Episode #2196- Hammer and Nigel Full Show

**Nigel** (0:00)
Hammer and Nigel.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:01)
You believe these characters?

**Nigel** (0:02)
They're weirdos.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:03)
So let's rock!

**Nigel** (0:06)
And Hammer, hard to believe, today marks 15 years since Indiana University student Lauren Spear vanished. I mean, she went missing June 3rd, 2011, after a night out. Her family is vowed to find her, find out what happened. The search is still on, but there's so many questions whether Lauren truly left the apartment where she was reportedly last seen.
And then what happened during the final hour of her movement? There's so many questions. I could go on.

**Hammer** (0:39)
Technically, the case remains open. It's not a cold case.
So the authorities, they claim that they've got 23 new tips since the last year, 23 And every single one's being investigated. But this story captivated so many people because this was around a time where a lot of these young college girls were having problems on college campuses.
Indiana University specifically. I believe a little bit later on, there was another young lady that met her demise shortly after a night in Bloomington. You had Jill Beerman's situation a couple years prior to all of this taking place. And man, my heart just aches for the family. It doesn't matter if you're white or black or Hispanic or whatever. When somebody's kid just goes missing, your heart aches. Like, I hate when I see these amber alerts go off because I know there had to be a family member that was at a breaking point and said, Fire off an amber alert. I don't know where my son or daughter is, or they may be in danger. That has to be the absolute worst feeling you get as a parent. And for those who remember Lauren Spearer, this was just a beautiful, gorgeous blonde college girl living her life. She had a night out on the town in Bloomington, like any college kid would.

**Nigel** (2:10)
Everybody does that.

**Hammer** (2:11)
Went to Kilroy's, which is the popular sports bar. I believe that's where she left her phone.
Spent time at her apartment. She lived at Small Wood, the apartment complex, a friend's townhouse. And she was with a group of dudes that claim that she left to return home at around 4:30 a.m. Now, a lot of people want to say, I bet the guys no more. I bet these dudes no more. Maybe they do, maybe they don't. I don't know, but they've never been charged with anything. They've been grilled by the authorities.
The attorneys have said, my guys have been cleared. No wrongdoing. So take from that what you will.

**Nigel** (2:56)
Investigators never ruled out a stranger abduction. But then at the same time, I mean, she was reported to have a heart condition. And the longstanding theory was that maybe she suffered from a fatal medical event after being out all night. The others panicked and allegedly tried to conceal what happened.

**Hammer** (3:17)
Right.

**Nigel** (3:17)
I mean, that's the longstanding theory. But investigators never publicly confirmed evidence supporting that scenario.

**Hammer** (3:25)
To this date, nearly 1,000 tips have come in to the police department. Now, the Bloomington Police Department, they've taken a lot of criticism for the way that they handled this case initially.
But the parents of Lauren Spearer, still very adamant about trying to find what happened to their daughter. They put out a statement on this anniversary on social media, quote, 15 years since, inconceivable. Nothing more to say other than we have not forgotten. We will never stop searching for answers as long as we live and breathe. To those responsible, may you walk in our shoes. May we see justice served. Always in our hearts, sweet Lauren, mom, dad, and Rebecca. That was the statement that the Spearer family put out online.
Another Indiana story here, Nigel. Some Indiana stuff. People are ticked off at the Hoosier lottery right now.

**Nigel** (4:27)
I would be too.

**Hammer** (4:28)
Angela Ganote posted about this earlier. She's the morning anchor from our news partners at Fox 59
So this guy, he's like a forklift driver, right? He bought four of the Space Invader lottery tickets. They're five bucks a piece. So we bought four of them. One of them, it shows on his lottery ticket, was a $100,000 winner. Okay, that's a big deal, right? But when he went to have the ticket scanned, it said it was only a $20 winner. So he went downtown to the main Hoosier Lottery office, where he met with some other winners who were having the same problem for different amounts, but some of them for like thousands of dollars. Now the folks at the Hoosier Lottery say they're investigating about what happened, and they have not responded to interview requests from Fox 59