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US Marine accused of rape possibly spotted at station

The nationwide manhunt for a Marine wanted in the brutal slaying of a 20-year-old pregnant colleague who had accused him of rape focused on Louisiana and Texas after he was apparently seen at a bus station.

Witnesses said they saw Marine Corporal Cesar Armando Laurean at a Shreveport, Louisiana, station on Saturday night, Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown said. The bus the man boarded was headed to Texas, but police do not know if he continued on that route, Brown said.

Brown cautioned late on Sunday that his detectives were still working to confirm the sightings, backing away from earlier assurances that the witness accounts were genuine. But he was confident Laurean would soon be in custody.

On Saturday, authorities said they recovered what they believe to be the burned remains of Marine Lance Corporal Maria Lauterbach and her unborn child from a fire pit in Laurean's backyard, where they suspect he burned and buried her body.

Those remains have been sent to the state medical examiner's office in Chapel Hill for a formal identification.

That same day, state authorities issued an arrest warrant on murder charges for Laurean, 21, of the Las Vegas area. They believe he fled Jacksonville before dawn on Friday after leaving behind a note in which he admitted burying her body but claimed Lauterbach cut her own throat in a suicide.

Brown has challenged Laurean's assertion that Lauterbach killed herself, citing what he described as evidence of a violent confrontation inside Laurean's home -- blood spatters on the ceiling and a massive amount of blood on the wall.

Brown said on Sunday that evidence in the case "leads us to believe that he would be a dangerous and violent person if put in a corner."

Brown has said Lauterbach purchased a bus ticket to El Paso, Texas, around the time of her disappearance, but said on Sunday authorities are not in possession of the ticket. Shreveport is is about 38km from the Texas state line.

The FBI said on Sunday that Laurean was also wanted on a federal warrant charging him with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. Bureau spokesman Newsom Summerlin said that while investigators do not have any reason to believe he has fled the US, that remains a possibility.

Lauterbach disappeared sometime after Dec. 14, not long after she met with military prosecutors to talk about her April allegation that Laurean raped her. Naval investigators said on Saturday the rape case was progressing and Laurean had been under a protective order to stay away from Lauterbach.

Authorities received Laurean's note about the purported suicide from Laurean's wife, whom Brown has said is cooperating with authorities. Her family has described her as "heartbroken."

Lauterbach's mother reported her daughter missing Dec. 19. She had been placed on "unauthorized absence" status by the Marine Corps and was listed that day in a national law enforcement database as a "missing person at risk."

Naval investigators said authorities did not consider Laurean a threat to Lauterbach, or later a flight risk, because they had indications the pair were on friendly terms. Laurean later refused to meet with investigators and left town without telling his lawyers where he was going.
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