Corey Rossman, Jesse Wolff, and the Lauren Spierer Case

The Lauren Spierer case is the unsolved 2011 disappearance of a 20-year-old Indiana University student who was last seen walking near the corner of 11th Street and College Avenue in Bloomington, Indiana, at around 4:30 a.m. on June 3, 2011, after a night out with a group of male friends that ended at an off-campus townhome complex. Fifteen years later, her remains have never been found, no one has been criminally charged, and a civil lawsuit her parents filed against three of the men who were with her that night was dismissed. The men most closely scrutinized include Corey Rossman, Jay Rosenbaum, and Mike Beth; her boyfriend, Jesse Wolff, was not with her that night.

The Last Known Hours

Spierer, from Greenburgh, New York, was finishing her freshman year at IU. On the evening of June 2, 2011, she used a fake ID to enter Kilroy’s Sports Bar on North Walnut Street in downtown Bloomington, where she drank with friends, including Corey Rossman.¹

At around 2:30 a.m. on June 3, Spierer and Rossman left Kilroy’s together. Rossman later said he was punched during an altercation outside. Surveillance cameras captured the two walking together at 2:48 a.m.² They went to Smallwood Plaza, where Spierer lived, and then to the 5 North Townhomes nearby, where Rossman lived with his roommate, Mike Beth.³

By the time they arrived, Spierer was in bad shape. Beth’s attorney later said Beth was home writing papers. Beth walked Spierer two doors down to the townhome of Jay Rosenbaum, another 5 North resident.⁴ David Bleznak, a friend visiting Rosenbaum from Michigan, was also at the townhome but reportedly asleep.⁵

Rosenbaum told investigators Spierer was in “bad shape” and that he urged her to sleep on his couch, but she refused and insisted on leaving. He said he walked her to the door and, at approximately 4:30 a.m., saw her walking east on 11th Street toward College Avenue. He said he yelled for her to text him when she got home. She had left her phone and shoes behind at some point during the night.⁶ Rosenbaum also mentioned he may have seen a “dark shadowy figure” intersect with Spierer at the corner, though he said he was “not sure” and “not positive.”⁴

That corner sighting is the last known moment anyone reported seeing her alive. She never made it back to Smallwood Plaza, a short walk away.

The Men Who Were With Her That Night

Bloomington police have never publicly named suspects. But five young men associated with her final hours quickly became the focus of scrutiny: Corey Rossman, Jay Rosenbaum, Mike Beth, Jesse Wolff, and David Rohn, an IU student who knew Spierer through Smallwood Plaza. Each retained his own attorney early in the investigation.⁷

Investigators expressed frustration with the level of cooperation. Bloomington Police Captain Joe Qualters called the behavior of Spierer’s friends “perplexing,” “curious,” and “disturbing.”⁸ Mike Ciravolo, a private investigator with the Beau Dietl firm hired by the family, said the students “lawyered up quickly” and put up a “legal veil.”⁴

Corey Rossman

Rossman was the last person seen with Spierer on surveillance video. His attorney said in 2011 that “his memory stops when they were leaving Kilroy’s and resumes when he wakes up,” which Rossman attributed to being punched. He has denied any involvement in her disappearance.⁹ Police took a DNA sample from him but never charged him.⁶

Jay Rosenbaum and Mike Beth

Both Rosenbaum and Beth met with the family’s private investigators. Rosenbaum’s attorneys said he passed a polygraph. Beth reportedly provided DNA samples and also passed a polygraph.¹⁰

Jesse Wolff

Wolff, Spierer’s boyfriend, was not with her that night. According to his father, Alan Wolff, Jesse was home watching a Knicks playoff game and had been texting with Spierer, who told him she was home and going to sleep. Jesse texted back, “if you wake up, call me and we’ll talk,” and went to bed.¹¹ He reported her missing to Bloomington police at 4:27 p.m. on June 3, about 12 hours after she was last seen.¹⁰ His mother, Nadine Wolff, said Jesse took a privately administered polygraph about two weeks after Spierer vanished, conducted by a retired FBI agent, and said the results “confirmed his innocence.” Jesse refused a polygraph administered by the Bloomington police; his mother said she didn’t believe the department was “adept at anything except giving kids drinking tickets.”¹²

David Rohn

Rohn had been out with Spierer earlier that evening but returned to Smallwood Plaza around 12:30 a.m. He received an unexplained phone call at 4:15 a.m. that he did not answer. One unconfirmed account, attributed to Spierer’s roommate Hadar Tamir, suggested Spierer herself had placed the call using Rosenbaum’s phone because she couldn’t find her own.¹³ Rohn’s attorney confirmed the call but wouldn’t say who placed it. Rohn met with the family’s investigators for more than two hours and passed an FBI-administered polygraph showing “no deception.”¹⁰

None of these men has been formally charged with any crime related to Spierer’s disappearance, and police have not publicly cleared any of them.

What Investigators Searched and What They Found

The search began almost immediately. Friends, IU students, and community members walked alleys and posted flyers in the days after she vanished. Her parents searched woods near Lake Monroe after a tip suggested a body may have been dumped there.¹⁴

In August 2011, Bloomington police, the FBI, and IU police launched a major search of the Sycamore Ridge Landfill near Terre Haute in Pimento, Indiana, which accepted waste from the Bloomington area. Investigators secured a specific 70-by-120-by-20-foot section of waste that Republic Services confirmed had been collected from Bloomington around the dates of Spierer’s disappearance.¹⁵ Roughly 20 to 30 officers per day worked 12-hour shifts sifting debris with long-tined rakes. The 10-day operation ended without any trace of Spierer.¹⁶

Investigators and volunteers also searched abandoned quarries, dense forests, and other rural areas around Bloomington.⁶ In July 2025, police alerted the family that bones had been found near Bloomington; forensic analysis determined the remains were not Lauren’s. In 2012, authorities also examined remains of a female found in New Albany, Indiana, in connection with serial killer William Clyde Gibson, but those too were confirmed not to be Spierer’s.²

Theories Under Investigation

One thread has centered on Spierer’s health. Her parents publicly disclosed that she suffered from Long QT syndrome, a rare heart condition that can cause dangerous irregular heartbeats, particularly under physical stress or the influence of certain substances. Police found a small amount of cocaine in her room after she disappeared.⁶ On June 13, 2011, a Bloomington Police spokesman confirmed authorities had heard information suggesting Spierer may have died from a drug overdose and that someone panicked and disposed of her body. Her father acknowledged at the time that her heart condition made her “certainly susceptible to something bad happening in the event she was given some kind of drug.”¹³

A separate lead involved Corey Hamersley, an inmate serving 24 years for shooting at police and into a house while high on drugs. A fellow prisoner told the Spierer family that Hamersley claimed to know the men involved and alleged that Spierer had been drinking and taking ecstasy with a group of students, overdosed, and that the men “scared and disposed of her body” in the Ohio River.¹⁷ Former FBI agent Brad Garrett and investigator Bill Benjamin interviewed Hamersley in prison for an ABC 20/20 segment. Hamersley denied any involvement: “Absolutely not. I’ve never met this person before in my life.” Garrett said he believed Hamersley was lying and intended to keep investigating.¹⁸ The lead never produced actionable results.

Other tips investigated over the years included allegations involving ex-convict James McClish, who was in prison for assaulting his ex-wife at the time of the disappearance, and a former motorcycle gang member named Robert Strange. Both leads were investigated and discounted.⁶

The Family’s Civil Lawsuit

In 2013, Robert and Charlene Spierer filed a civil lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana against three of the men who were with their daughter that night: Corey Rossman, Jay Rosenbaum, and Mike Beth. The suit alleged common law negligence for failing to care for an incapacitated person and violations of Indiana’s Dram Shop Act for furnishing alcohol to someone known to be visibly intoxicated.¹⁹ Jesse Wolff and David Rohn were not named as defendants.

Judge Tanya Walton Pratt dismissed all claims against Beth in December 2013 and dismissed the negligence claims against Rossman and Rosenbaum, finding that social peers do not owe each other a legal duty of care under Indiana law and that social hosts have no obligation to control an intoxicated person.²⁰ The court later granted summary judgment for Rossman and Rosenbaum on the remaining Dram Shop claims, ruling the Spierers could not prove the defendants were the “proximate cause” of any verifiable injury. Disappearance, by itself, was not legally deemed an injury, and the plaintiffs’ theory relied on speculation about what happened after Spierer left Rosenbaum’s apartment.²¹

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed on August 14, 2015. The panel held the defendants, as “social peers,” owed Spierer no special duty, and found it “pure speculation whether any injury was caused by the defendants’ actions or the criminal intervention of a third party.”²²

Kilroy’s Sports Bar Was Cited

Separately, Indiana State Excise Police cited Kilroy’s for allowing a minor to loiter on the premises and furnishing alcoholic beverages to a minor, based on discrepancies in the identification Spierer used to enter. The bar had been cited in 2006, 2007, and 2008 for selling alcohol to minors and serving an already intoxicated patron.²³ The violations were forwarded to the Indiana Alcohol and Tobacco Commission, with potential penalties including fines, permit suspension, or permit revocation.²⁴

What Later Reporting Has Added

In 2024, journalist Shawn Cohen published College Girl, Missing: The True Story of How a Young Woman Disappeared in Plain Sight, a New York Times bestseller. Cohen obtained access to the family’s private investigator files and interviewed Rossman and Rosenbaum. He reported finding “a lot of inconsistencies” in the accounts of the friends and witnesses from that night.²⁵

Among Cohen’s findings: Rossman made a phone call around 3:00 a.m., a time when, according to Cohen’s reporting, Spierer was struggling to stand and had to be carried. Cohen confronted the person Rossman called; both denied any memory of the call. Rosenbaum, who had not previously spoken to the media, sat for an interview with Cohen, maintained his innocence, and suggested someone else must have taken Spierer.²⁵

Cohen has said the central question remains whether Spierer actually left the townhouse complex at all or died there. He has advanced the theory that Spierer, whose Long QT syndrome made her vulnerable to cardiac events triggered by stress, drugs, or a traumatic fall, may have died at the townhome and that one or more of the people present panicked and disposed of her body, possibly by placing it in a dumpster that was subsequently hauled to a transfer station and then to the Terre Haute landfill.²⁶ Because Rossman claimed a memory lapse and Bleznak was reportedly asleep, Cohen wrote, Rosenbaum and Beth became “the exclusive narrators” of what happened during Spierer’s final known moments.²⁷

Cohen’s book also criticized the original police investigation, alleging authorities “didn’t really go at the boys, didn’t interrogate the boys” aggressively enough.²⁸ Parents of one of the young men associated with the case recorded a video of themselves burning a copy of the book.²⁶

Where the Case Stands Now

The Bloomington Police Department maintains the Spierer case is not cold. As of June 2026, the department characterized the investigation as “very active,” noting it had generated 980 supplemental reports over the years. In the 12 months leading up to the 15th anniversary, police investigated 23 new tips, resulting in multiple interviews. By 2021, the department had received more than 36,000 total tips, with 1,100 categorized as actionable, and had executed at least 10 search warrants in the preceding three to four years. Police continue to work with the FBI and have obtained numerous court orders over the life of the case.⁹²⁸

The Spierer family has sustained a public advocacy campaign for the entire 15 years, maintaining the website findlauren.com along with a Facebook page and social media accounts dedicated to keeping Lauren’s story visible and soliciting tips. In a statement marking the 15th anniversary in June 2026, the family wrote: “We will never stop searching for answers as long as we live and breathe.”²⁹ Charlene Spierer said in 2025: “The not knowing what happened on June 3, the not knowing where Lauren’s remains are, the lack of any kind of closure is devastating, exhausting, endless.”²⁸

Anyone with information can contact the Bloomington Police Department at 812-339-4477 or Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana at 317-262-8477.

1
Herald-Times Online. Kilroy’s Sports Bar Under Investigation for Serving IU Student Lauren Spierer on Night She Went Missing
2
WAVE 3 News. 14 Years Later, Lauren Spierer’s Loved Ones Still Hold Hopes of Finding Truth
3
Herald-Times Online. IU Student Who Was With Spierer Before Disappearance Settles Unrelated Alcohol Case
4
Fox 59. 10 Years Since Lauren Spierer Disappearance
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Fox 59. Author Shines New Light on Lauren Spierer’s Disappearance
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ABC News. Lauren Spierer Case: Years After She Vanished, Still Hope
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The Herald-Times. Key Players in the Spierer Case: Where Are They Now
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ABC News. Person of Interest in Missing Lauren Spierer Case Denies Lack of Cooperation
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WRTV. 15 Years Later, IU Student Lauren Spierer’s Case Still Haunts Bloomington
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Herald-Times Online. Who’s Who in the Lauren Spierer Case: Then and Now
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USA Today. Missing Student’s Boyfriend, Family Fume
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CBS News. Lauren Spierer Update: Boyfriend of Missing Ind. College Student Took Private Polygraph
13
Indianapolis Monthly. The Lauren Spierer Mystery Unraveled
14
Fox 59. Today Marks 15 Years Since Lauren Spierer Disappeared
15
The Herald-Times. Lauren Spierer Search: Landfill Search Started
16
WAVE 3 News. Landfill Search Ended for Evidence in Lauren Spierer Case
17
FindLaw. Hamersley v. Indiana Department of Correction
18
Herald Bulletin. Inmate Can’t Sue Over Spierer Interview
19
The Indiana Lawyer. 7th Circuit Won’t Reinstate Lauren Spierer Family’s Lawsuit
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GovInfo. Spierer v. Rossman, Entry on Motions to Dismiss
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FindLaw. Spierer v. Rossman
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Justia. Spierer v. Rossman, No. 14-3171
23
Herald-Times Online. Kilroy’s Sports Bar Under Investigation for Serving IU Student Lauren Spierer
24
State of Indiana. Excise Police Cite Kilroy’s Sports Bar in Connection With Lauren Spierer Case
25
WDRB. New Book About Missing IU Student Lauren Spierer Reveals New Evidence
26
Indianapolis Monthly. Revisiting the Disappearance of Lauren Spierer 15 Years Later
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Yahoo News. Lauren Spierer: What Happened to Missing College Student
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WTHR. Tuesday Marks 14 Years Since Disappearance of IU Student Lauren Spierer
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WFYI. 15 Years After Lauren Spierer’s Disappearance, Tips to Police Continue