Woman’s body recovered; missing Marine charged

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. – Investigators on Saturday recovered the badly burned remains of a woman and her unborn baby, its tiny hand clasped in death, from a backyard grave and formally charged a Marine with killing them.

Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown said the recovery answered the “bizarre” mystery of what happened to Marine Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach, 20, who was about eight months pregnant when she was reported missing in December. Although the identity has not been confirmed, authorities charged fellow Marine Cesar Armando Laurean, 21, with killing Lauterbach in mid-December.

Meanwhile, questions grew Saturday about authorities’ handling of Lauterbach’s rape allegation.

The Associated Press reported that the sheriff’s department was slow to act, and that Lauterbach continued to work alongside Laurean and endured harassment at Camp Lejeune. But Navy investigators said the pair had been separated on the job, and the rape case was progressing.

Brown and Onslow District Attorney Dewey Hudson said the rape allegedly occurred on the Camp Lejeune Marine Corps base and not in jurisdiction of civilian agencies.

“This has nothing to do with Sheriff Brown or my office,” Hudson said.

Brown said he had asked the Federal Bureau of Investigation to assist in a nationwide search for Laurean, who originally is from Nevada. Lauterbach had accused him of raping her in April.

Investigators who had been searching for Lauterbach since Dec. 19 – with some indications that she was alive – changed direction Friday and focused on Laurean’s neighborhood after receiving information from a witness.

Brown said Laurean left a note claiming that Lauterbach killed herself and that he only buried her.

But the sheriff said evidence did not support Laurean’s claims. He said blood spatters inside the house indicated she had been the victim of substantial violence. “The blood splatters were even up into the ceiling,” he said.