Federal authorities were posting billboards nationwide with the picture of a Marine wanted in the slaying of a pregnant colleague, as the sheriff urged him to turn himself in and announced a $25,000 reward Monday for information leading to his arrest.
Authorities are looking for Marine Cpl. Cesar Armando Laurean, 21, wanted in the death of Marine Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach, who had accused him of rape.
“The search for Laurean is Earthwide,” Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown.
Brown used the TODAY show on Monday to call on Laurean to give himself up, promising law enforcement authorities will bring him to justice.
Speaking from Jacksonville, N.C., with TODAY co-host Matt Lauer, Brown addressed Laurean personally, saying, “Mr. Laurean, the best thing to do is, let’s resolve the problem where it’s at. You’ve committed a terrible crime, and law enforcement in this country is not going to go away until you’ve faced a jury and the courts for what you’ve done.”
Brown predicted that Laurean will be caught.
“You’re never gone for good when law enforcement is after you,” Brown said. “It may be two days or two weeks, 10 days or 10 years, but you’re never gone for good.”
Brown said that he’s convinced the charred remains of a female and fetus recovered from a fire pit in Laurean’s backyard are those of Lauterbach and her unborn baby. Lauterbach was eight months pregnant when she disappeared on Dec. 14 from Camp Lejeune, N.C., where she was stationed.
“The evidence is circumstantial that this is a female with a fetus in the grave, but it’s clear enough for me,” Brown said, adding that DNA and dental evidence would confirm the identity of the remains.
Brown also called on the public to contact police if they think they’ve seen Laurean. The last unconfirmed sightings of the Marine, who left his home early Friday morning, were at a bus terminal in Shreveport, La. Several people said they thought they saw him boarding a bus bound for Texas.
The sheriff warned anyone who thinks they have seen Laurean not to confront him.
“If you do have the opportunity to come in contact with him, do not get him in a corner,” he said. “I do believe if you were to pose a threat to his apprehension against his will, I do believe your life would also be in danger.”
Brown cautioned late Sunday that his detectives, aided by the FBI and U.S. Marshals, were still working to confirm the sightings in Shreveport, backing away from earlier assurances that the witness accounts were genuine. But he was confident Laurean would soon be in custody.
“It will be a short trip — a short vacation — for Mr. Laurean,” Brown said. “His vacation may be short, his travel may be long, but I hope we’ll be there to help him return.”
Lauterbach last spoke with her mother by phone on Dec. 14, not long after she met with military prosecutors to talk about her April allegation that Laurean raped her. Naval investigators said Saturday the rape case was progressing, and that Laurean had been under a protective order to stay away from Lauterbach.
State authorities issued an arrest warrant on murder charges for Laurean, 21, of the Las Vegas area. They believe he fled Jacksonville before dawn Friday, and said he left behind a note in which he admitted burying her body but claimed she cut her own throat in a suicide.
Evidence of a violent confrontation
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 has said Lauterbach purchased a bus ticket to El Paso, Texas, around the time of her disappearance, but said Sunday authorities do not have the ticket. Shreveport is roughly 950 miles southwest of Jacksonville, and is about two dozen miles from the Texas state line and more than 800 miles east of El Paso.
Shreveport police chief Henry Whitehorn Sr. told The Associated Press his department is working with the U.S. Marshals Service and other law enforcement agencies to locate Laurean. “We don’t know if he is still in the area,” Whitehorn said. “We believe it may have just been a pass-through.”
The FBI said Sunday that Laurean also was wanted on a federal warrant charging him with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. Bureau spokesman Newsom Summerlin said investigators have no reason to believe he’s fled the country, but that it is possible.
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 didn’t 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.