From NC WANTED Staff along with AP and WRAL Reports

Posted: Jan 8, 2008
Updated: Jan 15, 2008

Morrisville police were at a Microtel hotel near the Raleigh-Durham airport Tuesday, where they believe they have found the vehicle belonging to the killer of a pregnant Marine.

Video shows that license plates on the truck at the hotel matched those on a black Dodge pick-up that police said belonged to Laurean.

Federal authorities plan to post billboards nationwide with the picture of a Marine wanted in the slaying of a pregnant colleague, and the sheriff announced a $25,000 reward Monday for information leading to his arrest. Laurean is wanted in the death of Marine Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach, who had accused him of rape. FBI officials said the first billboards with Laurean's photo would appear in Tampa, Florida, Columbus, Ohio, and Las Vegas.

"The search for Laurean is Earthwide," Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown said at a news conference.

Lauterbach's ATM card was found at a bus station in Durham, about 150 miles north west of Jacksonville, and witnesses had reported seeing his black four-door pickup truck in the Raleigh and Durham area, Brown said.

"You're never gone for good when law enforcement is after you," Brown said. "It may be two days or two weeks, 10 days or 10 years, but you're never gone for good."

Authorities recovered the burned remains of Lauterbach and her fetus from a fire pit in Laurean's backyard over the weekend. Detectives believe Laurean, 21, of the Las Vegas area, fled Jacksonville before dawn Friday, and have said he left behind a note in which he admitted burying her body but claimed she cut her own throat in a suicide.

Lauterbach's autopsy results revealed that she died from blunt force trauma to the head, authorities announced Tuesday. They also confirmed that the charred remains found in Laurean's backyard were Lauterbach's. Questions still remain about the paternity of the fetus and how and when it died.

North Carolina is one of 15 states without a fetal homicide law, but Onslow County District Attorney Dewey Hudson said he has no plans to step aside in favor of a military prosecution. Georgetown University law professor Gary Solis said local authorities have primary jurisdiction in the case.

"They have the crime scene and they have the physical evidence," Solis said. "The military would have secondary jurisdiction if the DA decided not to pursue the case."

That makes it unlikely that Laurean would be prosecuted under the federal fetal homicide law passed in 2004 during the height of attention to the California trial of Scott Peterson, who was accused of murdering his pregnant wife, Laci.

The federal law makes it a crime to harm a fetus during an assault on a pregnant woman, but the anti-abortion activists who pushed for it believe it has never been used - in part because murder cases are typically prosecuted in state courts.

The military could technically seek charges at the same time as civilian authorities, said Scott Silliman, a former military lawyer who is now director of the Center on Law, Ethics and National Security at Duke University. But a joint prosecution is not recommended by the military's manual for courts martial, Silliman said.

"As a matter of law, the military could prosecute him separately," Silliman said. "But as a matter of policy, it rarely happens and only in a very unusual set of circumstances."

In Lauterbach's hometown near Dayton, Ohio, hundreds of friends and neighbors offered prayers for her Monday evening. Relatives filed into a church for a prayer service and sat in the front row.

"This evening, we are suffering," the Rev. Francis Keferl told a spillover crowd of more than 800 at St. Christopher Catholic Church.

Lauterbach's mother, Mary, dabbed at her eyes with a tissue during the 40-minute service. A congregant gave her a pink rose.

Members of the congregation will remember Lauterbach for her strength, vitality, independent spirit, athletic talents and service as a Marine, said Elise Wahle, youth ministry coordinator for the church.

Lauterbach's father, Victor Lauterbach, is an Air Force Reserve master sergeant in the 87th Aerial Port Squadron, which is part of the 445th Airlift Wing at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio.

"Her goal was to be a Marine and wear the uniform," said neighbor Kent Zimmerman.

If you have information on this case, call NC WANTED toll free at 1.866.43.WANTED (1.866.439.2683) or click on "Report a Tip" Your identity can be kept confidential.

 From Earlier Reports

Authorities say the wife of Marine Cpl. Cesar Amando Lauren is cooperating in the investigation and assisting in locating her husband, who now faces murder charges in the death of Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach and her unborn child.

The handling of this case deeply troubles Lauterbach's family.  For months after a pregnant 20-year-old Marine accused a colleague of rape, her family says, she continued to work alongside her attacker and endured harassment at Camp Lejeune.

In the weeks after she disappeared, they believe, the sheriff's department was slow to act.

As authorities recovered Maria Lauterbach's remains Saturday from a fire pit where they suspect Marine Cpl. Cesar Armando Laurean burned and buried her body, her family asked why authorities didn't treat her case with greater urgency.

Naval investigators on Saturday said the pair had been separated on the job, a rape case was progressing and Laurean was under a protective order to stay away from Lauterbach. And Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown insisted his department acted as best they could on the facts available.

"As soon as it went suspicious, we contacted the media and asked for help," Brown said. "The case did not produce enough evidence, other than she was just missing."

On Saturday, her burnt remains, and those of her unborn child, were excavated from Laurean's backyard.

"As well as I could see, the body was much charred," Brown said. "The fetus was in the abdominal area of that adult. ... That is tragic, and it's disgusting."

Authorities have issued an arrest warrant on murder charges for Laurean, 21, of the Las Vegas area. They say he fled Jacksonville after leaving behind a note in which he admitted burying her body.

In his note, Laurean wrote Lauterbach cut her own throat in a suicide, but Brown doesn't believe it and challenged Laurean to come forward and defend his claims of innocence.

Authorities have described a violent confrontation inside Laurean's home that left blood spatters on the ceiling and a massive amount of blood on the wall.

County prosecutor Dewey Hudson said Laurean had been in contact with three attorneys, including Mark E. Raynor, who declined to comment Saturday.

Lauterbach disappeared sometime after December 14, not long after she met with military prosecutors to talk about her April allegation that Laurean raped her.

Her uncle, Pete Steiner, said that Lauterbach - stung by the harassment that eventually forced her to move off base - decided to drop the case the week before she disappeared.

Paul Chiccarelli, the special agent in charge of Naval Criminal Investigative Service at Camp Lejeune, told The Associated Press on Saturday that Marine commanders submitted requests in October to send the case to the military's version of a grand jury. A military protective order had been automatically issued in May and renewed three times.

"Anytime there is a sexual assault allegation involved, that's a standard routine," he said.

Lauterbach and Laurean served in the same unit of the II Marine Expeditionary Force, and court documents indicate Lauterbach's mother told authorities Laurean had threatened her daughter's career.

Steiner said Saturday on ABC's Good Morning America the Marines didn't separate the two personnel clerks, but Chiccarelli said Marine commanders assigned them to separate buildings on May 12.

Neither Brown or Hudson would say Saturday if they would have treated the case differently had they known about the protective order, which they discovered Friday night.

Chiccarelli said sheriff's office investigators were told about the order on Monday.

But Chiccarelli again said investigators didn't consider Laurean a threat to Lauterbach, or later a flight risk, because they had indications the pair were on friendly terms. He declined to detail those indications on Saturday.

Lauterbach's mother reported her daughter missing December 19 - five days after she last spoke with her. By that time, she had been placed on "unauthorized absence" status by the Marine Corps.

"Several steps were taken to contact her via telephone, cell phone, even in person by sending Marines to her residence," said II MEF spokesman Lt. Col. Curtis Hill. "At that time, there was no reason to believe anything other than she had voluntarily placed herself in an unauthorized absence status."

Hill said that Lauterbach also left her roommate a note saying she was "going away" and apologized for "the inconvenience."

An Onslow County Sheriff's employee contacted Naval investigators December 19 after hearing from police in Ohio and listed her as a "missing person at risk" in a national law enforcement database. He met with Lauterbach's roommate the next day, but court documents indicate he was unable to reach the Marine officer who had been notified of her absence, as he was away on holiday leave.

The employee checked ditches along several highways for her car, and asked the State Highway Patrol and several area hospitals if they had had any contact with the missing Marine. None had. He left word with the department radio room to contact him with any developments before leaving December 22 for a vacation.

Steiner said he and his sister, Maria's mother, told authorities they planned to fly to North Carolina around the Christmas holiday, but were advised not to because authorities believed Lauterbach was headed for Dayton.

Believing that authorities "dropped the ball," Steiner said the Lauterbachs eventually decided they could no longer wait. They flew to North Carolina and met with detectives Monday, the same day court documents indicate authorities first discovered Lauterbach's ATM card had been used by a white male on Christmas Eve and she missed a prenatal care appointment on December 26.

Brown also learned about the case Monday. A series of search warrants were filed, and the case went public and he asked for help.

By that point, it was too late. Laurean refused to meet with investigators, and eventually skipped town before dawn Friday without telling his lawyers where he was going.

If you have information on this case, call NC WANTED toll free at 1.866.43.WANTED (1.866.439.2683) or click on "Report a Tip" Your identity can be kept confidential.