Sheriff pleads with missing Marine to get help

[helderheid]

# Story Highlights
# NEW: Sheriff said he leans toward positive outcome in case
# Missing Marine was assaulted by superior officer, mother told police
# Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach, 20, was eight months pregnant
# Lauterbach missing since December 14

JACKSONVILLE, North Carolina (CNN) -- The Onslow County sheriff Thursday pleaded with pregnant missing Marine Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach to come forward and get help.

"Regardless of the circumstances this has got to stop," Sheriff Ed Brown told a news conference Thursday afternoon.

While the sheriff wouldn't say definitively that the 20-year-old Marine is alive, he said he was leaning toward a positive outcome in the case.

"You pray that she's alive," he said.

Lauterbach last spoke to family members in the Dayton, Ohio, area on December 14. They reported her missing on December 19 after being unable to contact her.

Documents attached to a search warrant in the case cite the Marine's mother as saying Lauterbach had been the victim of a sexual assault by a superior officer.

MORE >>

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/01/10/missing.marine/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

[babylonsister]

1. I also hope the sheriff has spoken to the officer who allegedly raped her.

It would seem to be in his best interests to not have her around to testify.

[Xithras]

2. Probably out of his jurisdiction.

If the alleged rapist did anything to her, it would be under the jurisdiction of the MP's. Any outside local law enforcement involvement would be secondary.

[babylonsister]

3. OK, so I hope someone's looking into that angle. To think the

very pregnant woman just hightailed it out of town doesn't sound logical to me, though who knows what her frame of mind was.

[Xithras]

4. I assume that he has evidence that she's on the run.

It's certainly not an inconceivable option. If she simply left, she's AWOL and is facing potential prosecution herself. Most people nowadays have watched enough TV to understand that the police can track you using phone and ATM records, which would explain why she left the phone behind and the ATM card has gone unused. That "suspicious activity" may have simply been her pulling enough cash out to survive for a while.

The question is why she would run in the first place. Was she threatened with retaliation if she testified? Was her life or her baby's life at risk? That could easily be the case, and would explain why she felt the need to take off.

Of course, this has been national news for a few days now. You'd think someone would have spotted her. If not, she'll be found when she goes into labor...I doubt she has a midwife lined up, so she'll probably make her way to a hospital. It's doubtful that she could get back out of one without being identified.

[helderheid]

5. thanks all!

[mvccd1000]

6. I can buy that scenario, at least as an investigative lead...

... I read somewhere else that she had previously been diagnosed as bi-polar, and that she had been in trouble for "lying" before. I don't know what form those lies took, but if she's already a bit sketchy, I can at least hold out hope that she simply decided to take off.

Beats the alternative.....