Remembering Maria Lauterbach - One Year Anniversary

[sarahhod]

Lauterbach's death marked first of many murders in Onslow in past year

http://www.enctoday.com/news/marine_61112_jdn__article.html/lauterbach_laurean.html

December 13, 2008 - 7:39 PM
LINDELL KAY
DAILY NEWS STAFF

"Here we go again," a resident of the Chapel Ridge subdivision said when she learned the body of a woman had been discovered buried on a neighbor's property last week.

Carolyn Diehl said she is not jaded, just adjusting to Onslow County.

"It is sad and tragic to think this could happen right here three times in a year," she said.

Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown agreed. In office for 18 years, Brown said the last has been the roughest.

"I never anticipated or could have believed there would be three similar murders in one year in this county," Brown said.

The body of Vickie Lewis, 43, was unearthed Dec. 6 behind a house on Edgewater Drive. Albert Bedford, 54, has been charged with an open count of murder in her death. She had been missing for two weeks.

In July, forestry workers found charred human remains in a wooded area of Sneads Ferry. Authorities confirmed the next day that the remains were Fort Bragg soldier 2nd Lt. Holley Wimunc. She had been missing for three days, since her Fayetteville apartment was torched.

Her estranged husband, John Wimunc, 23, of 2nd Combat Engineer Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, was charged by the Fayetteville Police Department with first-degree murder, first-degree arson and conspiracy to commit first-degree arson.

Today is the one-year anniversary of the day authorities say Marine Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach was killed and her body buried in the backyard fire pit of a fellow Marine.

District Attorney Dewey Hudson said it was "incredible" to think three women could have been killed and buried in similar circumstances in Onslow County in one year.

"We don't see this in Sampson or Duplin counties," he said after Bedford's first appearance in court last week.

Dec. 14, 2007, began normally for Lauterbach, according to the Marine Corps. Her work day ended at noon as the command prepared for a Christmas party.

In her third trimester of pregnancy, Lauterbach had flip-flopped on an allegation that Cpl. Cesar Laurean, who worked with her as a personnel clerk, was the father of her unborn child.

She told naval investigators in May that Laurean had raped her. The Naval Criminal Investigative Services and her command were investigating those allegations. An Article 32 hearing was on the horizon, at which she would have to testify under oath. NCIS would later confirm to civilian authorities that Lauterbach "was under considerable stress as to her career and personal life" and "facing a possible discharge from the Marine Corps."

Laurean's wife, Lance Cpl. Cristina Laurean, attended the Christmas party, but Laurean did not, according to information from the Marine Corps.

A computer in the Laurean home accessed pornographic Web sites, including some featuring pregnant women, the afternoon of Dec. 14, 2007, according to a source close to the investigation.

Across town at 2668 Idlebrook Circle, sometime between noon and 4 p.m., Lauterbach loaded personal items into her car and left a note at the home where she was staying with Marine Sgt. Daniel Durham.

The note stated: "I could not take this Marine Corps life anymore. So I am going away. Sorry for the inconvenience. Maria."

At 4:19 p.m., a camera recorded Lauterbach making a withdrawal from an automatic teller machine in the Piney Green Shopping Center on N.C. 24.

At 4:46 p.m., Lauterbach used her military identification card to receive a discount on a $180 bus ticket purchased for El Paso, Texas, at the Greyhound Bus Station on Onslow Drive, according to interviews and bus itineraries obtained by The Daily News.

The ticket purchased was for a 5:50 p.m. departure on Dec. 15, 2007. A cross-reference of the tickets for Dec. 14 shows the bus was not sold out and she could have purchased a ticket for a bus leaving that day. She left the bus station.

Christina Laurean would later tell investigators that her husband said Lauterbach showed up at their Meadow Trail home acting "disorientated, agitated and acting differently," according to affidavits.

Laurean told his wife that Lauterbach asked for money and they argued. He said she then produced a knife and slit her own throat. Laurean said he panicked and buried her body in the woods, all according to court documents.

Onslow County Medical Examiner Dr. Charles Garrett would later say there was a small cut on Lauterbach's neck - most likely done posthumously - but that her cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head.

For almost three weeks, Lauterbach's fate would remain unknown to her family, friends and the world at large.

[Roamer]

:1222423: RIP, Maria.

[sarahhod]

Man recalls finding Lauterbach's phone on roadside

http://www.jdnews.com/news/phone_61230___article.html/jones_lauterbach.html


December 19, 2008 - 12:17 PM
LINDELL KAY and MIKE MCHUGH
DAILY NEWS STAFF

Southwest resident Cecil Jones had no idea a cell phone he found on the side of the highway a year ago would become integral evidence in a homicide investigation and part of a national news story.

Local civilian authorities learned Dec. 19, 2007, of the disappearance of pregnant Marine Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach, who had not been seen for five days.

The next day, Jones turned over the missing Marine's phone to the Onslow County Sheriff's Department. How he came to be in possession of the phone and the trouble he went through to get it into the hands of authorities is nothing short of "miraculous."

"It's like someone wanted me to find the phone and turn it in," Jones said, thinking back on the events that unfolded one year ago.

Jones' involvement in the case that captured headlines worldwide began simply enough - he is a roadside scavenger.

"I find hammers and other stuff," he said. "One time I found a toolbox on Highway 17 in Wilmington."

But Jones is no vulture. When he picks something up, he is meticulous in looking for identifying marks so that the property - if lost - can be returned to its rightful owner.

On the Monday or Tuesday after Lauterbach vanished Dec. 14, 2007, Jones, a conduit-running contractor, was heading home in his work truck from a job site in Swansboro when he thought he glimpsed something on the shoulder of N.C. 24 about 200 feet before the Camp Lejeune overpass. He drove home, but said he could not shake the notion something of value was laying out on the side of the highway.

He drove 15 minutes back to the spot in his personal vehicle, but what he thought he saw was gone. A short distance later, Jones thought he spotted a phone in the westbound median, "about eight trees from the overpass."

He turned around and stopped where he thought he saw a phone. There, visibly scratched up and laying on the asphalt, was a SunCom cell phone.

Jones said the phone was full of moisture.

According to the National Weather Service, an inch and a half of rain fell in the area Dec. 16, 2007 - two days after the last time anyone saw Lauterbach and a day or two before Jones found her phone.

Jones returned home with his roadside prize and disassembled it so it would not short circuit. He said he had a box full of junk phones ruined by water and knew not to put power to the phone until it was completely dry.

On Dec. 20, 2007, Jones reassembled the phone.

"When I turned it on, the phone was full of missed calls," Jones said.

He called the first number on the list and Lauterbach's sister answered the line. She told Jones that Lauterbach had been missing for several days and asked him to take the phone to the Sheriff's Department, according to court affidavits.

Jones jumped in his truck and headed downtown. In a hurry to get there, he failed to notice he was out of gas until he became stranded on the side of the road.

As he was walking to the nearest gas station, Lauterbach's cell phone rang. He answered it and Lauterbach's sister wanted to know why he hadn't reached the Sheriff's Department. She had called ahead and was told Jones had not made it yet.

After walking three miles to a gas station and getting back on the road, Jones' ordeal was not over yet.

When he turned the phone over to John Michael Moore, a civilian investigator at the Sheriff's Department, Jones had to be fingerprinted.

"I didn't mind that much," he said. "They said they had to eliminate my fingerprints from any they found on the phone."

Sheriff's Capt. Rick Sutherland said Jones' role in finding Lauterbach's phone and turning it in was very beneficial to the investigation.

"This type of teamwork between law enforcement and the citizens of Onslow County greatly increases the ability of investigators to solve cases and to provide answers in criminal investigations," Sutherland said.

Investigators take numerous little pieces of a puzzle - like Lauterbach's cell phone - and combine the information to recreate events and determine what may have happened to a victim in a particular case, he said.

"In any criminal case, and especially in missing persons cases, every piece of evidence and information is significant," Sutherland said. "It is extremely helpful to law enforcement when any citizen provides information to law enforcement, even when the person thinks the information is not very important."

Jones said he didn't think about the phone again until Lauterbach's missing person's case hit the news media two weeks later. He would watch the evening news each night with his wife, hoping Lauterbach was OK, but with a creeping fear she was not.

When he got home from work Jan. 11, his wife told him Lauterbach's body had been found buried in the backyard of a fellow Marine.

"I remember thinking ‘I hope they find out who did it and they get him,'" Jones said.

As the national news media descended on Jacksonville, and the fugitive manhunt for accused killer Marine Cpl. Cesar Laurean intensified, the Joneses watched events unfold on TV, out of the spotlight.

Other than escorting Naval investigators in January to the spot where he found the phone and being interviewed by Sheriff's Capt. Donnie Worrell; Jones hasn't spoken to anyone else about the case.

He said he did not feel like he had done anything out of the normal to go back and recover Lauterbach's phone from the side of the highway.

"I would like to think that someone would do it for me," Jones said.

[sarahhod]

Sheriff’s Office explains how Lauterbach case affected them

http://www.wnct.com/nct/news/local/article/sheriffs_office_explains_how_lauterbach_case_affec ted_them/26819/




By Laura Vesco
Reporter
Published: December 19, 2008

It’s been a year today since the Onslow County Sheriff’s Office first got involved in the, then- missing persons, case of pregnant Marine Lance Corporal Maria Lauterbach.

Today, law enforcement officers spoke about the impact the case has had on the department, and how tips from the community helped them along the way.

They found Lauterbach’s body in the backyard of Corporal Cesar Laurean’s home.

Laurean fled to Mexico, where police caught and arrested him for murder in April.

Captain Rick Sutherland says this case helped the officers learn how to handle national media.

“We have more experience in dealing with cases that attract the national media but as far as our investigators go, they are top quality people that continue to provide a service to this county day in and day out,“ said Sutherland.

Right now, Laurean is fighting legal efforts to bring him back to the U.S. from Mexico.

Video at link:-

[sunstar]

Rest in Peace, Maria and baby Gabriel :1222423::1222423:

[sarahhod]

Sunday Marks Somber Anniversary in Lauterbach Case

http://www.wnct.com/nct/news/local/military/article/today_somber_anniversary_for_the_family_of_maria_l auterbach/28558/

Published: January 11, 2009

Sunday marks a shocking and somber anniversary for the family of Maria Lauterbach.

One year ago, investigators in Onslow County found the pregnant Lance Corporal’s remains burned and buried in Corporal Cesar Laurean’s Jacksonville backyard.

She went missing December 14th, 2007 and the Onslow County Sheriff’s office hoped to find her unharmed.

But on January 11, 2008, the hope for a happy ending turned to heartbreak.

Maria Lauterbach’s family says she dreamed of entering the Marine Corps after high school, but life for the Ohio native eventually turned into a nightmare.

On January 11, 2008, Onslow County investigators found her body, and the body of her unborn son, burned and buried in Cesar Laurean’s Jacksonville backyard.

But the story of how her life came to such a horrifying end starts long before that.

Both Laurean, a Corporal, and Lauterbach worked at Camp Lejeune.

In the spring of 2007, that’s where Maria claimed Laurean raped her twice, but an NCIS investigation revealed Laurean never used force on Lauterbach and it described their sexual encounters as non-criminal.

Through it all, the two maintained some sort of relationship. For reasons still unclear, Maria ended up at Laurean’s house the night of December 14, 2007, and that’s when investigators believe he killed her.

Her family reported her missing December 19, 2007.

For weeks, they hoped she was alive, until they heard the devastating news on January 11, 2008.

“Ms. Lauterbach is dead and is buried in Onslow County,“ said Onslow Co. Sheriff Ed Brown that day.

Hours before authorities found her body, Laurean fled the area—information investigators learned when his wife, Christina, turned in a note Cesar wrote before he left.

He was on the run for months, until April 10, 2008, when he was captured while wandering the streets of San Juan de Vina, Mexico.

In the months since his arrest, this case has taken several turns.

Laurean’s wife has come under public scrutiny, but has never been charged with wrongdoing.

In August, an intern with the Onslow County DA’s Office was arrested for stealing documents associated with the investigation.

Maria’s family and an Ohio congressman have demanded the military change the way it protects women who claim they were victims of sexual assaults.

Through it all, Laurean, a native of Mexico, still sits in a Mexican jail, fighting a judge’s ruling to extradite him back to the U.S.