Fugitive Marine's Truck Found In N.C.

Search Tightens For Marine Sought In Death Of Pregnant Marine

(CBS/AP)  Police investigating the murder of Camp Lejeune Marine Maria Lauterbach say they have a break in the case. Tuesday afternoon investigators located the truck belonging to the man suspected of killing her. Authorities found Marine Cpl. Cesar Laurean's truck at a hotel near Morrisville, North Carolina, reports CBS affiliate WRAL.

Laurean is the object of a nationwide manhunt. He is wanted for murder and has been eluding police since mid-December. Maria Lauterbach was reported missing about a week before Christmas Day, and her body was recovered from a shallow grave in Onslow County, N.C.

Earlier, a medical examiner cast doubt on Laurean's claims that Lauterback had committed suicide.

Dr. Charles Garrett, the Onslow County medical examiner, said Lauterbach, who was eight months pregnant when she vanished, died from "traumatic head injury due to blunt force trauma."

Authorities recovered her burned remains, along with those of her child, over the weekend from a fire pit in the backyard of Laurean, a fellow personnel clerk at Camp Lejeune whom she had accused of rape.

The autopsy did not answer all the questions about the circumstances of Lauterbach's death, said county prosecutor Dewey Hudson. Detectives are still not sure if she gave birth before her slaying, he said.

Laurean, 21, is believed to have fled Jacksonville early Friday morning, after leaving a note in which he admitted burying Lauterbach's body. But Tuesday, officials said they think he has gone into hiding and is no longer on the run.

"We believe it's certainly possible, based on him being out there for this long, and not having any sightings, that he is getting help," said Onslow County Sheriff's Capt. Rick Sutherland. "We think we have a handle on all his contacts, but there could be someone else out there helping."

In his note, Laurean alleged that Lauterbach committed suicide by cutting her own throat. Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown has consistently rejected that idea, citing blood spatters on the ceiling and a massive amount of blood on the wall found inside Laurean's home as signs of a violent confrontation.

Officials have offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to Laurean's arrest and have posted or plan to post billboards with his picture in cities nationwide, including Columbus, Ohio, Tampa, Fla., and Las Vegas.

Authorities received reports from several witnesses Sunday who said they saw Laurean at a bus station in Shreveport, La., but Brown has said detectives have been unable to confirm their validity.

[excoachken]

Maria was hailed "for her strength, vitality and service." They left out her Bipolar episodes and her unique ability to have a baby with a man married to someone else. It is a tragedy that she was killed, but it is also a tragedy that every time a young person dies, we cannot realistically assess her life and contributions to society, without creating a folk hero. Why not accept her as she was and allow the family to have a realistic goodbye?

[jetlizhan]

none of us know the real story regarding maria and her killer - she may have made some bad choices with him or she may have been raped by this creep. i''m sure it will probably all come out eventually. no matter the story, she did not deserve this horrible death, nor did this innocent life inside her. if this was his child, how could he??!!! i live about an hr and a half from onslow county and i''m looking over my shoulder everywhere i go for this piece of scum. i surely hope he''s caught soon - today would be nice.

[ktfaith11]

The online Jacksonville Daily News is now saying the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head. So why all the blood? Was someone trying to deliver the baby? I have a theory that may be way off base, but could it be that she originally intended to give the baby to Laurean and his wife and then changed her mind? Several things I have read make me wonder this. First, some forum comments several days ago on the Jacksonville news say Laurean was telling people his wife was pregnant, when she actually was not. If the Laureans told Maria they wanted to raise the baby, that could also explain the supposedly "friendly" relationship some say existed. Does anyone recall Maria''s mom saying in the media that in one of their final phone conversations, she told her daughter that there was no way she could keep and raise the baby? Perhaps that is exactly what she had decided to do, which would explain her buying a bus ticket to leave town. That may even be how she got to the Laurean''s house; maybe she went there to tell them or him of her decision, and that''s when things went bad. Of course, this is all speculation, but the pieces seem to fit.

[oscarj3]

You don''t get blood on the ceiling having a baby. No wonder you''re an ex coach, what''s your IQ 40? She was raped jerko.

[Krazcarl]

exCoachKen I normaly agree with you but your latest comment was gutter trash one of the first lessons of life don''t speak evil of the dead why I don''t know but it''s a rule I hope they three unsavory comedianes at your funeral making fun of your failures and shortcoming you have just proved why your an ex coach and have 0 class that was rude did you not have parents???

[ladyephesus1]

I agree crzmeat...excoachken''s statement was just lowdown, insensitive and wrong!!

[missingamerica]

They left out her Bipolar episodes...

Posted by exCoachKen

Weren''t those remarks regarding her being "bipolar and a liar" attributed to the Corporal''s step-mother?

Personally, I find any slanderous accusations coming from the step-mother of a pretty step-child to be more than a little suspect...

[slim1h2o]

"Well, he was an OK guy I guess...no one really cared for him because he was kinda an a$$hole, and quite frankly, I''''m suprised so many of you showed up today to bid adeau!"

geesh - you''''re such a kind heart?

Posted by sbbm at 11:50 AM : Jan 15, 2008

ROFLMAO!!

[nwihoosier]

Peace and Love, Brothers and Sisters
Don''t argue. Do something good for someone!
Peace and Love

[kevzgrl]

What I would like to know is, if Maria died on the 15th of Dec. as they were reporting yesterday, and there was a horrific amt of blood on the wall and ceiling, WHY did it take so long for the wife to notice something had happened in the house that she supposedly shared with her husband? It was nearly a month, when the investigation was getting closer to him, before he gave her the note describing how Maria "cut her own throat" and he only burned the body - and she waited 4 MORE hours before she went to police? I find it very hard to belive that she didn''t know about it before. I think she didn''t say anything earlier because she was involved, too. She gave him a headstart on his escape, and ought to, at the bare minimum, be charged with obstruction of justice.

[smiley676]

Nancy_Naive, the military is not awful. These things happen in the civilian world too. Why do you always have to group individuals together? Stop judging based on group.

Murder is wrong and terrible. And it appears that he did it. But can''t we let a judge and jury decide?

And I agree with exCoachKen. I mean his comments sounded heartless and cruel. But why is it that when anyone dies they were the nicest, smartest, most wonderful person?

I''m sure this women was a nice person. But what happened to reality?

exCoachKen

[salty1954]

Bush and his fascist crime family are turning out a generation of psycho killers.

I hope all you supporters of war and death are happy.

[iceman_1960]

"They left out her Bipolar episodes and her unique ability to have a baby with a man married to someone else. It is a tragedy that she was killed, but it is also a tragedy that every time a young person dies, we cannot realistically assess her life and contributions to society, without creating a folk hero [folk heroine]. Why not accept her as she was and allow the family to have a realistic goodbye?"
- Posted by exCoachKen at 09:41 AM : Jan 15, 2008

If she was bipolar, that was not something she chose to have. It"s a disease. Nobody would say of a murder victim, "Yeah, but just remember, he was a diabetic."

I didn"t know Laurean was a married man. Maybe he was. I never read that before. I just scanned the story and found no mention of any wife of his.

This is also the first time anyone has suggested that Lauutenbach is a "folk heroine."

Maybe she"s a fold heroine to the Pro Life movement. Had she had an abortion, maybe she"d be alive today. She does appear to have been Catholic. ["Inside St. Christopher Catholic Church in Vandalia, Ohio, about 10 miles north of Dayton, hundreds of friends offered prayers Monday for Lauterbach."]

[iceman_1960]

Still no mention of this case at Wikipedia.

That"s odd.

Breaking stories generally hit there within half an hour.

[iceman_1960]

Whoops, I spelled it wrong.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Lauterbach

[inmo-2009]

ibsteve-you know I am a step-mom and I look at and love my step son as though he was my own. Stop grouping people. Sorry if you have/had a bad step parent. I do my best and treat him like my own. There are bad parents who say and do bad things step or biological.

Salty and all you others blaming the military, Bush whoever. Look the man is clearly out of his mind. He killed a woman that he raped. It happens in everyday society. Stop blaming the president, the wife, the military plain and simple some people are just murderers

[iceman_1960]

Well, he was married.

"Brown... confirmed that authorities had received the note from Laurean"s wife, Christina, around 8 a.m. Friday, about four hours after they believe the suspect fled."

[iceman_1960]

Yes, Maria Lauterbach would be an iconic Folk Heroine to the Pro Life Movement.

She was unwilling even to give up for adoption, a baby conceived through rape, let alone consider aborting it. That decision may have cost her her life.

"Documents released by Onslow County authorities on Thursday indicated that the woman"s mother, Mary Lauterbach, described having a "firm conversation" with Maria Lauterbach on December 14th 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."

Source:

http://www.whiotv.com/news/15022290/detail.html

[iceman_1960]

Hi trbl24u.

Any sign of the two pond scums yet ?


(Just kidding)

[iceman_1960]

"And I am sure in an attempt to commit suicide she did not bash her own head in."
- Posted by trbl24u at 02:09 PM : Jan 15, 2008

It"s hardly even possible to commit suicide that way.

[iceman_1960]

If I"m holding a blunt object in my hands, I wouldn"t have the leverage to bash my own head hard enough to kill myself.

And the first blows would probably render me unable to continue.

If Tucker disputes this, we can challenge him to try it himself. That should convince him of the sheer impossibility of it.

I have never heard of anyone attempting suicide by bashing his own head with a blunt object.

[achtung-]

Mexicans are helping him. He''s a Mexican. So much for them.

[iceman_1960]

The two pond scums (just kidding) will probably have some new conjecture "just as reasonable" as the theory that she taunted him and then killed herself so that the police would charge him with murder.

Maybe... That she was killed by a satanic cult of Elvis clones, with a little help from Jimmy Hoffa and the Loch Ness Monster.

Now that suicide has been ruled out.

[iceman_1960]

"Mexicans are helping him. He''''s a Mexican. So much for them."
- Posted by achtung- at 02:28 PM : Jan 15, 2008

He is not Mexican.

He"s Italian-American.

Rudy Giuliani and Nancy Pelosi are helping him escape.





[Just kidding. But he IS Italian-American.]

[iceman_1960]

"and who gets the case? the state or the military?"
- Posted by trbl24u at 02:34 PM : Jan 15, 2008

Good question.

In the Jeffrey MacDonald case, the military had it first, but I"m not sure what applies here.

[displeased]

It''s obvious by looking in his eyes that he is nuts.

[jeffmilwak]

Any details authorities have about the wife are being withheld (my guess) intentionally so that the actual murderer, whomever that might be, could be tripped up during interrogation.

[deadanimal]

tuckerndfw quote from yesterday:

"Here''''s my version:
She wanted him to marry her.
He refused.
She intentionally became pregnant without his consent or agreement.
He still refused.
She claimed he raped her, hoping to force his wife to divorce him so he would marry her.
She didn''''t and he still refused to marry her.
She went to his house and attempted to cajole him into going with her.
He refused, so she killed herself in a hysterical, suicidal frenzy (which bipolar people are known to have).
At most, he''''s guilty of some minor offense related to corpse desecration or failure to provide aid.
Case closed, everyone can go home now."

Posted by tuckerndfw at 02:29 PM : Jan 14, 2008

I suppose it''s safe to assume you are not a detective in your "real" life.

[excoachken]

Now, I can believe Cesar, when he said she committed suicide. She probably head butted a cement object, repeatedly. It could happen.

[susanhelit]

Wonder how much the wife is a patsy, and how much she is an accomplice? She knows now that his note about her slitting her own throat was a lie, this was a murder with the head being bashed in, not a suicide - but when did she know?

Bashing someone''s head in will put blood everywhere - head wounds bleed a lot, they bleed onto the murder weapon, and every swing will spray blood on the ceiling and every wall there.

Amazing, but maybe not so surprising tha after all this time, there still are people misogynistic enough to want to blame her for her own murder.

[dagdamfyno]

The wife had to have known what happened....seriously, that is too much blood for a shaving cut and then the smell of a burning corpse... come on, she may not have had a hand in it but she knew

[oscarj3]

Right on Susan, but that stupid tucker thinks she did it herself. How stupid can he be???

[excoachken]

For those who want to know "how stupid Tucker can be", just wait until he has his mother read these comments to him!

[ladyephesus1]

With blunt force trauma to the head, I doubt that this woman cut her own throat. Now everything is coming out. If she did cut her own throat,then why burn the body? Also, blood doesnt just jump to the ceiling! Sounds like a violent attack to me.
Once you see the blood spatters, it can tell its own story. Also, why was the wife helping to paint the garage? Did he tell her it needed to be painted?
hmmm.....sounds fishy to me.

[Krazcarl]

Pay 0 attention to tucker he only sighns on to stir things up it''s been going on for months he''s the blog goonie he''s small it makes him feel big he''s not really that stupid {I THINK}.

[Krazcarl]

trb124u...The ones that have been on the blog for a while know his game it''s our new posters that get caught up in it he''s acting out over the blog should be obvious.

[mkbjon]

Something really bugs me about this case, and that''s why she was inside his house. Was he really stupid enough to abduct her and then bring her to his house and kill her? Especially IF the wife was living there. I mean, if you want to kill someone, why would you bring them to your own residence and do it where you would have to clean up the bloody mess and then burn and bury the body in your own backyard. If he didn''t abduct her, then she went willingly?? To the home of her accused rapist? There has to be more to this story than what we hear about in the media. It doesn''t seem that the murder was well planned---it sounds like an "in the heat of the moment" kind of thing. Where was her car found at? I remember the story said her id, wallet, or something was found at a guard gate. There was no mention of the car.

[iceman_1960]

"Now, I can believe Cesar, when he said she committed suicide. She probably head butted a cement object, repeatedly. It could happen."
- Posted by exCoachKen at 03:54 PM : Jan 15, 2008

You"re joking.

No one would try to commit suicide that way unless they had no other means at their disposal -- if they were locked in a small cell with nothing to lay hands on, for instance.

No one would do that under normal circumstances.

[rowdytexan2]

Posted by ladyephesus1 at 04:30 PM : Jan 15, 2008

I''d be leaning toward the wife helped. And that she and/or a family member or friend are helping him elude law officials.

[downtowner97]

How are they going to put together a jury on this one?

[iceman_1960]

She could have been a victim of alien abduction.



"Dozens Report UFO Over Texas Town"

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/01/15/national/main3713630.shtml

[iceman_1960]

He, I meant. Not she.

Her body was found.

[nv4me]

Hey, A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words:
www.poconocommunitynews.com

[klingon69]

I must of missed it, did they positively id the remains? If so then ok, if not then CBS has once again taken the initiative and decided the case before it has ever made it to court.

[iceman_1960]

Seriously, her murder was almost certainly a crime of passion.

Crimes of passion, where one spouse murders another during a violent quarrel, by definition never have a rational motive.

It is senseless to proclaim belief in his innocence on the basis of a lack of motive.

It will all come out in the trial.

F. Lee Bailey pointed out that the phrase "presumed innocent until proven guilty" is a technical legal term that is misunderstood by the general public.

Said he, "If the police presumed he was innocent, they wouldn"t be searching for him."

[klingon69]

I say shoot on sight. Put everyones mind at rest knowing he is off the streets for good and we won''''t have to pay for him to sit in prison.
Posted by trbl24u at 11:03 AM : Jan 15, 2008
Thank you, judge, jury and executioner.

[iceman_1960]

"I must of missed it, did they positively id the remains?"
- Posted by Klingon69 at 06:55 PM : Jan 15, 2008

Yes, today.

"Lauterbach"s burned remains were found in Laurean''s back yard, police said.

On Tuesday, police officially identified the remains as hers."

- CNN

[klingon69]

If she was bipolar, that was not something she chose to have. It"s a disease. Nobody would say of a murder victim, "Yeah, but just remember, he was a diabetic."
Posted by Iceman_1960 at 01:54 PM : Jan 15, 2008
To the best of my knowledge, diabetes does not cause violent mood swings. Bipolar disorder can and does.

[iceman_1960]

RE: Post by tuckerndfw at 07:08 PM : Jan 15, 2008

His wife isn"t the one fleeing to Mexico.

He didn"t wait around to take a police-administered polygraph.

In terms of certain knowledge, how does anyone know Ron Paul didn"t murder her ?

Cesar Laurean is guilty as hell.

[iceman_1960]

"You, like others posting nonsensical, emotion driven remarks, are posting unfounded opinions and calling them facts."
- Posted by tuckerndfw at 07:08 PM : Jan 15, 2008


Well, it"s good to know you for one are above that sort of thing, tucker.

Consider the following cool, reasoned, fact based analysis:


"The wife killed both of them. . . They"ll never find the guy, the wife cooked him and ate him."
- Posted by tuckerndfw at 06:31 PM : Jan 15, 2008