Captured Marine's Wife Refused To Help Him

(CBS/AP)  Prosecutors in North Carolina say the wife of a Marine charged with murdering a pregnant colleague refused his pleas for help as he hid from authorities in Mexico.

Onslow County Sheriff's Capt. Rick Sutherland said Friday that Cpl. Cesar Laurean repeatedly asked his family and his wife Christina for resources after he fled in January to Mexico.

CBS News correspondent Jeff Glor reports that even though authorities say Christina Laurean had been communicating with her husband via the website MySpace, she's still considered a cooperating witness in the case. They say she will not be charged with a crime.

Laurean was arrested by FBI agents and police in the western Mexico town of Tacambaro on Thursday night after a three-month international manhunt. Sutherland said cooperation from Christina Laurean "aided us and got us to the point where we are today."

He is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Marine Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach, who had accused him of rape. Her burned remains were found in January in the backyard of his home near Camp Lejeune.

Due to extradition rules, Laurean will no longer be eligible for the death penalty, Glor reports.

Laurean told police he slept in fields and survived by eating fruit that he found while he was on the run, authorities said.

Bearded, thin and chained at the wrists and ankles, Laurean spoke briefly with The Associated Press while being held at the Michoacan state Attorney General's Office in Morelia, the state capital. He appeared slightly disoriented and stared straight ahead, his eyes occasionally filling up with tears as he answered a reporter's questions in terse phrases.

"You know my name. You know who I am," Laurean said. Asked if he wanted to say anything, Laurean answered, "Proof," but wouldn't explain.

Asked what he would do next, he replied, "Do I have a choice? ... I don't know."

The FBI said Laurean, 21, is awaiting extradition to the U.S., although local prosecutors in North Carolina cautioned the process could take a year or more if he decides to fight it.

Magdalena Guzman, a prosecutors' spokeswoman, said police carrying out an anti-kidnapping operation stopped Laurean as he wandered on a street because they thought he looked suspicious.

When they realized he didn't speak Spanish well, they became even more suspicious. After running his name through a computer - and recognizing his distinctive tattoos - they realized Laurean was wanted in the United States to face charges in Lauterbach's death.

CBS's Adrienne Bard in Mexico City says Laurean was arrested with one dollar in his pocket (listen).

U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza said in a statement that "Laurean fled to Mexico early this year in the hope of avoiding justice" and called the arrest "a clear message to all would-be fugitives from U.S. law that Mexico will not provide them refuge."

Laurean, of Las Vegas, was born in Guadalajara, but family members there have said he moved to the U.S. more than 10 years ago. He had told members of his unit that he would flee to Mexico if it appeared he would be found guilty of rape. Authorities believe he entered Mexico on a bus on Jan. 14.

Lauterbach and Laurean were both personnel clerks in the same logistics unit at Camp Lejeune, an expansive coastal North Carolina base that is home to roughly 50,000 Marines. Detectives believe Laurean killed Lauterbach, who was 20 and eight months pregnant, on Dec. 14 after forcing her to remove money from her bank account.

Detectives have said Laurean left behind a note for his wife in which he denied killing Lauterbach but admitted to burying her remains. In the note, Laurean said Lauterbach committed suicide by cutting her own throat.

Authorities rejected the assertion, saying evidence indicates Lauterbach died of blunt force trauma to the head.

Lauterbach accused Laurean of rape last spring, a charge he denied and one that Naval investigators were unable to corroborate. Even though Lauterbach later told investigators she did not feel Laurean posed a danger or threat to her, the pair was separated on base. The Marines have said their regimental commander was intent on taking the case to a hearing that could have led to a trial.

"Our focus as a community and a nation must be on achieving justice for Maria and determining what can be done in the future to provide protection for other women in the military," said Ohio GOP Rep. Michael Turner, who had complained about the Marines' handling of Lauterbach's rape allegations.

Onslow County District Attorney Dewey Hudson has agreed not to seek execution in order to win the cooperation of Mexico, which refuses to send anyone back to the U.S. unless provided assurance they will not face a death sentence.

Tipped by the note, and not long after authorities went public in their search for the Lauterback, detectives discovered the charred remains of the missing Marine and her fetus in a shallow grave in Laurean's backyard.

Phone messages seeking comment left at Lauterbach's parents' home in Vandalia, Ohio, with Lauterbach's uncle Pete Steiner, and with family attorney Chris Conard were not immediately returned late Thursday.

Another family attorney, Merle Wilberding, said Lauterbach's mother, Mary, received the call from the FBI informing her of the arrest with "shock and surprise."

"She's been living with Cpl. Laurean being on the run ... and living without an expectation that he was going to be captured any time soon, so when the word came it really caught her by surprise, and she's still trying to let it all sink in," Wilberding told WDTN-TV in Dayton, Ohio.

In an exclusive interview on CBS News' The Early Show in January, Laurean's in-laws pleaded for him to turn himself in, saying that it would be better for both families rather than him just being caught.

A woman who answered the phone at the home of Laurean's father-in-law, Bruce Shifflet, near Prospect, Ohio, hung up without commenting when told of the arrest.

[phil_hubb]

Let that be a lesson to murderers everywhere.

If you''re going to do something as gutsy as murder, at least have the good sense to rob a bank on your way out of the country so you''ll have the resources you need when you get down to Mexico.
Otherwise, the Federales will pick you up for vagrancy and run your ID.
This guy is such a moron. I have no pity for such an imbecile, no matter how hard I try.

Planning is everything.
jmo

[phil_hubb]

Let that be a lesson to murderers everywhere.

If you''re going to do something as gutsy as murder, at least have the good sense to rob a bank on your way out of the country so you''ll have the resources you need when you get down to Mexico.
Otherwise, the Federales will pick you up for vagrancy and run your ID.
This guy is such a moron. I have no pity for such an imbecile, no matter how hard I try.
Planning is everything.

[swwils]

His wife shouldn''t help him,I mean he supposedly got Cpl. Lauterbach pregnant by rape.He supposedly murdered her and her unborn child.If she knew about any of this,and was not fourth coming to the Criminal Investigation Division,in the military she could face Courts Martial proceedings herself.This guy has a small child his self.He has to be a SMF,to do something this sickening.Barbecuing over that poor girls body.I think a lot of other heads will roll before this plays out.

[ranger1948]

newsterl
If you had read my comments i clearly stated i am against all crime. I am against the war in Iraq as illegal and immoral. I do not blame our trops for the war. Bush started the war. He and his regime should be impeached and tried for their crimes, as you should be tried for treason.

[ranger1948]

newsterl
You are lucky someone like me hasn''t found you and twisted your cowardly neck for being a traitor.

[newsterl]

newrsterl
I still think you are a traitor and a terrorist sympathizer. I hope a petriot finds you in what ever hole you hide in and cuts your head off. Wishing for the death of all our soldiers in Iraq. You have to be the lowest scum in this country. You don''''t have the bals to defens it so shut the hell up. I also do not like bush and his regime or the war in Iraq, but i will always support our troops.

Posted by ranger1948

So in other words, you still dont have a comment about the CHRISTIAN violence but still seem to claim its just the ''insurgent'' who kill ''innocent'' people- people who as you know are actively invading THEIR country.

So you claim you are against bush and the war, but then turn around and say you support the troops, you cant separate the two like that as the latter is a group who is ENABLING BUSH''s REGIME to do this, therefore, since they are the bush regime enablers perpetrating this war despite everything- I say they can STAY the hel1 over there and not come back.
140,000 troops or even 10% can all stand up and say NO MORE, theres no way the military or Govt can do anything then and will be forced to back down.

[ranger1948]

hickorylam
It also said she was instrumental in the police locating him so i am sure she has been given immunity from any charges and may end up testifying against him, however this could open a can of worms for her as any immunity by the state would not apply with the marine corps.

[ranger1948]

newrsterl
I still think you are a traitor and a terrorist sympathizer. I hope a petriot finds you in what ever hole you hide in and cuts your head off. Wishing for the death of all our soldiers in Iraq. You have to be the lowest scum in this country. You don''t have the bals to defens it so shut the hell up. I also do not like bush and his regime or the war in Iraq, but i will always support our troops.

[newsterl]

In Flanders, all heretical Protestants were ordered executed and thousands were burned at the stake. But queen Mary was merciful to Protestants who recanted - instead of burning, the men would be killed by a sword and women buried alive.

Chronicles record a story of a crusader-bishop who referred to the impaled heads of slain Muslims as a joyful spectacle for the people of God.

When Muslim cities were captured by Christian crusaders, it was standard operating procedure for all inhabitants - no matter what their age - to be summarily killed. It is not an exaggeration to say that the streets ran red with blood as Christians reveled in church-sanctioned horrors. Jews who took refuge in their synagogues would be burned alive, not unlike the treatment they received in Europe.

[newsterl]

In France, the largest Protestant group was known as the Huguenots. They were mercilessly persecuted, and King Henry created a heresy court known infamously as The Burning Chamber because that was the standard punishment for heretics. On the night of August 24, 1572 - known as St. Bartholomew''s Day - Catholic soldiers swept through Huguenot neighborhoods of Paris in a foreshadowing of what would happen to the Jews under Nazi rule.

Thousands were slaughtered in their homes and other massacres timed for the same night occurred in cities across France. In response to this, Pope Gregory XIII wrote to France''s King Charles IX: "We rejoice with you that with the help of God you have relieved the world of these wretched heretics."

Pope Pius sent Catholic troops into France to aid in the repression efforts, ordering the army commander to kill all prisoners. Pius, unsurprisingly, was later canonized as a saint. In the Catholic Church, sainthood is an honor which goes not to the nicest person or to someone who has aided humanity, but to those Catholics who have done great deeds to advance the cause of Catholicism. As a result of such treatment, Huguenots fled France in large numbers. One group reached what would later become Florida - and when they were discovered by a Spanish expedition, all were killed.