If the preliminary review of her dental records was not a match, there would be no reason to go to the next step (tooth extraction and DNA analysis). To me it sounds very likely that this is LS.

Of course, I may be very wrong.
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According to this Marion County DNA document, DNA can be gathered from a plucked hair which has the root sheath present.

http://www.indy.gov/eGov/County/FSA/Documents/DNA Analysis.pdf
 
I don't think they would keep results back if they know who the person is; certainly not from her family.
 
Do you guys think they might know it's her and have put this story out about the tooth to observe the POIs behavior?
 
Mergatroid said:
Do you guys think they might know it's her and have put this story out about the tooth to observe the POIs behavior?
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I think it's possible they may be using this skull to try to flush someone out regardless of who it belongs to or if they already know whose it is.
 
Possibilty of someone putting a decapatation in a plastic bag and tossing off bridge in the area. Dont know about the direction of flow or currents in the white river but would imagine that the hair could stay in the bag and seperated from the skull , thru break down of skin tissue.s
 
British said:
Yes, from hair they can get mitochondrial DNA, but is more difficult to work with. I still believe that it has been far too long and should have had results by now.
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If hair still has its root they can get nuclear DNA.
 
jjenny said:
If hair still has its root they can get nuclear DNA.
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This is interesting too:

"Hairs that have been forcibly removed from the scalp tend to have tissue attached to the root that contains nuclear DNA. However, shed hairs do not have the necessary root tissue, and therefore only mtDNA is present."

A "clump of hair" as described by the reporter might be hair that has been forcibly removed.

Source: http://www.patc.com/weeklyarticles/forensicDNA.shtml
 
Maybe they are matching the DNA from the hair to the tooth? To make sure it is the same person?
 
It might be better to use Clearwater Parkway on the other side of the White River.
Go down by the tennis court and no one would see you at 5AM. The current flows SW though Indianapolis towards Raymond Street.

It would have been easy to determine if this skull was Lauren by now. But, I hear the crime lab has a 1.5 year backup. They are rushing this. Publicity helped.
 
I am very confused by what is going on here. They claim the skull had intact teeth. There is no need to remove a tooth for dental comparison. All they would need is to take an x-ray of the skull's teeth and compare those to known x-rays for Lauren's (or any other missing persons if Lauren is not a match). And it shouldn't take long at all if the skulls has intact teeth (which is what was reported). I presume Lauren had been to a dentist and taken an x-ray? So what in the world is going on?

"At the scene of the crime, odontologists collect the skull or remaining teeth, which are taken back to the forensic laboratory for the postmortem dental investigation. X-rays are taken and if the jaw is completely intact and the dental records used to compare are recent, the job of proving a match is a relatively simple one. Dentists mark on a chart the position of missing teeth, crowns, bridges, fillings, caps, root canals and various other treatments during a patient's routine check-up. The task of identifying a victim is made more difficult when the dentist records and x-rays are out of date or when the skull is severely damaged and has parts missing."
http://library.thinkquest.org/04oct/00206/pti_dental_matching.htm
 
"Deputy coroner Alfarena Ballew told the paper last week that a tooth would be cross-referenced with Spierer’s dental records. Willis said the office has since decided that subsequent DNA testing of the tooth is necessary to prove a connection."

Is this saying that after they compared the dental records, the senior deputy coroner decided they needed further proof? I think the use of 'subsequent' implies that.
If that's the case, one would think they wouldn't need more evidence if it clearly was not a match, right?
 
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