Possible Sighting Of Marine Murder Suspect

Police Say He Was On Greyhound In Louisiana; $25,000 Reward Offered For Information

(CBS/AP)  Authorities offered a $25,000 reward Monday for information leading to the arrest of a key suspect in the death of a 20-year-old pregnant Marine.

Federal authorities are also working to post billboards nationwide with the picture of Marine Cpl. Cesar Armando Laurean, wanted in the slaying of Marine Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach, who had accused him of rape.

Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown said Monday that federal marshals have spoken with Laurean's family, but still haven't found him. Lauterbach's ATM card was found at a bus station in Durham, about 150 miles northwest of Jacksonville, and witnesses had reported seeing his black four-door pickup truck in the Raleigh and Durham area, Brown said.

"We have answered a whole lot of questions about Mr. Laurean, except where he is," said Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown. "There will always be lingering questions until we get the final, true, clear picture of what happened."

Lauterbach's friends say they immediately suspected Laurean but the question is, why didn't police? Lauterbach was last heard from on December 14th and was officially reported missing December 19th. But CBS News correspondent Jeff Glor reports that it took 18 days for the sheriff's department to narrow its focus to Laurean - despite the ongoing military rape investigation.

Brown said detectives were still not positive that witness reports placing Laurean on Saturday night at a bus depot in Shreveport, La., were accurate. Brown said those reports were unclear as to whether the man believed to be Laurean boarded a bus that was headed to Texas, or left the station.

One of the biggest concerns facing authorities is that Laurean, who speaks fluent Spanish, may try and slip across the Mexican border, reports CBS' The Early Show.

"The search for Laurean is earthwide," Brown said.

Brown declined Monday to discuss in detail what authorities had learned from Laurean's family, but did confirm he and his wife have an 18-month-old daughter. He again said that Laurean's wife is cooperating with authorities, and confidently predicted that Laurean will be caught.

Laurean's in-laws, Bruce and Debby Shifflet, told The Early Show that their daughter Christine spoke with Laurean. They say she asked him to turn himself in for the sake of the family.

"He said, he didn't want to go to the pen for this," Bruce Shifflet told The Early Show. "He was remorseful, but he left anyway."

The potential sightings in Louisiana came a day after authorities said they 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.

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

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FBI Info On Laurean

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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.

"I thought he was a man of character and it's obviously he is just a coward taking off on his family and leaving," Bruce Shifflet told The Early Show. "This is just a tragedy for both families."

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."

The military has long been accused of mishandling sexual assault reports, and there are now some protective measures in place, reports CBS News national security correspondent David Martin.

Earlier in the Iraq war, revelations that there had been more than 100 sexual assault cases in Kuwait, Iraq and the rest of the Persian gulf coupled with complaints from female service members that the male-dominated chain of command did not take their allegations seriously, brought charges from Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, that victims of a sexual assault in the military face far more obstacles in getting the help that she or he needs, reports Martin.

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.

Sheriff Brown told Glor that he doesn't expect the suspect to give up and go quietly.

When asked what Lorean could be capable of, Brown answered, "Based on what I saw in that grave, anything."

"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."

[psham1-2009]

8 months on a rape investigation - give me a friggen break. Way to go Marines!

[iceman_1960]

I may have quoted tuckerndfw out of context just now.

[iceman_1960]

"Raped some bimbo? No problem, got your six."
- Posted by tuckerndfw at 04:21 PM : Jan 14, 20

This from the man who accused me of gender bias.

[staresky]

Nutsie11, you are a mental case. The United States is a melting pot and has been for hundreds of years. You backwoods thinking or comments an ancient. That type of thinking was extiguished in the 1960''s. Go to your time machine and go back, you will fit right in.

They did say that he is fluent in Spanish, so Mexico does seem the likely choice, so I will give you that one. However, the police agencies gave him one heck of a lead to get there. He probably crossed the border a few days ago, and is basically untrackable at this point.

[Krazcarl]

ICEMAN...Are you serious a crime of passion this arbitrary he had a plan there''s a remote possibility he talked her into the truck but if he had why did a pregnate lady drop her phone on the ground before she got in I believe she was leaving a message to police of where and that she was grabbed or threatened into the truck, This was in no way a crime of passion a lovers quarrel my hinny it was a criminal trying to remove evidence to escape prosecution, Rape is a violent act not passion this was cold blooded murder of the worst kind planned and carried out in no way shape or form a crime of passion, as for tuck I gave up responding or even reading his post a long time ago he''s just trying to stir things up it makes him feel intelligent he''s a small man.

[gmond]

I know, the one armed man killed her.

[enoughya]

This Brown guy is an idiot. Or is all of law enforcement so incompetent? I guess cops are only good at harassing the general public with petty traffic tickets and tasering those who committed no crime, while they allow the real criminals all the freedom in the world. The girl who alleged she was raped by this punk marine was missing for a month and they never investigated or suspected something amiss given the seriousness of her rape charge? Are these sheriffs just intellectually incurious or as big as dullards as those in the Bush cabal? Then their most inane comment of all, they did not think the marine thug was a flight risk--and there is no shame in announcing their stupidity? Any cop with half a brain would have had the thug in the judicial system on the serious charge of rape, and there would have been no murder committed. The incompetence is mind-boggling, but, hey, I guess these cops are good at setting up speed traps to take money from those who really work for a living. Maybe cops and the public are both better off if cops just eat donuts all day long. Incompetent idiots.

[oscarj3]

tucker
anybody with an IQ over 40 knows he''s guilty. Don''t drink anything else tonight, you''re drunk.

[iceman_1960]

"Iceman have a great night you have been fun today."
- Posted by trbl24u at 07:33 PM : Jan 14, 2008

You too. Adios.

Goodbye all.

Keep the faith.

[slim1h2o]

I said that too.

Tucker is just playing Devil"s Advocate. (But with a real Devil this time.)

Posted by Iceman_1960 at 07:29 PM : Jan 14, 2008

Oh , did you? I din''t see your post. Anyways...I can''t beleive he keeps posting, in defence of the guy.

He''s done something!