Marine About to Testify Goes Missing

[LadyTevar]

.... and she's Pregnant as well.

PREGNANT MARINE MISSING FROM NORTH CAROLINA BASE

(CNN) -- A search is under way for a pregnant 20-year-old Marine who has been missing from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, since December 14.

Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach was eight months pregnant when she went missing on December 14.

Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach could give birth at any time, Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown told the Jacksonville, North Carolina, Daily News on Monday.

The sheriff's department said Lauterbach's mother said that her daughter, of Montgomery, Ohio, had witnessed an incident at Camp Lejeune and was to testify about it.

Sheriff's department officials said evidence causes them to be concerned about Lauterbach's disappearance, WITN reported.

The Marine's car was found Monday at Jacksonville's bus station, Brown told the Daily News, and her cell phone had been found at Camp Lejeune's front gate on December 20.

Her mother reported her missing on December 19, and told the sheriff's department "that she was very suspicious that something bad may have happened to her daughter," the department said in a news release.

Investigators told the Marine Corps Times that a withdrawal from Lauterbach's bank account was made on December 14 and said there was "suspicious activity" on the account 10 days later. December 14 was also the last time Lauterbach's cell phone was used, authorities told the Marine Corps Times.

The Raleigh News and Observer, citing Brown, reported that the woman's mother said her daughter phoned home or her relatives up to 12 times a week and the mother became concerned when she did not hear from her daughter for five days.

A Facebook page established to help find Lauterbach says she was last seen December 14 in Jacksonville. "Call mom!!! You know the number," the page says. "All of us love you and we miss you. Please come home!"

The page contains pleas for contacts from fellow Marines and friends of Lauterbach in Ohio.

Lauterbach is a personnel clerk assigned to Combat Logistics Regiment 27, 2nd Marine Logistics Group, II Marine Expeditionary Force, the Marine Corps said. She joined the service on June 6, 2006

[LadyTevar]

But wait, there's more (bolded important bits):

Pregnant Marine's Mom: My daughter is a compulsive liar

JACKSONVILLE, North Carolina (CNN) -- It's possible that a pregnant Marine missing since December 14 may have left willingly, perhaps after being upset by a phone call, documents released Thursday by Onslow County authorities show.

Those records were bolstered by comments made by the county sheriff who pleaded for 20-year-old Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach, who is eight months pregnant, to come home.

The young woman's mother, Mary Lauterbach, told authorities that her daughter has a history of being a "compulsive liar," a police report states.

Mary Lauterbach described having a "firm conversation" with Maria Lauterbach about her unborn baby, telling her she should give the baby up for adoption because she is unable to care for it.

"Ms. Maria Lauterbach was telling Mary Lauterbach everything was fine, but Mary Lauterbach had a sense that the statements were not accurate," the report said.

Lauterbach last spoke to family members in the Dayton, Ohio, area on December 14. They reported her missing on December 19 after being unable to contact her.

Documents attached to a search warrant in the case cite the Marine's mother as saying Lauterbach had been the victim of a sexual assault by a superior officer.

Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown said Thursday his office had not talked to the person accused in that case and referred any other comment to the Marine Corps. Officials at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, where Lauterbach is based, have not commented on the assault allegations.

Earlier Thursday, Brown pleaded with Lauterbach to come forward and get help.

"Regardless of the circumstances, this has got to stop," Brown told reporters. "You can't run from those things in life."

While he would not say definitively that authorities believe Lauterbach is alive, Brown said he is leaning toward a positive outcome. "You pray that she's alive," he said.

Mary Lauterbach said her daughter claimed to have been sexually assaulted by a senior officer, but the military investigation had "gone sour," according to the Onslow County reports.

When police consulted with the military on the allegations, the military reported that the case was open, but "it was difficult, due to inconsistencies provided by Maria Lauterbach, the reported victim."

Military investigators also "confirmed the history of compulsive lying," the report said, and added that Lauterbach was facing a possible discharge from the Marine Corps and was under personal and professional stress.

A Marine Corps Times story Thursday, citing unnamed sources, said Lauterbach may have fled her post after she withdrew the sexual assault allegations because she feared being charged with making a false statement. The newspaper said the allegations were lodged with Marine Corps officials last year and later withdrawn.

The Marine Corps is bringing Lauterbach's roommate, Sgt. Daniel Robert Durham, back to North Carolina from a training deployment in California to answer questions.

The Onslow County report said that Durham told police that he had made his home available to Lauterbach "out of sympathy for her situation" and that the two had shared the home for only a short period of time.

Durham said he noticed nothing unusual in Lauterbach's behavior before she disappeared, but said "she had been upset by a phone call from her stepmother."

A few items of Lauterbach's were missing, he said -- her car, some cosmetics and clothing -- that led him to believe she may have left willingly. However, Durham told police that Lauterbach was confined to bed most of the time because of her pregnancy and that she "was in no shape for extended outings," according to the reports.

Brown told reporters Thursday that Durham is a close friend who may be the last person known to have talked with Lauterbach before her disappearance.

Mary Lauterbach told the Dayton Daily News on Wednesday that she last spoke to her daughter on December 14 in what she called "a very normal conversation."

The mother told CNN affiliate WDTN that later that day, she got a phone call from her daughter's roommate saying Maria had left their house.

After that, calls she made to her daughter's cell phone went unanswered, Mary Lauterbach told the Dayton newspaper.

Brown said Maria Lauterbach may have been due to give birth January 8. The police reports, however, said she was due on February 14, and did not show up for a prenatal medical appointment on December 28.

Lauterbach's cell phone was found on a roadside near Camp Lejeune on December 20. Her car was found Monday in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant, Brown said, and had apparently been there since December 15. The car was processed, he said, but nothing of value was found.

Investigators have said that a withdrawal from Lauterbach's bank account was made on December 14 and there was "suspicious activity" on the account 10 days later. Police reports said Lauterbach's ATM card was used at a Marine Federal Credit Union by a man who attempted to cover the surveillance camera with a rag while he withdrew money from her account.

A search warrant released with the other documents Thursday seeks Western Union records, saying authorities have reason to believe Lauterbach may be receiving financial support through money transfers.

"Call mom!!! You know the number," says a Facebook page established to help find Lauterbach. "All of us love you and we miss you. Please come home!"

Lauterbach is a personnel clerk assigned to Combat Logistics Regiment 27, 2nd Marine Logistics Group, II Marine Expeditionary Force, the Marine Corps said. She joined the service on June 6, 2006.

[LadyTevar]

And she's dead.

JACKSONVILLE, North Carolina (CNN) -- Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach, the pregnant Marine who was missing from Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, is dead, the Onslow County sheriff said Friday.

The suspect in the case is Cpl. Cesar Armando Laurean, 21, a fellow Marine whom Lauterbach had accused of raping her, Sheriff Ed Brown said at a news conference Friday.

Authorities were "searching the area for the grave that could be in and around the place where she was murdered," Brown said. He quickly said he wasn't ready to call her death murder.

"I am not calling it murder because the story has got some twists and turns," he said.

Laurean, a personnel clerk from Clark County, Nevada, is not in custody, Brown said, and a search is on for him. He said Laurean had left the Camp Lejeune area about 4 a.m. Friday, with nearly an eight-hour head start before the hunt for him began.

Authorities were looking for his black Dodge quad-cab pickup with North Carolina license plate TRR 1522, Brown said, adding that Laurean should turn himself in.

"We'll get him one way or the other, somewhere," he told CNN.

Brown said authorities had obtained physical evidence of Lauterbach's death that also linked Lauren to the case. He would not elaborate on that evidence.

Asked how Lauterbach died, Brown would only speak "of an injury to her."

He said investigators are looking for the woman's body in a residential wooded area in Onslow County and hoped to find it before dark Friday.

Brown said investigators learned of Lauterbach's death around 8 a.m. Friday when a female former Marine contacted military authorities.

The sheriff had expected a positive outcome in the case earlier in the morning.

"I just wanted to cry" when learning of her death, he said.

Paul Ciccarelli, a special agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, said Laurean had carried on a relationship with Lauterbach after her rape complaint against him.

Lauterbach was to give testimony in a military hearing on the rape charges scheduled for late December, Ciccarelli said.

Ciccarelli said Laurean had not been considered a flight risk.

Lauterbach, 20, last contacted her family in Ohio on December 14 and was reported missing by her mother on December 19.

Documents released by Onslow County authorities on Thursday had indicated Lauterbach may have gone off on her own willingly, perhaps after being upset by a phone call.

The woman's mother, Mary Lauterbach, described having a "firm conversation" with Maria Lauterbach about her unborn child, telling her she should give the baby up for adoption because she is unable to care for it.

"Ms. Maria Lauterbach was telling Mary Lauterbach everything was fine, but Mary Lauterbach had a sense that the statements were not accurate," the report said.

The Marine Corps had brought Lauterbach's roommate, Sgt. Daniel Robert Durham, back to North Carolina from a training deployment in California to answer questions, but Brown said Friday he was not a suspect in her death.

The Onslow County report said Durham told police that he had made his home available to Lauterbach "out of sympathy for her situation" and that the two had shared the home for a short period of time.

Durham said he noticed nothing unusual in Lauterbach's behavior before she disappeared, but he said, "She had been upset by a phone call from her stepmother."

A few items of Lauterbach's were missing, he said -- her car, some cosmetics and clothing -- that led him to believe she may have left willingly. However, Durham told police that Lauterbach was confined to bed most of the time because of her pregnancy and that she "was in no shape for extended outings," according to the reports.

Brown called Durham a close friend.

Brown said Lauterbach may have been due to give birth January 8. The police reports, however, said she was due on February 14 and did not show up for a prenatal medical appointment December 28.

Lauterbach's cell phone was found on a roadside near Camp Lejeune on December 20. Her car was found Monday in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant, Brown said, and apparently had been there since December 15.


Investigators have said a withdrawal from Lauterbach's bank account was made on December 14 and there was "suspicious activity" on the account 10 days later. Police reports said Lauterbach's ATM card was used at a Marine Federal Credit Union by a man who attempted to cover the surveillance camera with a rag while he withdrew money from her account.

Lauterbach was a personnel clerk assigned to Combat Logistics Regiment 27, 2nd Marine Logistics Group, II Marine Expeditionary Force, the Marine Corps said. She joined the service on June 6, 2006.

[Lord Iames Osari]

When I saw the "compulsive liar" story, I was a bit inclined to write off the rape accusations, but now that the suspect in that case has run away and is, according to the authorities, linked to her death... well, those just aren't the actions of an innocent man, as they say.

[LadyTevar]

And the Plot Thickens.

The Prime Suspect, Cpl. Cesar Armando Laurean was ratted out by his WIFE.

Investigators told CNN that Laurean vanished four hours before his wife, Christina, approached Sheriff Ed Brown with a note from her husband claiming that Lauterbach had committed suicide and he buried the body.

Of course, that's one big fuckin' lie:

Brown said Friday that blood spatter evidence was found inside Laurean's home, even on a ceiling, and investigators were treating the case as a murder. There was evidence of "an attempted clean-up," including an attempt to paint over the blood spatter, he said.

"Evidence now is saying what he's claiming happened did not happen like he said it happened," Brown said of Laurean.

Question is now how much did Christina Laurean know about her husband's actions.

[LadyTevar]

FUCK FUCK FUCK
The baby's dead too.

JACKSONVILLE, North Carolina (CNN) -- The remains of an adult and a fetus were found Saturday in a shallow grave in the backyard of the primary suspect in the death of a pregnant Marine, Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown announced.

An arrest warrant has been issued for Cpl. Cesar Armando Laurean in the death of Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach.

He is charged with first-degree murder, although authorities have not positively identified the body as hers.

"This is consistent with what we were looking for: A pregnant lady who is the victim Maria Lauterbach and her unborn child," Brown said.

The body was charred, and the fetus was in the victim's abdomen, Brown said, describing the scene in gruesome detail.

The fetus was developed enough that the "little hand was about the size of my thumb. The little fingers were rolled up," he said.

[Rukia]

And they're sure it isn't the wife?

They should question her too. Just in case it was a case of jealous wife.

[Comrade Tortoise]

I highly doubt it. If only because even a pregnant marine could probably deal with a jealous wife. And because he RAPED her and only the most patently insane of spouses would blame that on the victim. SHe simply has no real motive

[Rukia]

But there was something said about the victim and the suspect carrying on a relationship.

[LadyTevar]

Many women have the idea that a Father should know his Child. Going off the idea that the baby was from the rape, she may have spoke to him and tried to get him to 'do the right thing' for the child.

Instead, the bastard kills them both.

[Cynical Cat]

The rape could also have happened during the course of a fucked, abusive, disfunctional relationship. We don't have enough info about it to make a call, but I bet the investigators are getting an earful.