Crime

Missing Pregnant Marine was Killed, Sheriff says

by mpress | January 11, 2008 at 09:25 am | 2193 views | 4 comments | 0 recommendations

Update[q
url="http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,322268,00.html"]JACKSONVILLE,
N.C. — Authorities said Friday they believe they found the shallow
grave of a pregnant Marine in the back yard of a comrade she accused of
rape, and found evidence inside his house that suggested she had been
killed.

Investigators are treating the case as a homicide, said Onslow
County Sheriff Ed Brown. But a person close to the case said the
suspect left a note insisting Lance Cpl. Maria Frances Lauterbach had
killed herself.

After some slight digging in a fire pit discovered in the yard of
Marine Cpl. Cesar Armando Laurean, detectives found what "appeared to
be burnt human remains," Onslow County District Attorney Dewey Hudson
said Friday night.

"We think we have found what will (contain) the skeletal remains of
Maria Lauterbach," Hudson said. Authorities placed a tarp and two white
tents over the area and planned to begin slowly scraping the earth with
garden tools Saturday morning.

Lance Cpl. Maria Frances Lauterbach, 20, vanished three weeks ago,
days after she talked to military prosecutors about a rape case against
Laurean, who remains at large. Authorities said Friday that information
from another woman, a former Marine, left them certain that she is
dead.[/q]

JACKSONVILLE, North Carolina (CNN) -- Missing pregnant Marine Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach has been killed, Onslow County sheriff said Friday.

Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach last spoke to relatives in the Dayton, Ohio, area on December 14.

The suspect in the case is a senior officer whom Lauterbach had accused of assault, Sheriff Ed Brown said at a news conference Friday.

The suspect is not in custody, Brown said.

Lauterbach had purchased a bus ticket the day she went missing from Camp Lejeune but never used it, Brown said earlier.

Brown said the ticket was from Jacksonville, North Carolina, to El Paso, Texas.

Roshaun Hames told CNN affiliate WNCT-TV on Friday that he sold the ticket to Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach around 5 p.m. on December 14.

Hames said he thought Lauterbach was alone when she bought the ticket and that she drove off after asking if she could leave her car at the station, WNCT reported.

The body
of Maria Lauterbach, who vanished last month before she was to testify
in a military probe, is believed to be located in a shallow grave in
coastal Onslow County, said Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown at a press
conference.

Lauterbach alleged that she was sexually assaulted by a senior
officer but that the investigation had gone sour, according to court
documents. Authorities do not know where the suspect — Cpl. Cesar
Armando Lauren, 21, is located.

"They don't know where he is," Brown said. "He's gone."

recommend Add a comment

ryan

at 09:30 on January 11th, 2008

mpress, thanks for getting this story out so quickly. It will now show up on the home page for four hours. If new developments justify it, I'll renew this flag for another cycle.

ryan

at 11:29 on January 11th, 2008

Hey, mpress, thanks for getting this up so quickly... I'm removing the urgent flag for this story for the time being. If there are any new developments, please let me know.

mpress

at 11:36 on January 11th, 2008

thanks Ryan

jordan

at 09:53 on January 13th, 2008

Update: Police say they have picked up the trail of their number-one suspect:

[q
url="http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/01/13/missing.marine/index.html?eref=rss_topstories"]Police
said Sunday they had credible information that put them "less than two
hours behind" the suspect in the death of a pregnant Marine.

Earlier Sunday, Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown said Cpl. Cesar
Armando Laurean had been sighted several states away from North
Carolina.

Brown did not specify a state, but police in Shreveport, Louisiana,
told The Associated Press the fugitive Marine had been seen there,
getting on or off a Greyhound bus.[/q]