Missing pregnant Marine later reported dead according to officials

In Jacksonville, N.C. a pregnant Marine missing for nearly a month is dead, and investigators were seeking a fellow Marine she had accused of raping her, authorities said Friday.

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

Military and civilian investigators were seeking the key suspect in the death, Cpl. Cesar Armando Lauren, who had declined to meet with investigators and apparently left the area, Brown said.

“They don’t know where he is,” Brown said. “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.

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Source: http://msnbc.msn.com