Marine’s family calls action slow

For months after a pregnant 20-year-old Marine accused a colleague of rape, her family says, she continued to work alongside him and endured harassment at Camp Lejeune.

After she disappeared, relatives believe, the sheriff’s department was slow to act.

As authorities recovered Lance Cpl. Maria Frances Lauterbach’s remains from a fire pit where they suspect Marine Cpl. Cesar Armando Laurean burned and buried her body, her family asked why authorities didn’t treat her case with greater urgency.

Naval investigators said the pair had been separated on the job, a rape case was progressing, and Laurean was under a protective order to stay away from Lauterbach. And Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown said his department acted as best it could on the facts available.