TENNESSEE / INDIANA (Isabelle Zehnder reporting) -- Law enforcement officials say they don't believe there's any connection between two missing women's cases - Tennessee nursing student Holly Bobo who was abducted in April and Indiana fashion student Lauren Spierer who vanished in June.
In a Crime Scene USA blog post June 29, the writer talks about the similarities of these two cases – of two beautiful, young, blonde, petite women in the prime of their lives.
The blog post states the similarities are chilling. A student at the university where Lauren attended classes before she vanished said they look so much alike he thought a photo he saw of Holly on a flyer was Lauren.
Thousands of people, some within their communities and some who have traveled from out of town, put their lives on hold to search for these two young women.
The cases carry unusually high rewards for missing persons' cases, and both cases have what appears to be the best of law enforcement on their sides. And yet they’ve all hit brick walls when it comes to finding Holly or Lauren.
Late Tuesday Bloomington police told Eyewitness News that they are aware of the similarities but that they don’t think there’s any connection at this time.
Asked in an email Thursday if the lead agency in Holly's case, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) believes there's any connection between the two cases, TBI spokeswoman Kristin Helm said, “No. Our agents have been in touch with Indiana authorities and they have no reason to believe they are related.”
Regardless of what law enforcement is saying, some believe the similarities in these and other missing college students' cases across the nation should be looked at.
There are those who complain that more attention is given to beautiful blonde women's missing persons' cases and that there are plenty of other missing persons that no one seems to care about. There's a name for it - Missing White Woman Syndrome, discussed in more detail below.
The bottom line is this. It doesn't matter what a person looks like, where they're from, or what their backgrounds are - when someone goes missing families grieve their absence and want, more than anything, to be reunited with their loved ones.
Every single missing persons case is as important one as the other. Some do seemingly get more media attention, and as long as that happens, the debate will continue as to who gets more media coverage and why.
Some similarities, some differences
Holly’s abduction took place on April 13 in Darden, Tennessee about 340 miles from where Lauren went missing on June 3 in Bloomington, Indiana.
The circumstances surrounding their abductions differ greatly.
As Holly prepared to leave for school her brother saw a man dressed in camouflage clothing approach her and walk her into the woods outside their home. He believed the man was Holly's boyfriend. Shortly after her brother walked outside and saw a small puddle of blood on the ground. He became alarmed and called police. Holly had a number of belongings with her when she was abducted: her backpack filled with school books, lunch box, purse, cell phone, among other things.
Lauren went to a sports bar with friends in the evening. She later walked to a friend's apartment where she stayed until around 4:30 a.m. A male friend watched as she walked to a corner near his apartment and no one has seen her since. Lauren left her cell phone, purse, keys, and everything else behind and was barefoot the morning she went missing. Surveillance video from her apartment complex show she never made it inside.
Investigators say they have Lauren's purse and some keys which were found along the route to her friend’s apartment, and say they're not sure if Lauren left them on her way to or from her friend’s home. She left her cell phone and shoes in the bar.
In Holly's case searchers found Holly's lunch box and some of her other belongings, but the TBI is not releasing much information about what's been found and where as they say it could jeopardize the investigation.
There are striking similarities. Both young women are beautiful, petite, blonde, and popular 20-year-old college students. They are both energetic and community-minded. It was pointed out that both women went missing in the morning.
High rewards are being offered in both cases. In Holly's case a reward of $85,000 is being offered, in Lauren's case a reward of $100,000 is being offered.
While the two communities where Holly and Lauren went missing are widely different, with estimated populations (per 2000 census) of about 860 in Darden and nearly 65,000 in Bloomington, community response has been much the same. Thousands of people have searched for these two young women. Community members have commented that there are flyers on nearly every shop window in both cases.
Sadly, the worst similarity in these two cases is that both young women are still missing. Both of their families are frantic for answers into what happened to their daughters.
In Lauren's case, students are saying that with the “Find Lauren” search center shutting down it’s worth looking for patterns in other cases.
They pointed out it’s not just these two women, there are other students missing across the country, they said, that fit the same description.
"It's probably three or four hours away from here. If there's nothing else, it's worth looking at, if they haven't found anything else yet," said student Chris Robbins.
"Any bit of information could be important, of course. They look so similar, identical," said student Wesley McKinney.
Search headquarters for Lauren were expected to close Wednesday as police say they are shifting to information “based on investigative leads” in their ongoing probe into her disappearance.
Bloomington Police Chief Michael Diekhoff thanked the thousands of volunteers who took part in dozens of searches. He said volunteers who searched the area for clues into her disappearance covered as much as a 10-mile area around the spot where she was last seen.
Bloomington Police are asking anyone with information about her whereabouts to call (812) 339-4477.
In Holly's case agents from the TBI, FBI, and other agencies remain in Parsons at a command post at the National Guard Armory. They are working her case, doing weekly ground searches, and following up on tips and leads. Last week the TBI brought in a new group of investigators from across the state to take a look at the case with "fresh eyes" and see if anything was missed. Something common in missing persons' cases that aren't quickly solved. Agents have also re-interviewed possible witnesses.
The TBI is asking anyone with information about Holly's abduction to call 1-800-TBI-FIND.
Missing White Woman Syndrome
In April Robert Stacy McCain, who writes On The Other McCain blog, from the perspective of media criticism, there’s a distinct phenomenon in such cases: Crimes against attractive young women and girls tend to get far more TV coverage than do similar crimes when perpetrated against less attractive victims.
He shows examples of the Jon Benet Ramsey and Natalee Holloway cases. He says, “Old people, ugly people, fat people, men and boys: Hundreds of such people fall victim to foul play every year and yet their fates never become fodder for national TV news in the way that crimes against attractive young females do.”
Wikipedia describes this as the “Missing white woman syndrome” stating that a disproportionately greater degree of coverage in television, radio, newspaper, and magazine reporting of a misfortune, most often a missing person case, involving a young, attractive, white, upper class woman or girl. This degree of coverage, the site states, is contrasted with cases concerning a missing male, or missing females of other ethnicities, socioeconomic classes or physical attractiveness.
CNN’s Anderson Cooper Blog 360° post by CNN Correspondent Tom Foreman supported this theory in 2006 saying that Natalee Holloway, Lori Hacking, Laci Peterson, among others, were pretty, young women – especially white ones – who are killed or disappear are followed by media storms.
Foreman said, “There is no polite way to say it, and it is a fact of television news. Media and social critics call the wall-to-wall coverage that seems to swirl around these events, ‘Missing White Woman Syndrome’."
The discussion continued in 2010 when Dennis Romero posted on LA Weekly that some females of color had garnered national headlines. He cited two missing-woman cases, African-American Angeleno Mitrice Richardson and slain Brazilian restaurateur Monica Beresford-Redman saying they'd garnered national headlines.
Still, Assistant Professor of Journalism and Media Arts at Baylor University, Dr. Mia Moody, argued that white women who “go off the map” end up with a lot more headlines and air time. She highlights four missing persons’ cases in what was said to be her upcoming book: “Invisible Damsels: Media’s Framing of Women, Minorities and the elderly” – 2 young, beautiful white young women, and two African- American and black-and-Latina women – says that according to research, “Besides being white, appearance -- particularly if a missing woman was young and attractive -- played a major role in whether a missing woman received media attention.”
For more on Lauren's story read: Lauren Spierer Missing: IU student’s disappearance brings back eerie memories
For more on Holly's story read: Holly Bobo Abduction: Case info and up-to-date news links
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Source: WTHR, Crime Scene USA, LA Weekly, CNN, Other McCain
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