On June 3rd, 2011 Indiana University Junior Lauren Spierer went missing and her parents have been relentless in pursuing every avenue they can to find their daughter.
One of these items is the Missing Person poster you see above and recently Lauren’s mother discovered a letter about this poster that hurt her deeply. Charlene Spierer revealed this information in the open letter, “I never expected to see October without Lauren.” Here is what the letter stated that she found in a P.O. Box that has been set up for folks to send in information they may have on the disappearance of Lauren.
“We are sorry about your missing daughter. But don’t you think it’s time to do the right thing by Bloomington and stop littering our town with your posters? You have had a lot of supporters but now you are offending a good many of us.”
Yeah that infuriates me too. Charlene was thoughtful in her response actually going as far to apologize for any inconvenience that her search may have imposed on the citizens of Bloomington. Here is a video compiled in dedication to Lauren:
Here’s a portion of Charlene Spierer’s response:
To the anonymous writer of the letter directed at me, if your goal was to hurt me, you were successful. Making me feel worse than I already do for imposing on Bloomington. Believe me, I wish we had never had to hang one single poster for our missing child. The truth of the matter is, Lauren did disappear in Bloomington, Indiana. I apologize for our intrusion. I hope you never have to hang a poster for your missing child, but believe me; I will be alongside you if you should ever find yourself in my place. Rest assured, Lauren’s posters have been seen in many places outside of Bloomington. We’ve been told Lauren’s Missing posters have been seen across the country on cars and trucks, reminding anyone who happens to notice that a 20 year old girl is missing. A girl who could be you. A girl who could be your child, your friend, your daughter. Thank goodness for that. We have no plans to give up our search for Lauren.
I have a daughter of my own and I can guarantee you that Charlene has handled this much better than I would. In the end, however, she’s used this “anonymous” ignorance to help for the search of Lauren. If you want to help in any way or would just like to send support to Lauren’s family you can visit an official site set up to help locate her here.
I hope that my daughter grows to be the type of caring person Lauren and her mother are and is strong enough to handle the “anonymous” detractors of the world.
