(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-04-11 14:38

"Just communicating with her husband is not against the law," Hudson said. "To be an accessory after the fact you have to show someone provided assistance like information or money, and we don't have any evidence of that."

Lauterbach and Laurean were both personnel clerks in the same logistics unit at Camp Lejeune, an expansive coastal base about 130 miles southeast of Raleigh that is home to roughly 50,000 Marines. Detectives believe Laurean killed Lauterbach on Dec. 14, after forcing her to remove money from her bank account.

Lauterbach accused Laurean of rape last spring, a charge he denied and one that Naval investigators were unable to corroborate. Even though Lauterbach later told investigators she did not feel Laurean posed a danger or threat to her, the pair was separated on base. The Marines have said their regimental commander was intent on taking the case to a hearing that could have led to a trial.

Laurean, of Las Vegas, had told members of his unit he would flee to Mexico if it appeared he would be found guilty. Authorities believe he entered Mexico on a bus on Jan. 14, two days after fleeing from Jacksonville. He was born in Guadalajara, but family members there have said he moved to the U.S. more than 10 years ago.

Lauterbach's family has criticized the Marine Corps for what it feels was a lack of urgency in investigating the rape allegations. In a letter sent this week to U S. Rep. Michael Turner, R-Ohio, who has rallied to the family's cause, the Marines said no effort was made to question Laurean about Lauterbach's disappearance because the two were no longer working together.

The Corps added the pair were no longer associated as far as their commanders knew and there was no evidence to indicate Laurean had anything to do with her unauthorized absence.

Phone messages seeking comment left by The Associated Press at Lauterbach's parents' home in Vandalia, Ohio, on her uncle Pete Steiner's cell phone and with family attorney Chris Conard were not immediately returned late Thursday.

Another family attorney, Merle Wilberding, said Lauterbach's mother, Mary, received a call from the FBI informing her of the arrest.

"Her initial reaction ... was just one of shock and surprise," Wilberding told WDTN-TV in Dayton, Ohio. "She's been living with Cpl. Laurean being on the run ... and living without an expectation that he was going to be captured any time soon, so when the word came it really caught her by surprise, and she's still trying to let it all sink in."

A woman who answered the phone at the home of Laurean's father-in-law, Bruce Shifflet, near Prospect, Ohio, hung up without commenting when told of the arrest.

Mexico hesitated to extradite foreigners for much of the 1980s and 1990s, but U.S. officials have praised the county's increased cooperation in recent years. State Department officials said Mexico extradited 73 suspects to the U.S. in 2007, most to face drug or murder charges.

Sometimes Mexico will forego the traditional extradition and deport a suspected criminal for entering the country illegally, a much quicker process. More than 150 U.S. citizens were deported from Mexico last year.

Hudson said "it could be a year or two" before authorities are able to bring Laurean back to North Carolina if he decides to fight the extradition process.

"The extradition process is one where you have a right to appeal," Hudson said. "I have no idea whether he would waive extradition."

Should Laurean be returned to North Carolina to stand trial, he won't face the death penalty. Hudson agreed not to seek an execution in order to win the cooperation of Mexico authorities, who refuse to send anyone back to the U.S. unless provided assurance they won't face a death sentence.

"We had intel that he had gone back to America to visit his family in Las Vegas and I was hoping they would arrest him in America," Hudson said. "But they didn't. This is a case that certainly is deserving to be tried as a capital case."

   1 2   

   1 2