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Sources: Missing Marine withdrew sex assault allegation

A 20-year-old pregnant Marine who has been missing for more than three weeks may have fled her post at Camp Lejeune, N.C., after she withdrew sexual assault allegations against another service member and feared facing charges of making false statements, sources said.

Lance Cpl. Maria Frances Lauterbach, who was last seen Dec. 14 and may be set to give birth very soon, lodged the allegations last year with Marine Corps officials, but later withdrew the assault charge to investigators, sources said.

Investigators have reason to believe that Lauterbach may have left the area voluntarily, sources said.

Earlier this week, the Onslow County Sheriff’s Department said Lauterbach was a witness to an incident that occurred on base and was due to testify about it. Sheriff’s officials Thursday morning issued a vaguely worded statement about Lauterbach’s disappearance.

“At this time I am not completely 100 percent resolved to which way this investigation may go,” Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown said in the statement.

“I do believe the answer is near. Open leads are still being investigated and more witnesses developed and interviewed. All these are bringing us closer to solving the mystery surrounding the disappearance of pregnant Marine, Maria Frances Lauterbach.”

Marine officials have declined to discuss the details of Lauterbach’s disappearance and have referred inquiries to the Sheriff’s Department, which is leading the investigation into the disappearance.

Lauterbach’s mother, Mary Lauterbach, of Dayton, Ohio, contacted sheriff’s officials Dec. 19 because she was “suspicious that something bad may have happened to her daughter,” sheriff’s officials said in a prepared statement.

The pregnant Marine was last heard from Dec. 14, when she spoke to her mother by telephone, sheriff’s officials said.

Investigators found her cell phone discarded near the main gate at Camp Lejeune on Dec. 20. No calls have been made on the phone since Dec. 14, sheriff’s officials said.

Bank records show a withdrawal from her account Dec. 14. Ten days later, on Christmas Eve, records show “suspicious activity” on her account, investigators said.

“There are several findings and pieces of evidence that have been discovered that cause law enforcement to be concerned with the circumstances surrounding Maria’s disappearance,” sheriff’s officials said in a statement earlier this week.

Her car was discovered Monday night at the bus station in Jacksonville, N.C., sheriff’s officials said. It is unclear how long her car, a blue Hyundai, has been parked there.

Lauterbach joined the Marine Corps in June 2006 and has not been deployed overseas, Marine officials said in a statement. She is currently assigned to the Group Consolidated Administration Center, Service Company, Combat Logistics Regiment 27, 2nd Marine Logistics Group, II Marine Expeditionary Force.

Lauterbach is 5 feet, 4 inches tall and weighs 140 pounds, with blond hair, blue eyes and a Marine Corps tattoo on her upper right arm, according to sheriff’s officials.

Lauterbach’s friends and family have created an online page at Facebook.com, labeled “Help us find Maria Lauterbach.”

“All of us love you and we miss you,” wrote her sister, Anne Lauterbach, on the page. “Please come home!!!”

Staff writer Kimberly Johnson contributed to this report.