Hello all, I am from the Spring City/Pottstown/Phoenixville area, I have been aware of this case for a long time. I was not born yet when it happened but I remember my mom talking about this of course years later saying, they never found that poor girl Lauren Jackson who disappeared from Park Springs. It was very close to home for my mom because my sister was about the exact same age as Lauren when this occurred. I have read thru this entire thread and first of all I must say, wow. Kudos to all of you who continue to think of Lauren to this day and especially Trackergd who has not stopped his efforts to discuss and look into this case from the ground up. Just so amazing.
I appreciate all of your theories. I on the other hand am a bit more of an optimist. I like to think that Lauren was taken by someone, maybe perhaps relatives, or friends of relatives, and was raised in a happy home. I don't know what makes me think this but my theory was somewhat solidified by Tracker's comment about the "grandparents" that were part of the search party who kept smiling. I do not think that her mother had this arranged by any means, but that these people knowing her condition and history with drug use, knew that it wouldn't be to hard to accomplish given either her carelessness or just pure naivety (the idea that Lauren would be safe and ok just outside the home, playing in the complex playground.) I couldn't quite say if the motive was to get Lauren out of a bad situation, or just selfishly motivated to have a child of their own, etc.
As much as Lauren's sister Diana wanted to insist that Lauren would never wander off with a someone, this just isn't true because as we also know, she wandered off a few weeks earlier with a group of the neighborhood girls. Perhaps whoever took her was just familiar enough to Lauren that she had no hesitation to go with them.
I believe these people were maybe staying at the Vincent motel in the days leading up, or maybe that's just where they had been parked. Maybe it just looks way less suspicious to walk her there to the car, that way no one in the neighborhood actually saw the car lingering and could identify them... Also, for people who are saying that size 7/8 is small for a male, that isn't true, that size is pretty common/average among men, especially if you imagine that these folks might be elderly.
Given the fact that Lauren did suffer from a host of medical conditions, it would remain true that she would still suffer from them, the most notable being the Hydrocephalus. I did some digging into this condition and (don't want to jump any gun) but may have found someone of interest on one of these survivor websites.. Anyway, it does not give much information about the woman where she lives now, but she looks so similar to Lauren, and has a very similar age... Someone let me know if you are interested in following up on this with me, or if I am just completely nuts.
Just a few lingering questions of mine, primarily for Tracker, who has the most info on this case...
-Tracker, can you elaborate on these search party folks any more?
-Did LE look into people who had been staying at the Vincent motel in the last few days to a week prior to her disappearance?
-Tracker have you been able to get in contact with Mickey yet?
-Not that it really matters, just out of curiosity, were the tracks directly up Park rd. to 724, and then along 724, or did they cut thru any of the yards/field/grass to get to the motel?
... anyways, look forward to hearing from you all and digging back into this case.