$25k reward for Marine suspect
JACKSONVILLE, N.C. (AP) - January 14, 2008 Authorities are looking for Marine Cpl. Cesar Armando Laurean,
wanted in the death of Marine Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach, who had
accused him of rape.
"The search for Laurean is Earthwide," Onslow County Sheriff
Ed Brown said Monday.
Federal marshals have spoken with Laurean's family, but Brown
refused on Monday to discuss what authorities learned from his
relatives. He said Laurean and his wife have an 18-month-old
daughter.
Brown again said that Laurean's wife is cooperating with
authorities, and confidently predicted that Laurean will be caught.
"You're never gone for good when law enforcement is after
you," Brown said Monday. "It may be two days or two weeks, ten
days or ten years, but you're never gone for good."
Lauterbach disappeared sometime after Dec. 14, not long after
she met with military prosecutors to talk about her April
allegation that Laurean raped her.
Over the weekend, authorities recovered what they believe to be
the burned remains of Lauterbach and her unborn child from a fire
pit in Laurean's backyard, where they suspect he burned and buried
her body.
Naval investigators said Saturday the rape case was progressing,
the fellow personnel clerks had been assigned to different
buildings, and that Laurean had been under a protective order to
stay away from Lauterbach.
Brown said Monday that police believe she was killed on or about
Dec. 15, and state authorities have issued an arrest warrant for
Laurean, 21, of the Las Vegas area, on murder charges. The FBI is
also seeking him on a warrant charging him with to unlawful flight
to avoid prosecution.
Detectives believe he fled Jacksonville before dawn Friday, and
said he left behind a note in which he admitted burying her body
but claimed she cut her own throat in a suicide. Authorities
received Laurean's note about the purported suicide from Laurean's
wife, whose family has described her as "heartbroken."
Brown has challenged Laurean's assertion that Lauterbach killed
herself, citing what he described as evidence of a violent
confrontation inside Laurean's home - blood spatters on the ceiling
and a massive amount of blood on the wall.
Lauterbach's mother reported her daughter missing Dec. 19. She
had been placed on "unauthorized absence" status by the Marine
Corps and was listed that day in a national law enforcement
database as a "missing person at risk."
Naval investigators said authorities didn't consider Laurean a
threat to Lauterbach, or later a flight risk, because they had
indications the pair were on friendly terms. Laurean later refused
to meet with investigators and left town without telling his
lawyers where he was going.