Murder of Maria Lauterbach

Maria Frances Lauterbach, a 20-year-old Lance Corporal in the United States Marine Corps from Vandalia, Ohio, disappeared on December 14, 2007, from Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. At the time she was eight months pregnant. According to her mother, Mary Lauterbach, she had accused a senior Marine at her command of rape and was preparing to testify about the assault, and reported that "the investigation had gone sour." Her mother reported her missing on December 19, 2007, five days after their last contact, and her cellphone was found near the main gate of Camp Lejeune the following day.

Investigators subsequently found the burned remains of Lauterbach and her unborn child in a fire pit in the backyard of Corporal Cesar Armando Laurean's home in Jacksonville, North Carolina, along with a large quantity of her blood inside the house. Evidence indicated Laurean had attempted to clean up the scene. On January 11, 2008, Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown announced at a press conference that authorities had physical evidence of Lauterbach's death that linked Laurean to it. A note attributed to Laurean, found by his wife, claimed Lauterbach had committed suicide by cutting her own throat during an argument. However, an autopsy released in March 2008 found the neck wound was inflicted post-mortem and was insufficient to have caused death; the official cause of death was determined to be blunt force trauma to the head.

Laurean, age 21 at the time and the Marine whom Lauterbach had accused of sexual assault, fled to Mexico shortly after the killing. A federal warrant for unlawful flight was issued on January 12, 2008, and the FBI and Naval Criminal Investigative Service issued wanted notices, with rewards totaling $30,000 for information leading to his capture. Mexican authorities issued their own arrest warrant, and Interpol issued an international notice. Laurean was apprehended in Tacámbaro, Michoacán, Mexico, on April 10, 2008. In September 2008, the Onslow County District Attorney agreed not to seek the death penalty, clearing a path for a Mexican judge to approve extradition, though Laurean pursued further appeals into October 2008 arguing that a life-without-parole sentence violated the extradition treaty. He was extradited to the United States on April 17, 2009, and held in the Onslow County jail. Due to extensive media coverage, the trial venue was moved to Wayne County, with proceedings beginning in 2010.

The case prompted Mary Lauterbach to become a public advocate for improved military handling of sexual assault allegations, working with congressional representatives, and it prompted Congress to order changes in how the Department of Defense addresses sexual assault in the ranks. In 2009, Mary Lauterbach filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Laurean and his wife, Christina, alleging they conspired to conceal the murder.

On August 24, 2010, a jury convicted Cesar Laurean of murder along with theft and fraud charges related to his use of Lauterbach's ATM card after the killing. He was sentenced to life in prison. Jurors rejected a defense theory that Laurean's wife was the actual killer, instead accepting the prosecution's argument that Laurean killed Lauterbach with a crowbar after an earlier plan for her to flee to Mexico and be discredited as a deserter failed to protect his military career.