Authorities in Indiana began searching a landfill Tuesday for evidence related to the disappearance of Greenburgh resident and Indiana University student Lauren Spierer.
The Sycamore Ridge Landfill is about an hour's drive northwest of Bloomington, where Spierer was last seen June 3.
Bloomington police, along with the FBI, Indiana University police and a search expert from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, are focusing on an area of the landfill about 70 feet wide, 120 feet long and 20 feet deep.
The search will likely be a lengthy, painstaking process — one that will involve as many as 30 people and last for two weeks, police said.
"We're talking about a huge, monumental task," said Robert Lowery of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
There are tons of debris to sift through, often by hand, and "everything has to be looked at as potential evidence," he said.
Bloomington police Capt. Joe Qualters said trash will be gathered from the search site and spread out in a long line elsewhere at the landfill. Police will then comb through the material, looking for anything that could help them figure out what happened to Spierer. After that, another load of debris will be spread before them, and their inspection will continue.
In a brief written statement, Spierer's parents and sister thanked authorities for their continued help and said, "Please keep all the members of the Bloomington Police Department and all other law enforcement agencies who are assisting in this incredibly complex undertaking to search the landfill safe."
Police said they began preparing for a search of the landfill shortly after Spierer was reported missing.
They sifted through trash bins in Spierer's neighborhood and tracked Bloomington's trash to Sycamore Ridge. Police said that with the cooperation of the landfill's operators, Republic Services, they "isolated and secured" the section of the landfill that had received Bloomington's garbage on the days following Spierer's disappearance, blocking any additional trash from being dumped there.
Spierer, 20, vanished after a night of partying with friends. Police have not named any suspects in the case.
The effort to find her began with massive sweeps through Bloomington, involving thousands of volunteers and extending to a perimeter 10 to 12 miles from where she was last seen. Experts from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children who are experienced in landfill searches began working with investigators in early July, police said. Officials spent the next several weeks preparing the search, lining up personnel, supplies and transportation.
Sycamore Ridge is about 55 miles from Bloomington and open to commercial trash haulers and private individuals. The entire site is 550 acres, but only about 170 acres receive waste.
In recent days, the Spierers have generated attention for the continuing effort to find their daughter.
They released a statement in which they vowed never to give up their search and issued a new poster with Spierer's photo and description.
They are asking volunteers to help distribute the poster Aug. 28, the day before classes resume at Indiana University.
Lauren Spierer Case: Police Search Indiana Landfill: MyFoxNY.com
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