Fourth Day of Manhunt for Rapist/Murderer Laurean

Excerpts from FOXNews.com

Officials positively identified the burned remains Tuesday found in the backyard of a Marine on the run accused of murder as those of a 20-year-old Marine and her unborn child. Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach, reported missing on Dec. 19, died from a blunt force trauma to the head, according to an autopsy report.

The manhunt for Cpl. Cesar Armando Laurean, the suspect in Lauterbach's murder, stretches into its fourth day with a $25,000 reward and a national billboard campaign. "He’s probably where he wants to be and can move at a more slower, unattractive pace," Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown told FOX News Tuesday. "So now it’s probably going to be the results of people in the community where he’s at recognizing he’s a stranger, or different, and comparing his photograph to those that he sees on TV and on the billboards."

Over the weekend, authorities recovered the remains of Lauterbach and her unborn child from a fire pit in Laurean's backyard in Jacksonville, N.C. Dr. Charles Garrett, the Onslow County medical examiner, said Lauterbach died from "traumatic head injury due to blunt force trauma."

Lauterbach's ATM card was found at a bus station in Durham, about 150 miles northwest of Jacksonville. Witnesses reported seeing his black four-door pickup truck in the Raleigh and Durham area, Brown said. Other witnesses said they thought they saw him Saturday night at a bus station in Shreveport, La.

The FBI and United States Marshals are involved in the search for Laurean, who is expected to be charged with murder when he is arrested. The first billboards with Laurean's photo went up in Columbus, Ohio, and others are expected in Tampa, Fla., and Las Vegas. "Laurean will be found", Sheriff Brown said later at a press conference.

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Wanted By the FBI: Cesar Armando Laurean Ramirez

UNLAWFUL FLIGHT TO AVOID PROSECUTION - MURDER

CESAR ARMANDO LAUREAN

Aliases: Cesar Gudino, Cesar Sanchez, Cesar Armando Laurean Ramirez DESCRIPTION Date of Birth Used: November 13, 1986 Hair: Black Place of Birth: Unknown Eyes: Brown Height: 5'9" Sex: Male Weight: 160 pounds Race: White (Hispanic) NCIC: W653665173 Nationality: Unknown Occupation: United States Marine Corps Corporal Scars and Marks: Laurean has a tattoo of a skull on one of his upper arms, and a tattoo of a black widow spider, including an hourglass on the spider's abdomen, on the other upper arm. Remarks: Laurean is a United States citizen. He is also a United States Marine Corps Corporal currently assigned to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Laurean may be driving a four-door 2004 Dodge Ram truck, black in color, displaying North Carolina license plate TRR1522. CAUTION Cesar Armando Laurean is wanted for his alleged involvement in the murder of 20-year-old Maria Lauterbach, who was pregnant at the time of her murder. Lauterbach was a United States Marine Corps Lance Corporal assigned to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. She had been missing since December 14, 2007. Charred remains have been recovered in a shallow grave in the backyard of Laurean's Jacksonville, North Carolina, residence. The remains are believed to be those of Lauterbach and her unborn infant. A state arrest warrant was issued on January 12, 2008, in Onslow County, North Carolina, after Laurean was charged with murder. That same day, Laurean was charged federally with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution by the United States District Court, Eastern District of North Carolina, Wilmington, North Carolina, and a federal warrant was issued for his arrest. REWARD The FBI is offering a reward of up to $25,000 for information leading to the location and arrest of Cesar Armando Laurean. SHOULD BE CONSIDERED ARMED AND DANGEROUS IF YOU HAVE ANY INFORMATION CONCERNING THIS PERSON, PLEASE CONTACT YOUR LOCAL FBI OFFICE OR THE NEAREST AMERICAN EMBASSY OR CONSULATE.

ROBERT S. MUELLER, III DIRECTOR FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE WASHINGTON, D.C. 20535 TELEPHONE: (202) 324-3000

Fed's 'Operation Bot Roast' Reveals 1 Million Victims

As the FBI and the DOJ investigated botnet operators, they began amassing a list of the alleged botnet victims -- with most of them here in the U.S.

Article by Sharon Gaudin, InformationWeek

In the Department of Justice and the FBI's attack on 'botherders', the government has identified more than one million botnet victims. The agencies announced Wednesday the results of an ongoing cybercrime initiative to disrupt and dismantle botherders, a term used for the people creating and operating an increasing number of botnets around the world. The FBI reported in an online advisory that its agents are working with the U.S.-CERT Coordination Center at Carnegie Mellon University to notify the owners of the compromised computers.

Government investigators tracked down the million victims while working on five different cybercrime cases, according to Richard Kolko, a special agent with the FBI. Charges already have been handed down in three of those cases. James C. Brewer of Arlington, Texas, is charged with operating a botnet that infected Chicago area hospitals. His botnet allegedly infected tens of thousands of computers worldwide. The government charged Jason Michael Downey of Covington, Kentucky, with using botnets to launch denial-of-service attacks. Robert Alan Soloway of Seattle was also charged this month with using a large botnet network to spam tens of millions of messages to advertise his Web site.

Kolko told InformationWeek that as agents delved into these three cases, along with two others that are under investigation, they uncovered the botnet victims. "There are hundreds of cybercrime cases at any given time but we put the botnet cases together for this initiative," he said. "We're trying to get people to take care of their computers. They're unaware participants in this criminal activity. We need them to take the proper precautions so we can put a dent in this crime." He also said most of the one million victims they found are in the United States. The government, he added, will continue to try to find more victims so they can notify them and get the compromised machines cleaned up.

Hackers and malware writers conspire to infect computers around the world with viruses and Trojans that allow them to remotely control the victim machines. Then, they amass thousands or hundreds of thousands of these zombie computers, creating great armies -- or botnets -- of them. In recent months, botnets have been increasing in number and in size, as they launch massive waves of spam, malware and even denial-of-service attacks. Most of the owners of the zombie machines don't even know they have been infected or that their machine is being controlled by someone else.

According to the FBI's advisory, because of their widely distributed capabilities, the government considers botnets a growing threat to national security, the national information infrastructure, and the economy. "They were a problem and they're emerging as a greater problem as people use them to get around security measures and cause greater damages," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Erez Liebermann, chief of the computer hacking and intellectual property unit in New Jersey. "The fact that they can do so much damage with the press of a button is a huge problem." A large number of the botnets are controlled by hackers and botherders outside of the U.S., with a growing number being set up in China. Dealing with cybercriminals outside the country's borders has been an issue -- but it's one the U.S. government is working on.

"Generally speaking, international aspects of these cases do have extra hurdles, but more and more countries are cooperating," said Liebermann. "There are efforts to get [cooperation] from China, and they're paying off." In recent months, rival online gangs have even begun a virtual turf war for bragging rights to the largest botnets. Two or three online criminal gangs have been waging an all-out battle for control of the largest botnets, sending out waves of malware aimed at stealing zombie computers from rival gangs to build up their own army. Each online gang is trying to build up the biggest botnet because the bigger the army of infected computers they control, the more money spammers and hackers will pay to use them, said Shane Coursen, a senior technical consultant forKaspersky Lab, in a previous interview.

Search For A Killer!?!

Steph Watts, of On the Record from FNC, has confirmed that the police DO have a suspect in the Kelsey Smith murder case. They are looking for him now. Watts also reports that no information on a motive or cause of death.

BTW, one reason the FBI is active in the investigation is that Kelsey was transported from Kansas into Missouri. Unfortunately, the federal presence didn't make any difference in the outcome of Kelsey's abduction.

SPECULATION: When the guy attacked Kelsey in the Target parking lot, she may have been rendered unconscious. Therefore, her attacker had to leave her in the car and vacate the area. If he killed her when he forced her into the car, he may have panicked and took her straight to the Longview Lake Park to discard the body.
Kelsey's body was dumped under a bridge, in a shallow creek. Her murderer may have intended to go back and bury Kelsey's body... but the police found her before he could act on the remainder of his plan. We don't yet know the condition of Kelsey's body, but I suspect she may have been damaged in the head or face area. The water of the creek or attacker may have caused the damage -- I'm not sure.

Virginia Tech Massacre: The Investigation

Update: 6:00 p.m.

CollegiateMedia reports: Erin Sheehan was one of four people able to walk out of her 9:05 German class in room 207 Norris Hall. "It's a small class, about 25 people," she said. "And I would say no more than 2 people didn't show up, were absent. And of those of us that were in there today, only four of us walked out of that room, but two of us had been injured during the shooting," Sheehan said.
"It seemed so strange," Sheehan said. "Because he peaked in twice, earlier in the lesson, like he was looking for someone, somebody, before he started shooting. But then we all heard something like drilling in the walls, and someone thought they sounded like bullets. That's when we blockaded the door to stop anyone from coming in."
"He was just a normal looking kid, Asian, but he had on a Boy Scout type outfit. He wore a tan button up vest, and this black vest, maybe it was for ammo or something."
"I saw bullets hit people's body," Sheehan said. "There was blood everywhere. People in the class were passed out, I don't know maybe from shock from the pain. But I was one of only four that made it out of that classroom. The rest were dead or injured." She described.

I'm sure Virginia Tech police, along with FBI, ATF and other agencies, are investigating every aspect of the campus massacre that occurred earlier today.

• One thing they should be looking for is the gunman's car. Since it has been reported that he entered Norris Hall with two long guns and two handguns, it's more than obvious he didn't walk to campus. He had to have driven a private vehicle. Where is it and what kind of evidence does it hold?
• Since at least one of the first two victims were likely known to the gunman, police should be tracing back friends and romantic acquaintances of the female resident of the West AJ dorm.
• There is also certainly a definite link between the person living in West Ambler Johnston dorm and classrooms 205/206 on the second floor of Norris Hall.
• Another idea is that the shooter may have been a student. If so, he may have been known to some of the people who were shot in Norris Hall. Hopefully, some of them will be able to identify him by name.
• Of course, the weapons should be traceable back to where it was sold -- and possibly to the owner. By the way he was dressed and armed, it can be concluded that he intended to murder many people -- and possibly shoot it out with law enforcement.
• LE needs to look into last week's bomb threats -- to see if they are related to what happened earlier today.
  

My guess is that we will have the name of the shooter by tomorrow morning -- either officially or unofficially.

Regarding the West AJ crime scene: Before assuming that both this incident and the Norris Hall scene were perpetrated by the same person, think about this scenario... A disgruntled boyfriend goes upstairs to the 4th floor of the West AJ dorm. He kills his girlfriend, then commits suicide. In that circumstance, the two incidents would most likely not be related at all.