Suspect's Wife Kept Mum On Marine's Death

Cop Says Laurean's Wife Waited 24 Hours To Report LCpl. Maria Lauterbach's Death

(CBS/AP)  The wife of the key suspect in the violent slaying of a 20-year-old pregnant Marine waited almost 24 hours after learning of the woman's death to go to police, according to court documents released Thursday.

The sheriff's affidavit, which details the account Cpl. Cesar Armando Laurean's wife gave to detectives, does not provide an explanation for why she waited. Police have consistently described her as a cooperating witness, and she does not face charges.

Laurean told his wife, Christina, while driving to their attorney's office last Thursday that Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach visited the couple's home on Dec. 15, demanded money and told him she planned to leave the area, according the affidavit. Lauterbach had accused Laurean of rape in May, a charged he denied to military investigators.

Cesar Laurean reportedly told his wife that he and Lauterbach purchased a bus ticket for her to El Paso, Texas.

Christina Laurean told Onslow County sheriff's detective John Dubois that a disoriented and agitated Lauterbach returned to Cesar Laurean's house later that night and told him that "her plan had failed, that an argument ensued" and that she produced a knife and killed herself by slitting her throat," reports CBS News affiliate WRAL-TV in Raleigh.

"He became scared, took her body to a wooded area adjacent to his residence, and buried her. He obtained legal counsel and explained the facts to them. He was told that he was facing the death penalty," Dubois wrote.

Laurean disappeared the next day, leaving behind a note in which he repeated his claims that Lauterbach killed herself. Investigators later found Lauterbach's burned remains, and those of her child, in a fire pit in Laurean's backyard.

An autopsy determined Lauterbach died of blunt force trauma to the head. Authorities have said they don't believe she committed suicide, citing a large amount of blood found on the walls and ceiling of Laurean's home. Investigators used a chemical process to identify the blood evidence, finding that some had been disguised by washing and painting.

Authorities said Thursday they may have recovered the weapon used to kill Lauterbach, although they declined to say who gave them the item last weekend and what it was. Prosecutors have said an autopsy failed to answer all the questions about Lauterbach's death, including whether she gave birth before her death and of the identity of the father.

Authorities believe Lauterbach was killed around Dec. 15. Marine officials have said they attempted to find her after she failed to report to work on Dec. 17, but had evidence - including a note left for her roommate in which she wrote she was tired of the Marine Corps lifestyle - that led them to believe she left on her own.

The FBI has said Laurean is believed to have fled to Mexico, and they are working with authorities there to track him down. Laurean, 21, is a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Guadalajara, Mexico, and still has some family in the country, authorities said.

Laurean told members of his Marine Corps unit he would flee to Mexico if it appeared he would be found guilty of rape, according to court documents filed this week by the FBI, and his wife also told authorities she believed he would head to Mexico if he was in trouble.

[Netterz]

Sounds to me like shes just holding out looking like lil miss innocent till things calm down, then shes off to Mexico to be with her murdering hubby. Things deinately DONT add up with her, and for being the angry wife, who''s hubby got another woman pregnant, shes being wayyyy too evasive, and late coming with her story. Any normal woman would be helping the police lock up the murdering SOB, and screaming the truth from the roof tops before he murdes her and his other baby, UNLESS, shes ore involved, than shes admitting.. Is NOT rocket science. Shes an idiot for protecting him, because she is NO DIFF than the woman he already murdered, she very easily could be next, if hes capable of it with the other.

[akraze]

Yes, I can not believe that she still has custody of a child when she was at the very least, an accomplise. Why/How could she still love this guy unless truly she is so blinded by love or just plain demonic. I hope that officials in the area and the military (she is active duty apparently) start getting serious about the questions they are asking, and don''t wait for her to "run" before realizing they should have taken her into custody when they had the chance. I read that one of the investigators on the case did not consider Cesar a ''flight risk''.... HELLO,,, he was accused of rape and the girl disappears before the court appearance, and then find out he is a suspect and you don''t think he''s a flight risk. Also I would like to know if the mail was intercepted by the UPS that Laurean sent her from Texas. I hope so and I hope that is being analyzed. It probably matches the handwriting on the note that "Maria" probably left (or his wife''s handwriting). He was "smart" enough to get out Jacksonville but he''s an "idiot" to think he''ll get away with this. They will find him and he will pay. If not here, then when he stands before God. He knows all things and I don''t get feeling that Cesar is very repentant.

[akraze]

Yes, I am from Jacksonville so I read the stories about a day before they are published everywhere else. It does appear that Maria maintained some contact with him because he had access to many things that can''t find like an ATM pin number, etc. It sounds like neither one of the many statements stayed the same during the rape investigation and in my mind there is the potential that he was just having an affair with her, but it turned bad. The fact that he burned the bodies though so that they couldn''t DNA test the baby to see if it was his does lead one to think he did in fact rape her. In either case, nothing warrants this - I can''t even begin to imagine the toture went through. There is absolutely NO way that she did not know. Whether she was actually involved in the killing, I''m not convinced, but she had to have 1)Helped him drive her car to the bus station 2)purchase a ticket which appears he ended up using (pre-meditated or just covering his tracks?) 3) painting/cleaning the house 4)blood splatters on the ceiling and how bout the burnt smell and fire pit? 5)What about the note left in Maria''s apartment? And things looking like she had packed up conveniently while he was out of town. Going with him to the attorneys who I also feel should be answering some questions since planned his disappearance after talking with them.

[Krazcarl]

I''m not a rocket scientist ther is one troubling thing to me why go to antorney and ask advice after murdering a woman and her child you should know it would be life at best and the death penalty would be on the table if that state allows it the only thing I can think of is trying to bloster his alibi if and when he gets caught any ideas.

[joyblogs4u]

Folks, I am sorry, I just wish that everyone would stop acting as though Mrs. Laurean''s first clue or knowledge, about Maria''s brutal murder was when they were on the way to the attorney''s office. I know husbands can hide alot things, but all of that is just to far fecthed for me. Just because the sheriffs department bought it does not mean that you have to. There is no way all that could go on in my house/yard/life with no clue, further more I don''t see myself as someone who would go to a chirstmas party at my husbands place of employment, without my husband! Unless of course I had killed her myself and was following my husbands recomendation to go, so later I would have some sort of alibi while he runs,so I can get our 18 month old daughter, and meet up with him later. HELLO, someone despratly needs to either lock this woman up, or give some reasonable explanation as to as to why she has not been arrested in for some connection with the death of Maria and her daughter. One more thing, I think it is a safe bet that whatever day he was at Lowes buying his (cover up a murder) supplies the 14th? The fifteenth?, is the day Maria died, but no one has said what that date was. Go figure.

[joyblogs4u]

The story does not work for me, why did she attend a Christmas party for her husband''s batallion alone? Where was their child while she was at the party, and he was murdering, digging graves, cleaning, buying paint, re-painting the home? I am sorry but there is no way he did all of that in the few hours she would have been at the party. He might have sent her to the party so she would have an alibi, we have no idiea what time that day Maria was actually murdered, she may have killed the woman herself.
She said she found the note at 4:oo am Friday morning, then waited several hours to turn it in? Well why would he write his wife a letter repeating what he had already told her the day before? I think she did just as the two of them planned, so she can in time collect their daughter and meet him in Mexico.
He may have just been cleaning up after his wife,who was cleaning up after her husband. It would be eaiser for him to do the running.
Lock her up before there is no one to answer for the murder of this poor girl and her baby, it sounds to me as if she was already tortured for months prior to her death. Enough already.

[tweedle02]

I do not believe the wifes story. I believe she knew all along about what was going on, and I believe she might have assisted or helped him with his plan. To delay reporting to the police is obstruction of justice and just enough time for the guilty party to leave the U.S. Or did he?? I do not believe that she is little miss innocent. With a "lovers triangle" what other sordid details are going to come out now?

[bebe28-2009]

There is no way that his wife did not know something long before she claims to. If I saw my husband digging a hole in my back yard for no reason and painting without being asked to, you bet your sweet behind I would be checking things out. Sorry, there is no way that I believe her story any more than I believed his. She gave him plenty of time to get away and that alone is justification for citing her with aiding and abetting. Secondly, you tell me who would have spent another night in the house with this man once he confessed to the things he did.. Let''s get real here!

[justfacts2]

How can she sleep at night knowing she helped to kill an innocent baby? I wouldn''t be surprised if she helped her husband kill the woman and her baby. She is an accessory to murder and needs to be charged as such. Although the police are just going to stick their hands up their bums and let her flee to Mexico like her husband did.

[kevzgrl]

"The sheriff''s affidavit, which details the account Cpl. Cesar Armando Laurean''s wife gave to detectives, does not provide an explanation for why she waited. Police have consistently described her as a cooperating witness, and she does not face charges."

Ok, so she is GUILTY of complicity and obstruction of justice but does not face charges.....

She KNEW about it WAY, WAY before last Thursday when he "told" her - she just didn''t WANT to see the new paint, wet carpet, dug-up fire pit and all that for nearly a MONTH, and report that something was wrong. How can they get away with NOT charging her after all that??? Sometimes our "justice" system leaves me totally baffled.....

[julianne2you]

Hey, he is a married man...what if he did not rape her in the first place? How do you prove that? What if she was upset that he would not leave his wife for her when she found out she was pregnant? Women and men alike need to realize people are not toys and lives matter. Obviously there was some kind of relationship here. This is such a pathetic situation. Both of them were desperate people.

[blackyowe]

Who is sicker the wife or the guy, I ask? Yeah she didn''t know the walls were repainted to cover blood spatter! Lock up this women!

[lfp190]

I would imagine the wife was very traumatized by finding out her hubby was capable of rape, plus she had to be 50/50 for every victim. I am sure she was horrified by her husbands action but part of her probably wanted to believe the pregnant marine had killed herself, we seldom look at ourself unless we have too.

[iceman_1960]

"The sheriff"s affidavit, which details the account Cpl. Cesar Armando Laurean''s wife gave to detectives, does not provide an explanation for why she waited."

She was giving her fugitive husband a head start.

[iceman_1960]

"Christina Laurean told Onslow County sheriff"s detective John Dubois that a disoriented and agitated Lauterbach returned to Cesar Laurean"s house later that night and told him that "her plan had failed, that an argument ensued..."

What plan was that ?

[iceman_1960]

I"ll never forget how Scott Peterson"s defense team tried to implicate Amber Frey, his past girlfriend, and to suggest she might have killed Laci.

And of course there was that hypothetical Satanic Cult that might have done it.

[iceman_1960]

The "ladies" of the Manson family used knives to stab their adult victims.

Carla Faye Tucker used an ax to dispatch her adult victims.

In both cases the "ladies" had a lot of male help.

I can"t think of a case where a female used a blunt instrument to dispatch an adult victim.

It"s possible, of course. Venus and Serena Williams could probably do it. Their serves are faster than most male tennis pros. (Fortunately they"re both sweet young women.)

There"s an old saying: "If you hear hoof beats outside your window, it may be a zebra that just escaped from the zoo, but it"s probably just a donkey."

[hbevis]

IF THIS MAN HAS KILLED THE YOUNG WOMAN AND BURNED HER BODY THEN HE SHOULD BE BURNED ALIVE..

[mistybleue]

Considering nobody knows the real truth except for her and him, this is all complete speculation. There are alot of victims in the case and right now I feel sorry for the little girl. Her little world as she knows it has been ripped apart. How sad is that? As long as we are all speculating, my opinion is that the wife was threatened by this piece of ***. Also her daughter, and family might have been threatned as well. She may be suffering from battered womans syndrome or she may have been the master mind. We have no concrete evidence in either direction. The only concrete evidence is many lives have just been ripped apart and that is tragic. I am reserving judgement or whatever you want to call it untill the truth comes out, if it ever does.

[b-easy63]

She has to be under advise of counsel and why has she not been arrested theres a multitude of charges they could press.

Posted by crzmeat at 05:24 PM : Jan 17, 2008


Most of us have heard of "good cop/bad cop in interrogations. part of that psychology is to befriend part of a criminal team and get their trust. the hope is, they will become so friendly that they will divulge more info and ''turn'' on their partner. She is not being charged and told she is innocent because it suits the police to do so. I can almost guarantee that this woman cannot ****** without a cop seeing her flush the toilet and if she leaves town for any reason, she will have a lot of company. Already, there are several reasons to arrest her, including her failure to immediately come forth in a possible capital crime case. But it suits them right now, to butter her up, coddle her and pretend they believe and trust her implicitly--hoping she will slip up and either lead them to her husband or give up more information. Scott Petersen was not a suspect either. Until he was--then he ended up in prison. Believe half of what you see, NONE of what you hear and just watch this mess unfold. She appears to be complicit--from what most of us have read--but who knows--the police have their suspicions I''m sure, starting with if she helped get rid of the blood and help to paint, if she helped with the burning and why she waited so long. She is definitely a suspect--even if they tell her and the public no she isn''t.