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GREENBURGH, N.Y. The Marion County Coroners Office in Indiana says a skull found on July 18 does not belong to missing Edgemont college student Lauren Spierer.
The coroner's office issued a press release Friday saying the skull has characteristics consistent with those of an East or Southeast Asian male.
The press release adds that the office ruled out that the skull belonged to Spierer. It said further examination would be made to extract DNA.
Spierer was last seen on June 3, 2011, after she left a party near Indiana University in Bloomington. Since then, multiple bodies have been found in the area, none of which were determined to be the 20-year-old.
The Spierer case was further complicated last week when a 56-year-old man, who had two handguns on him, made statements to police outside of Kilroy's Sports Bar, where Spierer was last seen. The man, whose name has not been released, reportedly made comments to police on Saturday, Aug. 4, that he knew Spierer.
Capt. Joseph Qualters of the Bloomington Police Department said the man "claimed that he had met her two years ago at a shooting range."
"Based on his behavior, statements and the presence of weapons he was transported to (IU Health-Bloomington Hospital) for an evaluation," Qualters said in an emailed statement to The Daily Voice. "A search warrant was obtained for the weapons he had with him and a second search warrant was obtained for his residence in Indianapolis since he informed officers he had additional weapons there. Forty-eight additional rifles, handguns and shotguns were seized from the residence."
"To be clear, the action we took was not based solely on statements made about Lauren Spierer," Qualters wrote in his email. "It was a combination of behavior, statements and the presence of weapons that prompted the officers to seek an evaluation."
Qualters said that after initial questioning, police discovered a shotgun in the trunk of the man's car. He said the man "told the officers the distance from his location to the front door of the bar," adding that the man said he had measured it with a laser range finder.
Detectives questioned the man further but it was determined that he had no additional information, Qualters said.
Qualters said police will hold the weapons until a hearing in court that will determine if the weapons should be released. The man was not arrested "since no crime was committed and his name was not released since no arrest took place," Qualters said.
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