Murdered Marine: You call this an investigation?

Randi Kaye of Anderson Cooper 360 makes some EXCELLENT points in her blog post from earlier this morning...
Today, Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown announced he won't be talking to the media anymore, until Corporal Cesar Laurean is caught. Laurean is the U.S. Marine charged in the brutal murder of fellow Marine Lance Corporal Maria Lauterbach and her unborn child. He's been on the run since last Friday. Police believe they recovered Lauterbach's charred remains in a fire pit behind Laurean's home over the weekend along with those of her baby.

Sheriff Brown has been holding press conferences daily and doing one-on-one interviews with local and national media. Now he says it's time to get back to work and we shouldn't expect a word from him until Laurean is behind bars. I've never heard of holding a press conference to announce you're NOT going to hold press conferences anymore. But nothing in this case has been business as usual.

The Marines knew Maria Lauterbach had accused Cesar Laurean of rape and didn't give the Sheriff his name until January 7th, TWENTY days after she disappeared.

The Marines knew Laurean was forbidden to go near Lauterbach. A military protective order was issued in June 2007. It had expired in September 2007, but the Marines never even told Sheriff Brown about it. He told me he wasn't aware of it until last weekend when his deputies found the paperwork in Lauterbach's car.

Can you imagine?

Turns out there is no protocol in place for the Marines when it comes to sharing information with civil law enforcement. Read on...

EDITORIAL: It seems to me that the Lauterbach family has grounds for a precedent-setting lawsuit against the Marine Corps. There is ZERO EXCUSE for the military police not sharing information with the sheriff's department once Maria Lauterbach went missing. It is INTOLERABLE that they did NOTHING to assist -- and even thwarted law enforcement efforts -- in the missing persons case.

As for the civilian authorities, Sheriff Brown and his deputies need to charge Christina Laurean as an accessory to murder (minimally) or a co-conspirator (more likely) in the deaths of Lauterbach and her unborn child. I can't fathom how Cesar Laurean's wife could not have known a violent murder took place in their home. Come on! He washed and painted the walls without any previous decision on both their parts. What husband does that?!? [Some records indicate Christina Laurean said she assisted Cesar with painting the walls.]

Also, why would Christina S. Laurean not question a fire pit freshly dug in the backyard; a large fire burned Christmas Eve (odd time for a fire) -- and then another fire (neighbors says Christina called it a "bonfire with friends") Christmas night?!? I may be wrongly accusing her of being involved, but I just don't see how the facts could prove otherwise.

Suspicious Cavity Found Behind Laurean's Home

FOXNews.com says, The suspect investigators are pursuing is Cpl. Cesar Armando Laurean, 21; the "suspicious cavity" was discovered on the property behind his house. "It is believed the house and the contents of that cavity may eliminate the need to look any further for the body of missing Marine Maria F. Lauterbach," said the sheriff's office in a statement. Detectives were combing through Laurean's home Friday night and planned to inspect the contents of the ditch Saturday morning, according to the sheriff.

I found this on a Facebook group supporting Maria Lauterbach:

::: SPECULATION :::
Christina knew about the rape charges, but didn't initially know about the murder. Cesar took off around 4:00am this morning. She woke up or found a note and called the police. She was not at home when Maria was buried, so she didn't know about it. Although Maria was killed more than two weeks ago, she was not buried in the yard until the last 48 hours (at most).

The police never searched a random area around Gum Branch, but solely the backyard of the Laurean home. Christina provided something substantial from Maria's murder.

The reason the cavity is not being opened tonight is that Maria's body is not completely intact. They need light and time to search through the cavity in order to find, photograph and inventory all of the evidence.
::: CLOSING SPECULATION :::

I happen to agree with this guy, by the way. That's almost exactly what I was thinking!