'I want women to be better protected' by the military

Mother of slain Marine: 'I want women to be better protected'
Story Highlights
Maria Lauterbach wanted to spend career in Marines, she says in video

Lauterbach accused fellow Marine Cpl. Cesar Laurean of rape

Laurean faces murder charges in Lauterbach's death

Marines should have transferred Lauterbach to another base, her mother says


From Susan Candiotti
CNN National Correspondent

DAYTON, Ohio (CNN) -- Early on, Maria Lauterbach knew exactly what she wanted to do in life.


"After high school, I am going into the Marines," a smiling Lauterbach, dressed in her high school soccer uniform, says in a video made available exclusively to CNN. "I'll probably be doing that for 20 or 25 years, and then hopefully after that, becoming a cop."

Lauterbach became a Marine, but her dreams were cut short.

Her body was found buried in the backyard of a fellow Marine, Cpl. Cesar Laurean, near Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, in January. Watch Lauterbach talk about her future plans »

Mary Lauterbach, Maria's mother, wants to know why the Marines didn't do more to protect her daughter from Laurean, whom Maria Lauterbach had accused of rape in May 2007.

"My concern is I want women to be better protected," Lauterbach, of Dayton, Ohio, told CNN. Watch how mother wants answers from Marines »

Laurean now faces murder charges. He fled the Camp Lejeune area on January 11. The FBI says he went to his native Mexico, and a cousin of Laurean's reported seeing him in Zapopan, Mexico, in mid-January.


Mary Lauterbach has sent a list of more than 30 questions to the commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, Gen. James Conway, through her congressman.

She says she's unconvinced her daughter's rape allegation against Laurean was treated seriously.

Maria Lauterbach was 20 years old and eight months pregnant when she was reported missing after she failed to report for duty at Camp Lejeune in mid-December.

Her body was found nearly a month later beneath a fire pit in Laurean's backyard. It is unclear whether he was the father of her unborn child.

After Maria Lauterbach accused Laurean of rape, she was moved to another office, and military protective orders were issued to keep the accused from the accuser. But Mary Lauterbach and her congressman, Rep. Mike Turner, say the Marines didn't do enough to protect her.
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http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/04/07/murdered.marine/index.html