Answers sought in Lauterbach’s death [View All]

[unhappycamper]

Answers sought in Lauterbach’s death
By Mike Baker - The Associated Press
Posted : Saturday Jan 19, 2008 16:24:03 EST

RALEIGH, N.C. — As federal agents conduct an international manhunt for a Marine wanted the bloody slaying of a pregnant colleague, a team of detectives in North Carolina is on a search of a different kind.

There are just so many questions about the death of 20-year-old Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach that demand an answer. First among them: Why would Cpl. Cesar Armando Laurean want to kill her?

“The facts are still murky,” said Onslow County District Attorney Dewey Hudson. “There’s been a lot of twists turns, and I feel like we haven’t seen the end of it.”

Authorities think Laurean is in his native Mexico, hiding from an arrest warrant that charges him with Lauterbach’s death. Should he ever be caught and returned to North Carolina, it is Hudson who will have to explain Laurean’s motives to a jury. And so far, he said, the case he’s building is one of the most perplexing in his three decades as a prosecutor.

At first, the motive seemed obvious: Lauterbach had accused her fellow personnel clerk in the 2nd Marine Logistics Group of rape. It appeared that Laurean, a 21-year-old from Las Vegas who is married with an 18-month-old daughter, might be the father of her fetus.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/01/ap_missingmarinequestions_080119/