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ocuments: Missing Marine claimed officer raped her

By MIKE BAKER
Associated Press Writer
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JACKSONVILLE, N.C. (AP) -- A pregnant Marine who vanished last month before she was to testify in a military probe claimed "a senior officer ... had raped her and that the investigation had gone sour," according to new court documents.

The woman, originally from Dayton, Ohio, made the allegation to her stepmother, who also told investigators looking for the 20-year-old lance corporal that her stepdaughter was bipolar and had a history of compulsive lying, the documents filed this week state.

Authorities said Thursday they plan to question the superior officer at Camp Lejeune she accused of rape, as well as a roommate ordered to return to the base from a training mission. They stressed the case remains a missing persons investigation, although detectives are treating it with the urgency of a criminal matter.

"If (she) is listening and gets this, I want her to know that sometimes people do things, (and) if they could turn the clock back they wouldn't do them the way they've done them," Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown said. "Regardless of the circumstances, this has got to stop."

The woman was reported missing Dec. 19 by her stepmother, who last spoke with her daughter on Dec. 14, authorities said. Her cell phone was found Dec. 20 near the main gate at Camp Lejeune, and she missed a scheduled prenatal care appointment on Dec. 26.

According to the search warrants, a white male tried to use the missing woman's ATM card on Christmas Eve and attempted to cover the ATM's security camera with a rag. Brown declined to say where the card was used.

Sheriff's investigators said in the court documents that the Naval Criminal Investigative Service was investigating the sexual assault allegations and had confirmed the lance corporal's history of lying.

According to the documents, NCIS investigators were struggling to investigate the missing woman's allegations "due to inconsistencies provided by ... the reported victim." Still, the search warrants said the anticipated birth of the baby "might provide evidentiary credence to charges she lodged with military authorities that she was sexually assaulted by a senior military person."

Brown declined to comment on the rape allegations, as did Camp Lejeune officials. Wayne Mixon, an NCIS special agent at Camp Lejeune, declined to discuss specifics of the case, other than to say the agency is assisting the sheriff's department with investigative leads in the Marine Corps.

The Associated Press had identified the missing Marine before the allegations of sexual assault became public. The AP generally does not identify people who allege they are victims of sexual assault.

The roommate, Marine Sgt. Daniel Durham, is believed to be the last person to speak with the missing woman, who is due to give birth in mid-February. Brown said Durham and is not a suspect, but a person of interest who authorities believe has been monitoring developments in the investigation from afar.

"We do feel like he has answers and importance in being back here," Brown said.

Sheriff's investigators planned to speak with Durham as early as Friday, Brown said.

During an initial interview with investigators, Durham told authorities that he didn't report his roommate as missing because some of her personal items were gone from the residence. Authorities found her vehicle at a bus station near the base, and an employee there has told investigators it has been there since about the time of her disappearance.

The court documents state authorities searched Durham's laptop, because they believe she may have used it to search for directions on the Internet, as well as her cell phone records and the residence she shared with Durham.

Camp Lejeune officials said the missing woman, who is assigned to the 2nd Marine Logistics Group of the II Marine Expeditionary Force, joined the Marine Corps in June 2006, trained as a personnel clerk and had not deployed to either Iraq or Afghanistan.

"I'm sure it's stressful, especially when you're trying to juggle everyone's problems, not just your own," said Melinda Artzer Allen, 23, a former Marine and a friend of the missing woman who had known her for about a year. "She's had stuff going on, but she's strong. She doesn't seem like the kind of person that would just get up and leave."

The search warrants filed this week also state the woman was facing a possible discharge from the Marine Corps. No reason was provided.

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N.C. Sheriff: Missing Ohio Marine Dead
Jan 11 2008 2:46PM

JACKSONVILLE, N.C. - A pregnant Marine missing for nearly a month is dead, and investigators were seeking a fellow Marine she had accused of sexually assaulting her, a sheriff said Friday.

Authorities had not recovered the body of 20-year-old Lance Cpl. Maria Frances Lauterbach (pictured, right), but they believed she was buried in a shallow grave in a residential area of coastal Onslow County, Sheriff Ed Brown said.

The suspect, 21-year-old Cpl. Cesar Armando Lauren, has declined to meet with investigators and is not in custody, he said.

"They don't know where he is," Brown said of the suspect. "He's gone."

Lauterbach had claimed a superior had sexually assaulted her, and she was worried that the investigation was going nowhere, according to court documents. She vanished last month before she was to testify in a military probe.

The court papers said the anticipated birth of the baby "might provide evidentiary credence to charges she lodged with military authorities that she was sexually assaulted by a senior military person."

Brown said detectives had tried to speak with Lauren, but he refused to do so, on the advise of his attorneys. Authorities said they didn't consider Lauren a flight risk until Friday, because they had information the pair carried on a "friendly relationship" after she reported the assault to military authorities.

The State Bureau of Investigation and the Marine Corps were assisting in the search for Lauren, who had not been charged with Lauterbach's death.

Lauterbach, originally from Dayton, Ohio, was reported missing Dec. 19 by her stepmother, who last spoke with her stepdaughter on Dec. 14, authorities said. Her cell phone was found Dec. 20 near the main gate at Camp Lejeune, and she missed a scheduled prenatal care appointment on Dec. 26.

Authorities found her vehicle at a bus station near the base on the Atlantic coast, and an employee there has told investigators it has been there since about the time of her disappearance. Brown said Friday she had purchased a bus ticket to El Paso, Texas, the day after she spoke with her stepmother, but the ticket has not been used.

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Jan. 10, 2008: Documents: Missing Marine Claimed Officer Raped Her

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

THIS IS BAD, THE SUSPECT MISSING, MAYBE SHE WAS NOT LYING. WAS SHE FAR ENOUGH ALONG TO DO A DNA TEST.

sad. I hope they find the SOB.

Sad all the way around.
Step-mother claims victim was "bi-polar and a compulsive liar". But they [the military] let her join the Marines, didn't they? And she obviously made it through basic training.
She made charges of "rape" against a superior, then fails to show up where she's supposed to be; but the military said they couldn't call her "officially missing" til she had been absent for 30 days and did very little to investigate at the time. And now she's found dead [and obviously has been for a while] by a County Sheriff, not military investigators; and her accused attacker, a member of the military himself, suddenly turns up missing, too. Darn straight, they better be looking for him!
Way too little, way too late all the way along. "Compulsive liar"? She was pregnant and she is dead - murdered! Those are established facts!
Sounds to me like a whole lot of "dropped-the-ball" here, and then "blame-the-victim" as a response. I watch WLWT Cincinnati news, and they've had extensive coverage on this story from the beginning.

FIDO (Forget It Drive On) wrote:The coward will probably take the easy way out, either by shooting himself or suicide by cop. Either way is fine by me.

If she was found off base, then it would have been the Sheriff's responsibility to investigate (their jurisdiction). The military usually assist in those matters. It all depends on how the agreements are written between base and local police authorities.

I don't understand why they continued to work in the same office after the allegations were made, as I had heard. Certainly sounds as though someone really screwed up and a couple of lives were lost needlessly.

Either way, the idiot deserves to die!

that's what I asked also!

has there been any further developments to this, sounds guilty to me, or he'd have shown up. her health was apparently not an issue when she joined, she was not drafted.