**INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER**

“This book is the heartbreaking story that every parent dreads . . . Cohen sheds light on what really happened the night Lauren was never seen again.” —David Crow, author of The Pale-Faced Lie

She visited friends. She walked to a bar. She was right there . . . until she was gone.

College student Lauren Spierer was pursuing her dreams, joining her boyfriend at a party school eight hundred miles from home. Social and gregarious, studying fashion and rooming with friends, Lauren embraced her new adventure with the zeal of a young woman who suddenly had everything she desired.

But there was a dark side that she and her inner circle kept secret. And one warm June evening, after heading out with friends, she seemingly vanished. When investigators retraced Lauren’s last steps using eyewitness accounts and security camera footage, the evidence ended at the doorstep of a group of wealthy, well-connected male students.