Skull found in river not that of missing IU student Spierer

DISCUSS

INDIANAPOLIS – A skull found in the White River in Indianapolis is not that of an Indiana University student missing for more than a year.

Meanwhile, Bloomington police are seeking to keep weapons they confiscated from a man questioned after he was spotted watching people come and go from a bar where the student was partying the night she went missing.

WISH-TV reports the Marion County coroner’s office has determined that the skull found by a person fishing July 8 is that of a man of Asian descent. No other remains were found.

Charlene Spierer said last week that investigators were comparing the skull with the dental records of her daughter, Lauren.

Lauren Spierer, a 20-year-old apparel merchandising student from Greenburgh, N.Y., disappeared June 3, 2011.

On Friday, police said they do not believe a 56-year-old man found outside the bar where Spierer had been, is involved in the disappearance. The man, whose name was not released, was taken to a hospital for 24-hour detention and a mental evaluation, Bloomington police Capt. Joe Qualters said. He said police were told he had been released.

Police said Wednesday that the man had two loaded semi-automatic handguns in his pockets and a loaded shotgun in the trunk of his car when police spotted him.

The man was not arrested because he hadn’t committed a crime and he had a permit to carry a handgun, authorities said

However, police did confiscate the man’s weapons under a state law that was passed after Indianapolis Patrolman Timothy Laird was fatally shot by a man who murdered his mother and then walked through a city neighborhood firing a high-powered rifle.