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DNA Swab Sought From Suspect Connected To Spierer Disappearance

Last updated on Tuesday, February 2, 2016

(JOHNSON C).) - A Bloomington Police detective, with a criminal defense attorney present, sought a DNA swab at the Johnson County Jail Thursday night from a man whose former property was searched by FBI agents as part of the Lauren Spierer investigation.

35-year-old Justin Wagers has been housed at the jail in Franklin since last August on public indecency charges.

Wagers previously lived at an address on Morgantown Road outside of Martinsville where federal agents and Bloomington investigators searched for evidence in the disappearance Indiana University student Lauren Spierer.

Investigators spent several hours last Thursday searching the property with a cadaver dog and also visited a Wagers family plot near Trafalgar.

Spierer disappeared after a night of drinking in downtown Bloomington off the IU campus. No actual evidence of her disappearance has ever been discovered.

Throughout the course of the investigation, federal agents, local police and private investigators hired by the Spierer family have tracked down several leads, but have yet to discover what has happened to Spierer.

Wagers has a criminal history dating back to 1999, when he was arrested for exposing himself in several central Indiana communities.

His criminal record includes charges of intimidation, harassment and violation of a protective order, there was a single minor misdemeanor charge of battery causing injury which was eventually dropped.

Wagers was not in jail in the spring of 2011, when Spierer failed to return home from a friend's Bloomington townhouse, but his criminal history does not include charges associated with violence or weapons as might be expected of a prime suspect in the young woman's disappearance.

Last summer, investigators arrested Wagers as he was charged with exposing himself in several Johnson County communities.

In mid-August, IMPD detectives allege Wagers was captured on surveillance video exposing himself in a Goodwill store on Indianapolis' south side.

Wager's attorney Chris Eskew says his client has no knowledge regarding Spierer's disappearance.

Police say DNA evidence is valuable evidence if and when evidence or a body is recovered.

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