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Missing US Marine accused of rape, grave found in yard

Authorities said they believe they have found the shallow grave of a pregnant Marine in the backyard of a comrade she accused of rape and a person close to the case said the suspect left a note insisting the woman had killed herself.

After some slight digging in a fire pit discovered in the yard of Marine Corporal Cesar Armando Laurean, detectives found what "appeared to be burnt human remains," Onslow County District Attorney Dewey Hudson said on Friday night.

"We think we have found what will [contain] the skeletal remains of Maria Lauterbach," Hudson said. Authorities placed a tarp and two white tents over the area and planned to begin slowly scraping the earth with garden tools yesterday morning.

Lance Corporal Maria Frances Lauterbach, 20, vanished three weeks ago, days after she talked to military prosecutors about a rape case against Laurean, who remains at large. Authorities said on Friday that information from another woman, a former Marine, left them certain that she is dead.

That witness is Laurean's wife, a person familiar with the investigation said on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. Before fleeing Jacksonville on Friday, Laurean gave his wife a note that said Lauterbach had cut her own throat, the person said.

Laurean said in the note that he had nothing to do with her suicide, but that he had buried her body, the person said.

Authorities on foot and all-terrain vehicles searched the neighborhood near Camp Lejeune on Friday. Megan Melton, who lives nearby, said dozens of vultures had descended on the area in the past few weeks.

Although the outdoor search was suspended for the night, investigators from the State Bureau of Investigation moved indoors and began a search for blood and other evidence inside his one-story, brown brick ranch home.

The search continued late on Friday for Laurean, a 21-year-old from Clark County, Nevada, who had refused to meet with investigators and apparently left the area without telling his lawyers where he was going, the sheriff said.

Lauterbach met with military prosecutors last month to discuss pursuing rape charges against Laurean, said Kevin Marks, supervisory agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service at Camp Lejeune. He said military prosecutors believed they had enough evidence to argue that the case should go to trial.

Originally from Dayton, Ohio, Lauterbach was reported missing on Dec. 19 by her mother, who last spoke with her daughter on Dec. 14, authorities said.
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