Cesar Laurean Extradited!

UPDATED Below

Almost a year ago, I mentioned in a blog post that Cesar Laurean who is accused of murdering Maria Lauterbach and her unborn son, burning the bodies and burying them in his back yard had been captured and jailed in Mexico. Here is what I wrote back then:

Cesar Laurean; He's still in Mexico awaiting extradition, but law enforcement have released a lot of court documents relating to the murder of Maria Lauterbach. Go here and check out the list of documents. One news site details some phone calls and such from the Laurean home the day he took off for Mexico. Another one (This link has been removed because it led to a dead end.) writes about how Cesar was researching things in Mexico before he left. Things like buying property and finding jobs in Mexico. I couldn't find anything in the articles about how the extradition process is going, so we wait.

On the 15th, an item hit the news from a TV station in Ohio that said Laurean was expected back in the U.S. on Friday. Today is Friday and that station was right. Laurean is on his way to North Carolina right now as I type. Someone on the InSessions message boards said they saw/heard on the news that he had landed in Miami. I haven't heard any of the reports yet, but there are a number of news items coming up with a google search now.

• "Laurean returns to U.S. to face charges" (News 14 in North Carolina)
• Cpl. Cesar Laurean, the Marine accused of killing a pregnant colleague in 2007, returned to the United States on Friday. He landed in Miami around 11:30 a.m.
• "Suspect in pregnant Marine's death on way to U.S." (CNN International)
• Investigators were accompanying Laurean, who fled to Mexico, to the United States on Friday morning, two law enforcement sources said. The FBI said Thursday that Laurean would be extradited to the United States on Friday.

There are more, but why "flood" my blog with all the items that come in the Google news search? I do have to say that I love the title of one of the items that popped up in the search.. It's from a blog in Kansas City:

• "Welcome home, Cesar Laurean" (Crime Scene KC)
• Well, he's not quite home yet. But Laurean, a Marine corporal accused of murdering a fellow officer, has exhausted his extradition appeals and could be shipped back from Mexico soon. (He won't be facing the death penalty, though -- one of the conditions for Mexico to hand him over.)

So finally, the wait is over. Cesar is on his way back to North Carolina to stand trial for murdering Maria and her unborn son. They had to take the death penalty off the table in order to even begin the extradition process, so the heaviest penalty he's facing is life in prison without the possibility of parole. From all reports, Cesar's wife, Marine Cpl. Christina Laurean is still standing by her "man". According to one of the first articles I read concerning the extradition stated that she had just returned from a period of leave, which included a visit to see her husband in a Mexican jail.

The trial for Laurean won't be soon, though. It could take a year or more before he sits in a courtroom with a jury watching him.

The sad part is that while Laurean is "coming home", Maria Lauterbach's father is leaving next week on his way to Iraq for a 4 month deployment. (See this link.) Victor Lauterbach is an Air Force Reserve master sergeant in the 87th Aerial Port Squadron, which is part of the 445th Airlift Wing at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. The squadron is responsible for the on- and off-loading of equipment, cargo and personnel onto aircraft. This has to be a difficult deployment for Maria's father. I'm sure he would like to be there, in North Carolina, to face down the murderer of his daughter and grandson in the hearings in preparation for the trial.

I wonder how much media attention this case will get now... It's been almost a year and a half since Maria disappeared back in December of 2007 and her body found in that firepit in Laurean's back yard in mid-January of 2008. It's time to bring justice to Maria and Gabriel Lauterbach. It's time for Cesar to pay for what he did.

UPDATE

Cesar Laurean is back in North Carolina. He was booked into the Onlslow County Jail in Jacksonville about 8pm EST and is scheduled for his first court appearance on Monday. They're saying he'll be in court shortly after noon.

The photo to the left is his new booking photo. I guess the Mexican jailers treated him well enough. He doesn't look to happy to be back in the U.S. though. His wife isn't commenting to any of the media on the subject of her husband's return to face the charges against him. An Onslow County grand jury indicted him in January 2008 on charges of first-degree murder, robbery with a dangerous weapon, obtaining property by false pretenses, financial transaction card theft and financial transaction card fraud.

Source: JDNews.com