Missing Indiana Student's Mom Pens Heartbreaking Post: 'Too Many New Years Have Come and Gone'

The Indiana University student, 20, vanished more than six years ago after a night of partying with friends, and her disappearance remains unsolved

Lauren Spierer‘s mother has again taken to social media to mourn the ongoing mystery surrounding the intelligent, vivacious 20-year-old Indiana University student who went missing in 2011, with a message that says “hoping 2018 is the year for truth.”

“Too many New Years have come and gone since Lauren’s disappearance — 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and now 2018,” Charlene Spierer wrote on the family’s official Facebook page. “This time of the year is without a doubt one of the most difficult. Holidays and Lauren’s birthday, back to back. We, Rob, Rebecca and I all navigate the days in our own ways but rest assured Lauren is with us every passing moment.”

Lauren, from Edgemont, New York, vanished in the early morning hours of June 3, 2011, in Bloomington, Indiana, after a night of partying with friends who failed to intervene as her condition worsened during a night of drinking. She was last seen leaving a friend’s off-campus apartment around 4:30 a.m. to walk home, and then she disappeared.

The case remains open, with authorities chasing various threads that have included “possible connections to a number of criminal suspects,” according to a 2016 statement from police.

Official Lauren Spierer Updates from Her Family/Facebook

Other Female Student Murdered in 2015 After Leaving Same Bar

Last November, following the conviction of Daniel Messel for the November 2015 murder of another Indiana University student, Hannah Wilson, prosecutor Ted Adams voiced his opinion that the two cases could be related. Messel appealed his conviction — the appeal was rejected — and has never been charged in the Spierer case.

The body of Wilson, 22, was found in April 2015 after she was last seen leaving the same downtown Bloomington sports bar that Spierer had visited the night she disappeared. Despite the parallels, Spierer’s parents Charlene and Robert were told by members of law enforcement that there was no connection.

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“I have been consistent with my belief regarding Daniel Messel’s possible involvement with Lauren Spierer’s disappearance,” Adams, the Brown County prosecutor, said in his statement last fall. “I believe that, in my personal opinion, her disappearance is consistent with Daniel Messel’s modus operandi.”

“I am not a part of the Lauren Spierer investigation,” Adams said. “I am sure there are other theories and persons of interest. I additionally readily admit that I have absolute tunnel vision regarding Daniel Messel due to learning about him during my 16 months of trial preparation for Hannah Wilson’s murder. I believe he absolutely could be responsible for Lauren Spierer’s disappearance.”

He added: “My opinion without any real evidence remains exactly what it is: an opinion. It should not be valued as anything more than the opinion of a simple prosecuting attorney. I trust that the law enforcement professionals at the Bloomington Police Department are doing their very best to solve Lauren Spierer’s disappearance, and that they remain committed to do so.”

Messel, 52, currently is serving a sentence of 80 years for Wilson’s murder.

He also is facing charges filed in October 2016 for an alleged rape in Bloomington unrelated to the Wilson case, after a woman who followed the Wilson murder trial contacted police to say she believed Messel was the man who attacked her in 2012, according to Indiana Public Media.

The victim said she found herself in a car with a white male she did not know after a night out drinking with friends on Aug. 31, 2012, and that he drove to a gravel area, forced her from the vehicle, then made her perform oral sex after removing her underwear. She said the man punched her in the face as she fought back, then drove off with her shoes, purse, phone, drivers license and credit cards in his vehicle. She sought help at a nearby home.

Messel has pleaded not guilty in that case to charges that include rape and battery resulting in bodily injury, court records show. Because of the pending criminal proceedings, Bloomington police declined to make any comment to PEOPLE about Messel.

In her Facebook post about her daughter, Lauren’s mother says, “We will never know the truth until someone comes forward to tell it.”

She writes: “I could not have imagined on June 3, 2011 that my life would ever have any semblance of normalcy. Unfortunately, that word will never be applied to our lives.”

“You learn to live with routines which get you through your days, weeks, months, years. We will never know normal. Some of the things taken for granted in ordinary families are so far removed from ours it’s difficult to fathom. They range from every day contact to sharing life events, a wedding, a birth and yes sadly death.”

“What I wouldn’t give to hear Lauren’s voice or even just to notice a text on my phone. Something so simple as a text. My heart breaks at the thought of it. Well, those responsible will never be able to imagine. I have said it before and I know it’s redundant but what could have been an accident in a few short hours became a crime. The worst nightmare any parent or sister could imagine.”

Mom Laments ‘Poor Decisions on the Part of Young People’

She notes the changes that have evolved in the investigation since the disappearance of Lauren, a sophomore from Edgemont, New York, who was studying fashion merchandising.

“In June of 2011 we were not allowed to use drones to help with our search,” her mother writes. “There was no justification, maybe politics, but it was a devastating blow to our search efforts. How much easier it would have been to explore ravines, lakes, rivers, wells and forests with the aid of those drones. Now you can get a package delivered.”

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“There have been more tragic deaths as the result of poor decisions on the part of young people. What has changed, those who could have done something to save a life are now held accountable in some instances. These senseless deaths are so incredibly devastating, just as Lauren’s disappearance was. She was with people who could have gotten her help and yet they did nothing. Lauren was so close to safety, she was in her apartment building but never made it to her door. Instead, she was lead out of her building by the person she was with. I will never understand that and the reason has never been given. The final show of chivalry, letting Lauren leave an apartment with no phone, no shoes, no keys.”

She concludes: “There are those we are close to who have complete faith we will know the truth some day and justice will be served. I hope that is the case. I have to thank all of those people who continue to follow Lauren’s case, offer their support and try to help keep her case alive.”

“To all the police officers, detectives, private detectives, members of private organizations who continue to and search for answers, we will be forever grateful. To all the families who have suffered a tragic loss, who have gotten answers they never wanted or who continue to wait for answers, my heart goes out to you.”

“Hoping 2018 is the year for truth. Hoping today is the day.”

Anyone with information about Lauren is asked to contact Bloomington Police at [phone] or email [e-mail].