Landfill Finally Being Searched For Missing IU Student

Two months after the disappearance of IU student Lauren Spierer, a Vigo County landfill where Bloomington trash is hauled will finally be searched. The Star is reporting tonight that the owner of the Sycamore Ridge landfill south of Terre Haute has confirmed it is cooperating with the FBI in a planned search of the landfill.

There has been growing dissatisfaction with the Bloomington Police Department's handling of the case, particularly after it was recently learned that the department's earlier claim that area landfills had been searched was untrue. WTHR reported that BPD had obtained a search warrant for the landfill on June 16, two weeks after Spierer was first reported missing. The Star reports that the FBI has been discussing a search of the landfill with the owner for the past two to three weeks.

The landfill's owner, Republic Services, confirms its use of a GPS tracking system that allows it to pinpoint each load of trash dumped at the landfill, but a spokesperson for the company cautions that the search is still very difficult. "It's not CSI," Peg Mulloy told the Star. “We can identify a general area, but it all depends when you’re contacted and where you look.” Waiting two months to search the landfill no doubt makes that task of searching for a missing body all the more difficult.