Remains of Missing Bloomington Man Found
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Remains found by a crew at a dig site in Bloomiongton March 26, have been identified as a man missing for three years.
That identification was made public Monday by the Monroe County Coroner’s Office.
John E. Baker, Jr., 40, had been missing since 2022. He was seen walking into the woods near Meadows Hospital. Despite a search for Baker, he was not found until the crew came up on his remains in March. It was determined Baker committed suicide in the woods.
Monroe County Coroner Jeff Hall said he understands the anticipation by many people that the remains may have been the body of Lauren Spierer, the 20-year-old IU student who went missing in Bloomington in 2011.
“I know a lot of people had speculation that this missing person was initially Lauren Spierer. There was some early discussion that it was and it wasn’t,”: he said. “Unfortunately that was not the case. But, it does at least provide some sense of closure to a family that has been seeking answers for several years.”
Hall said the process of identifying the remains began with research into who was missing in that area, then a request for dental records from the families.
Next came work from the forensic anthropology team in Indianapolis, who helped identify the body with the dental records.
“Anytime that an unidentified body or skeletal remains in this case are found, we do our due diligence to quickly identify who that person is to provide some sort of answers and closure to a family,” said Hall. “We all are on the lookout for any possibility that it could be a Lauren Spierer case, or there are several other missing person cases that haven’t been solved yet.”