[Vision2020] Missing Marine's Car found at Bus Station

[Tom Hansen]

>From the Marine Corps Times at www.MarineCorpsTimes.com

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Missing Marine's car found at bus station

By Andrew Tilghman - Staff writer

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http://tinyurl.com/32xrx3
Maria Frances Lauterbach, who is eight months pregnant, was last heard from
on Dec. 14, when she spoke to her mother by telephone, according to
sheriff's officials in Onslow County, N.C. The phone was found near the main
gate at Camp Lejeune on Dec. 20.

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Authorities investigating the disappearance of a 20-year-old pregnant Marine
stationed at Camp Lejeune, N.C., found her car abandoned in the parking lot
of a nearby bus station.

Lance Cpl. Maria Frances Lauterbach, who has been missing from her post for
more than three weeks, is a native of Dayton, Ohio. She is more than eight
months pregnant.

Lauterbach was a witness to an incident that occurred on base and was due to
testify about it, according to sheriff's officials in Onslow County, N.C.
Marine Corps and sheriff's officials declined to provide any additional
details regarding the incident.

Lauterbach was last heard from on Dec. 14, when she spoke to her mother by
telephone, sheriff's officials said. Several days later, her mother, Mary
Lauterbach, of Dayton, contacted the sheriff's department to file a missing
persons report. The mother was "suspicious that something bad may have
happened to her daughter," sheriff's officials said in a prepared statement.

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 on 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 the
statement.

It is unclear how long her car, a blue Hyundai, has been parked at the
Jacksonville bus station, sheriff's officials said.

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!!!"

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"Patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion but the tranquil
and steady dedication of a lifetime." 

--Adlai E. Stevenson, Jr.