Authorities found the remains of Lauterbach and her unborn child in the backyard of Corporal Cesar Armando Laurean, who was extradited from Mexico in 2009 and convicted of murder in 2010.

[1] Authorities found the burned remains of Lauterbach and her unborn child in a fire pit in the backyard of Corporal Cesar Armando Laurean.

However, authorities found evidence that pointed to murder in the initial investigation, which was further supported by the autopsy results released in March 2008, which classified the neck wound as post-mortem and insufficient to cause death.

[11] Marine Corporal Cesar Laurean (SEH'-sahr LOHR'-ee-uhn), the 21-year-old prime suspect in the case, is the man whom Lauterbach accused of sexually assaulting her.

[17][18] A cousin of the corporal informed reporters that Laurean visited family in the area of Guadalajara, Mexico, in late January 2008, but left without saying where he was going.

[23] As concern grew through December 2007, Maria's mother, Mary Lauterbach, made frequent appeals for adequate investigation by the Marines.

For the most part, the absence was explained as avoiding the observation that the parents' insistence was a conflict of interest with Victor Lauterbach's position in the Ohio National Guard as a Senior Master Sergeant in the U.S. Air Force Reserves.

[7] In 2009, Mary Lauterbach filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Laurean and his wife Christina, accusing them of conspiring to conceal the murder.

[25] The jurors dismissed the defense's theory that Christina was in fact the real murderer, favoring the prosecution's argument that Laurean's desperation to save his career led to the incident.

He initially conspired with Lauterbach to run to Mexico, supposedly with the intent of destroying her credibility with the desertion and continuing his career in the Corps, but reverted to killing her with a crowbar when that failed.