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Nancy Grace

FBI Suspects Marine Murder Suspect Fled to Mexico

Aired January 16, 2008 - 20:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

NANCY GRACE, HOST: Tonight: A gorgeous young Marine vanishes into thin air, Camp Lejeune. Kicker? She`s eight months pregnant when she goes missing. The burned remains of 20-year-old Maria Lauterbach and her unborn child found in the backyard of suspect 21-year-old Cesar Laurean. Headlines tonight. Day six in a massive manhunt. The FBI now believes Laurean, a Mexican national, is headed for the border. And tonight, letters surface ostensibly from Laurean to his wife, postmark Houston, Texas, just 350 miles north of the border. Plus, a former Marine with inside knowledge speaks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The FBI says the Marine wanted in the killing of a pregnant fellow Marine may have fled to Mexico. As an FBI spokesperson puts it, investigators, quote, "strongly suspect" Corporal Cesar Laurean is in Mexico, but they haven`t confirmed his whereabouts.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Laurean`s wife, Christina, notifies the sheriff`s department that her husband gave her a note. In the note, Corporal Laurean claims the pregnant Marine committed suicide and he buried her. His wife said Laurean left their home at 4:00 AM that morning.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This woman tells me that Lauterbach was scared of Laurean, even though the Marines and the sheriff`s department has told us that they were on a friendly basis even after these rape allegations had come out.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She said that she just did not want to be around him, she was scared of him, and she wanted to ensure that she had a protective order against him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: And tonight, football Hall of Famer, double murder suspect O.J. Simpson back in court for violating bail, Orenthal James Simpson accused of blasting into a casino`s private hotel room with an armed posse pointing loaded weapons, making off with $100,000 worth of sports memorabilia. Well, hours ago, a Vegas judge berates Simpson and doubles bail to $250,000. Simpson ordered to lockup until he puts up 15 percent. Well, good luck. Simpson`s yet to pay one cent on his first bond, much less the $30 million he owes the families of his first two murder victims, Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: An angry judge in Las Vegas scolded O.J. Simpson today for what she called his arrogance, ignorance, or both.

JACKIE GLASS, DISTRICT JUDGE: I don`t know, Mr. Simpson, what the heck you were thinking, but you`ve been locked up at the Park County (ph) Detention Center since Friday because of either arrogance or ignorance or both.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Judge Jackie Glass doubled Simpson`s bail to $250,000 after he violated the terms of his previous bail in the armed robbery case. And Simpson will have to stay behind bars until 15 percent of the bail`s been paid in full. That would be $37,500. Prosecutors say Simpson defied a court order by trying to contact one of his co-defendants.

GLASS: No phone messages, no letters, nothing. Just go back to Florida after your bail is posted, and come back here April 7 for your trial.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us. Breaking news tonight. As the family of 20-year-old Maria Lauterbach awaits release of her body and that of her unborn child, is 21- year-old rape and murder suspect Marine Corporal Cesar Laurean on the way to Mexico? Tonight, the manhunt.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sheriff Ed Brown has repeatedly said his investigators were not given Cesar Laurean`s name until 20 days after Maria Lauterbach was reported missing.

SHERIFF ED BROWN, ONSLOW COUNTY, NC: We attempted to try to get some information in the very beginning concerning the incident on base, and we didn`t get it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But after conducting a lengthy internal review, military investigators say the sheriff`s office was indeed told about Laurean on December 19, the day she was reported missing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So on the 19th, NCIS told the sheriff`s department that the alleged rapist was Corporal Laurean?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is correct.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Military officials say the pregnant Marine found murdered had said she didn`t consider the man now accused of killing her to be a threat.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At no time did she indicate that she was threatened by Corporal Laurean.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She spoke to me that she was afraid of him. And I`ll be honest, I kind of blew her off because I was, like, There`s no way he`d do anything to you.

BROWN: January the 11th, 2008, about 9:00 AM, Laurean`s wife had found a handwritten note in their home about 4:00 AM that morning. The note had been left by her husband, Cesar Laurean, giving information on Maria`s death. It is believed at that time he was gone when the note was found.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A national manhunt is on for Corporal Cesar Laurean.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Is Laurean headed to Mexico? Of course, that`s just a hop, skip and a jump away from South America. Will he seek asylum somewhere? Does he know that in Mexico, it`s impossible to extradite back to the U.S. if the death penalty is being sought?

Out to Rusty Dornin, joining us in Jacksonville, North Carolina. Rusty, what`s the latest?

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the latest, as you said, Nancy, is the FBI is saying they strongly suspect that Cesar Laurean has fled already to Mexico. It is unconfirmed. There have not been any sightings or knowledge of his whereabouts.

Meantime, they`re making up Spanish language posters to put on line on the embassy Web site in hopes that the Mexican media will pick this up and distribute it. They are also working -- they have legal attaches down in Mexico City. The U.S. Marshals` office also has legal offices down in Mexico, where they hope to work with local law enforcement and hope to have them be cooperative in locating Cesar Laurean.

Meantime, of course, his truck that was located yesterday in Morrisville, North Carolina, was towed back here to Onslow County. The State Bureau of Investigation is going through that truck. Onslow County has also sent investigators back up to Raleigh-Durham. Remember, that is where, apparently, they found the ATM card used by Laurean last week, and found at a bus station. So they have sent investigators back up there to talk to people in restaurants, talk to store clerks and go back to the airport.

Now, the sheriff`s detectives did tell me that on Friday and Saturday, they did check with the agencies to see if Laurean was on any flight manifest flying out of Raleigh-Durham. At that time, they were told he was not. They did not believe he got an plane. They are now saying they will not release any information about what knowledge they have learned now, after they have gone back and talked to the agencies again to see if Laurean was on any flights out of the Raleigh-Durham area.

GRACE: So to Mike Brooks, former fed with the FBI, bottom line, that sounds to me as if they have changed their story a tiny bit. Do you think there`s a possibility that this guy went under one of his alias, Cesar Sanchez, Ramirez, Gudino -- is it possible that, unlike me, who has my fingernail clippers taken away from me when I get on a plane, could he have actually gotten on with a fake ID?

MIKE BROOKS, FORMER D.C. POLICE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: There`s a possibility, Nancy, because I have seen where people have gotten on with no ID. I know that`s not supposed to happen that way. But hopefully, TSA was on the ball and they had these aliases right from the very, very beginning. Now, I`m not sure exactly when they put the aliases out on the wanted poster, but hopefully, that the TSA had them in a "no fly" list, one of their several "no fly" lists.

GRACE: Wait, wait, wait. When you say the very, very beginning -- let`s get it straight. Her rape claim was way, way, way back in the spring. We`re talking April, May. And now, this is only day six of the manhunt.

BROOKS: No, I`m...

GRACE: What do you mean by the beginning?

BROOKS: The beginning of his flight, of when they took off early morning hours from the Camp Lejeune Marine Corps base. Hopefully, the TSA had those aliases on one of the "no fly" lists, Nancy.

But again, you know, we talked about the letters and everything else - - there`s a possibility, you know -- and then, again, there was a potential sighting this past weekend in Shreveport, Louisiana. You know, the FBI said that there had been sightings of him all around. They`re running down leads all across the country. Hopefully, the U.S. Marshals` service and the FBI, the leg-atts (ph) down in Mexico City will have some luck with the Federales. But when you get into some of the smaller areas in Mexico, Nancy, the small departments there are not cooperative. I mean, the Federales there are cooperative to a point.

GRACE: Well, what about in Guadalajara, where he is from?

BROOKS: That is a larger city, so you do have some Federale presence in Guadalajara. And so, hopefully, they`ll be sending some agents and some marshals up there with the Federales to look around and see. And hopefully, they`ve already interviewed some of his relatives that are still there in Mexico.

GRACE: Back to Rusty Dornin, CNN correspondent joining us from Jacksonville, North Carolina. While the family is awaiting the return of her remains for her funeral and that of the unborn child, is he in Mexico? Rusty, what family is still in Mexico?

DORNIN: That we`re not sure of. But we do know that he did live until he was a teen in Mexico in Guadalajara before he came to the United States and became a naturalized citizen, and of course, joined the Marines. He`s only 21 years old, so he may have spent still more of his life in Mexico. And it`s unknown exactly how far his family extends into that country.

GRACE: Rusty, have they released any information clarifying what was missing in the autopsy report, whether the baby was born or not?

DORNIN: No. They have not released anything. That is all unconfirmed at this point, and the medical examiner`s office has said that that information may not be forthcoming for even up to 30 days.

GRACE: Out to a special guest joining us tonight. You all know Dr. Joshua Perper. He is a chief medical examiner and author of "When to Call the Doctor," a medical examiner down in Florida. Dr. Perper, thank you for being with us. There was something very confusing in a statement made by the Onslow County sheriff`s department, that they observed the burned hand of the baby. Now, Dr. Perper, every autopsy report I`ve ever read made it very clear whether the child was born or unborn. How -- how would you be able to tell that?

DR. JOSHUA PERPER, MEDICAL EXAMINER, FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST: Hi, Nancy. Nice to have you back.

GRACE: Thank you.

PERPER: It`s -- it`s very clear that the autopsy report would detail the injury of the child. And if the hand of the child was burned, it means that the body wall of the victim had been burned away. But most likely, the child was still inside her and was easily recognizable.

GRACE: Let`s unleash the lawyers. Joining us tonight, Renee Rockwell, Alan Ripka and Michael Farkas, a former Army JAG officer. To all of you, thank you for being us with us. To Renee. In Carolina, in North Carolina, there is not a death penalty aggravating circumstance when it relates to an unborn fetus. In many jurisdictions, a semblance of Laci`s law -- named after Laci and Conner Peterson -- is in effect, where that constitutes two deaths, not one, and qualifies for the death penalty under mass murder, more than one body. Will the death penalty be able to be sought in this case, Renee?

RENEE ROCKWELL, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: They`re going to figure it out first, Nancy, before they -- if the baby was born or not and he killed two people. But Nancy, because he`s in Mexico now, that was the smartest move he could have made. If he gets prosecuted, the district attorney, before they`re going to be able to extradite him back, is going to have to give up that DP before they can get him back.

GRACE: To Michael Farkas, former Army JAG officer. Is there a way in which the military can bring him home and with different rules apply regarding seeking the death penalty through the military?

MICHAEL FARKAS, FORMER ARMY JAG OFFICER: Nancy, I don`t think there`s different rules with regard to the death penalty, but I do know that the federal rules of extradition are different. I don`t believe that he would be situated any differently than a typical federal criminally-wanted defendant might be. However, obviously, the power of the federal government is superior to that of the states in many cases, and that may be the way to go.

GRACE: Alan Ripka, what about it?

ALAN RIPKA, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, it seems like in this particular case, Nancy, they`re going to do everything they can to get this guy back. They may not even claim that they`re looking for the death penalty, so they make it easier for extradition.

GRACE: I want to go back to today`s developments. To Rusty Dornin. These letters from Houston, about 350 miles northwest of the border of Mexico -- how do we know, or do we know, the content? How do we know they were sent by him? Could someone be aiding and abetting him on his escape?

DORNIN: Well, they said all along that someone might be helping him. They`re not saying they are, but they`re saying that certainly is a possibility. The sheriff`s department here is saying they did not receive any communications from Laurean`s wife herself, that no communication went to her and then was given to authorities. And what they would not comment on is how they intercepted that, whether -- whether they got it out of the mailbox, whether it was taken from the Post Office, or how these communications were intercepted. So somewhere along the line, they were able to get them before it reached Christina Laurean.

GRACE: You know what`s interesting, Rusty Dornin, is that that one- way ticket allegedly bought by Maria Lauterbach was for El Paso, Texas. What connection did she have to El Paso, Texas? And now he is possibly going through Houston.

DORNIN: As far as we know, she didn`t have any connection to El Paso, Texas. And remember, Nancy, that the day before -- that ticket was for -- to Texas, she took $700 out of the ATM machine, of course, and that money has never been found. The big question is, of course, does Cesar Laurean have that cash?

GRACE: Out to the lines. Deanna in North Carolina. Hi, Deanna.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. Welcome back.

GRACE: Thank you, dear.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My question is this. Could the Mexican officials release Corporal Laurean to the United States Marine Corps to face rape charges? And once he has faced those rape charges, could the United States Marine Corps then turn him over to civilian authorities to face a possible death penalty?

GRACE: Mike Brooks, any possibility of that scenario of extradition?

BROOKS: Well, I tell you, Nancy, the most serious charge is the murder charge here. That is what they are going to get him back on, to extradite him back here on initially, if there`s anything they`re going to get him back on. But again, it`s -- you know, it`s -- once you get into Mexico and there is the possibility of the death penalty, the Mexican authorities are very, very apt to just say, Well, we`re not going to give him back to you.

But again -- so I think one of the attorneys did mention -- you know, they`re downplaying that -- they`re downplaying that with the district attorney`s office now, you know, saying, Well, we`ll have to take a look at this. They have not come out and said that, Yes, we will seek the death penalty, which I think is very, very smart.

GRACE: But Renee, if you could extradite by playing a word game, like extradite on an aggravated assault that turned into a murder, and then you extradite on the ag assault and then seek the death penalty, we wouldn`t have any agreement with Mexico...

ROCKWELL: That`s right.

GRACE: ... and any other countries at all if we double-crossed them.

ROCKWELL: No, you don`t want to trick another government because you will have more people that you want to come back to this country to face prosecution. Wouldn`t be a wise thing to do, Nancy.

GRACE: Back out to the lines. Nikki in Indiana. Hi, Nikki. Oh, it`s Martha in Tennessee. Hi, Martha.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. Congratulations on your twins. They`re beautiful.

GRACE: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And thank God that they`re healthy.

GRACE: I do, too. Every day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`m sure you do. My question is, do they have his wife, Laurean`s wife, under constant surveillance, in case he tries to contact her?

GRACE: Rusty Dornin, what about it?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, she has been in contact with the sheriff`s detectives here every day, either by phone -- she apparently has come to the sheriff`s office here. Of course, we didn`t have any pictures of her. We don`t know perhaps if she`d even walked right by us, quite frankly. We do know that she has been called back to active duty on the base and is living on the base. And remember, they have a 18-month-old child, so she and the child apparently are back on the base. She`s been recalled to duty. But she is in constant contact, and they`re still saying that she is a key witness in the case.

GRACE: You know, Mike Brooks, I was wondering why a letter. And this is what I deduced, anyway. A letter, you mail it, it arrives three or four days later, and you`ve already left the area. And you can make contact that way. If you make a phone call from a pay phone or a cell phone, you`re traced automatically, and cops can close in on you immediately.

BROOKS: Absolutely. And in cases like this -- and I`ve done it before -- they`ll put a go ahead (ph) and consensual trap (ph) and trace on her phone. But the other thing they`re going to take a look at, Nancy, with those letters is handwriting analysis, compare that to the note he left to the one of the letters that possibly U.S. postal inspectors interceded before it got to her.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The FBI says the Marine wanted in the killing of a pregnant fellow Marine may have fled to Mexico. As an FBI spokesman puts it, investigators, quote, "strongly suspect" Corporal Cesar Laurean is in Mexico, but they haven`t confirmed his whereabouts. Laurean`s shown on billboards across the country. You may have seen them. He disappeared on Friday, the day before the body of Lance Corporal Maria Lauterbach and her child were found in his yard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Back out to the lines. Nikki in Indiana. Hi, Nikki.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. Welcome back. Your babies are beautiful.

GRACE: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Here`s my question. How would somebody burn a body and go undetected? Forgive me for being macabre, but it seems to me that there would be at least a smell associated with an act like that. How would he get away with something like that?

GRACE: Rusty Dornin, how did it go down?

DORNIN: Well, I have absolutely no idea how it went down. But the thing we do know is that her body was buried underneath the firepit. One of the neighbors did say that they saw a group of Marines over at the house on Christmas Day, having a fire in the firepit. Well, according to the sheriff`s department, she was killed before that, on December 15.

And I -- it`s something to ask the medical examiners, the doctors you have there. Would it be possible, if she was buried underneath that firepit, if there was a big enough fire, could that have been the fire that charred her body? Because she would have been covered by some dirt, but if the fire was hot enough and there was charcoal, could it have literally cooked her?

GRACE: To Dr. Joshua Perper. What about that theory?

PERPER: Well, first of all, they have to determine where the burning of the body occurred. And it depends on the site or the place where the body was found. So -- or the other possibility is that the body was burned at an hour when nobody saw what`s happening.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For the first time, we`re actually getting details of the rape, when it happened, how it happened. She told me this morning that it happened last spring on the base, inside Laurean`s office. She said the two before had had consensual sex at least one time before, but this time, there happened to be a verbal argument which led to this alleged rape. Now, we`re also told that Lauterbach had told her on a second occasion that she was considering withdrawing this allegation of rape because she simply felt no one believed her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Out to the lines. Ingrid in Pennsylvania. Ingrid, hi.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. Congratulations on your beautiful babies.

GRACE: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Great. Nancy, I`d like to know, can the family of the victim file some type of negligence or wrongful death or failing to protect her, you know, something like that?

GRACE: Well, you know, I`ve been wondering about that myself. To you, Alan Ripka. We`ve got the military saying that one of the sex encounters, as they call it, was more consensual than the other. Translation: One was rape. And now we hear them releasing information that the child may not be that of the alleged rapist -- in other words, attacking her character. Is there a lawsuit in not protecting her, letting that TPO lapse?

RIPKA: Well, it doesn`t sound like the Marines would have been on notice that this man could potentially kill her, and thus they didn`t protect her by sort of holding him in a jail cell or something like that. But her family can certainly sue him for the death, if it`s proven in court that he did it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, CNN`s ANDERSON COOPER 360)

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Did she ever talk to you personally about it?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She spoke to me that she was afraid of him and, I`ll be honest, I kind of blew her off because I was, like, there`s no way he would do anything to you. She said that she just didn`t want to be around him. She was scared of him and she wanted to ensure that she had a protective order against him.

KAYE: She asked you to help her get a second.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

KAYE: ..military protective order and what did you do?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I did the paperwork and routed it to the appropriate authorities to have it signed and then passed back down.

KAYE: So she did have a second military protective order in place when she disappeared?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, she did.

KAYE: That was a current order?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

KAYE: You had written it yourself?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. I personally did it.

KAYE: Do you think that that Corporal Cesar Laurean is capable of murder?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I guess so, yes. I mean, I guess everyone is capable of anything depending on how far they`re pushed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Yet when the Marines gave their press conference, they stated that temporary protective order was put in place to protect evidence that she was not in any danger. She did not feel as if she was in danger but here we have the woman who filled out the paperwork for that protective order, protecting her against who police now believe is her killer.

Why don`t Marines admit that? Why are the Marines still hiding that? That`s something I don`t understand but tonight the issue is about where is Laurean? Is he already in Mexico? Is he on the run? Can he blend in? We know of several aliases. Does he have a new alias?

I want to go back out to Mike Brooks. How does somebody get on a plane without an ID as you suggested? How could he blend in? Certainly he wouldn`t go back to Guadalajara where his family is.

BROOKS: Well, no. I`m sure -- you know, the other question is, Nancy, did he have someone help him get anywhere, wherever he is right now, did he have somebody help him? I mean, we found that truck yesterday. OK. After he left that truck off, where did he go then? There was a small bus station there near the airport but that bus station near the airport, Nancy, you can`t buy a ticket there apparently but the bus does stop there. If you have a ticket, they`d let you on.

So did he buy a ticket somewhere else? They`re not saying. You know, maybe they have information that lead them to believe that he got to the border somewhere via bus. We don`t know. But again, you know, I hope the TSA was on the ball and that they had all of those aliases, you know, because we don`t know if he had maybe a government ID with those aliases.

GRACE: Well, this is something I don`t understand. What is somebody doing in our armed forces with gaggle of aliases, Renee Rockwell? Three aliases that we know of.

RENEE ROCKWELL, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Three or four, Nancy. But you know what?

GRACE: I mean you don`t have an alias unless we count all those married names you have on the end. You got about three or four of those. But other than that those, I mean, this guy has three aliases that even I know about. I`m sitting here 2,000 miles away.

ROCKWELL: Nancy, and sometimes just by virtue of the fact they`re Hispanic, they`ve got their first name, their middle name, their mother`s last name, their father`s last name, and imagine how many Cesar Sanchezes there might be in Mexico. For god`s sake, if somebody wasn`t trying to help him, he`d still blend in.

GRACE: So you have Cesar Gudino, Cesar Sanchez, Cesar Armando Laurean Ramirez. Certainly he would not head straight back home to where his family is but, the reality is, Alan Ripka, that`s where we so often find suspects on the run. They go straight back home to mommy.

RIPKA: Well, they sure do, Nancy. But I`ll tell you this.

GRACE: Mommy hides them under the bed and the police come pull them out by their feet.

RIPKA: Well, maybe so. But this guy is a trained Marine. He`s not a typical criminal. He knows.

GRACE: He`s a clerk.

RIPKA: He knows how to hide.

GRACE: He`s a clerk.

RIPKA: He was trained. He was trained like all the rest of the Marines.

GRACE: He had -- yes. But he`s been sitting behind a desk pushing paper for a while.

RIPKA: Maybe so. But you know, obviously.

GRACE: He`s not that sharp, Ripka. I mean he was fighting a nine- month pregnant woman. Who do you think he`s going to win?

RIPKA: Well, you know, he`s smart enough not to get caught today.

GRACE: True.

RIPKA: .and he was smart enough to get to Mexico. So obviously he`s got something going for him.

GRACE: Well, you know what? Out to Michael Farkas, former Army JAG officer. I don`t know how much smart it took since both the agencies were too busy pointing the fingers at each other to bear down and get the rape suspect in. And you know, a lot of aspersions have been cast on this alleged rape now murder victim. But the reality is, she never backed off saying she was raped. She never dropped that rape charge after all of the months had passed, after all the questioning. She never dropped it. I find that very indicative.

MICHAEL FARKAS, FORMER ARMY JAG OFFICER: I think it`s absolutely astonishing, Nancy, that a staff judge advocate at Camp Lejeune can actually say, "Well, she made rape allegations but she never said that she was in fear. She had nothing to fear. She never indicated to us that she was in fear," and this is the position that they`re going with. It`s astonishing to me. It`s really alarming.

GRACE: To Caryn Stark, psychologist, joining us tonight.

Caryn, there are reports Laurean has sent his wife letters. We know of two letters. We know one was sent to his wife from Houston, Texas. What does that suggest to you?

CARYN STARK, PSYCHOLOGIST: Well, to me, Nancy, there`s so much disorganized thinking going on with this man. First, he`s burying her, he`s not burying her. He says that she left a note. He`s covering up some things and not other things, so it doesn`t make a lot of sense. Maybe he`s trying to change. People say they don`t believe that he is where he says he is in the letters. We don`t even know what they say. But a lot of people do migrate home so there is a good chance that that`s where he wound up.

GRACE: Well, you know, it`s not that far to reach South America. It`s not a leap of reason to determine whether he is headed to Panama, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, any where in Central America he could end up.

To Terri Spahr Nelson, she is the author of "Coping with Sex Assault, A Guide for Military Victims."

Terri, welcome.

What is the standard protocol within the Marines for someone who reports a sex assault?

TERRI SPAHR NELSON, MILITARY SEXUAL TRAUMA CONSULTANT: Well, that`s a good question. First of all, my deepest sympathy to the family, I want to add that. There are excellent policies in place and they have been since 2005 with the Department of Defense and the United States Marine Corps, and if they follow them and they use them, they work.

The protocol is, first of all, the victim`s decision comes first. The victim has the right to report it either confidentially to seek help, to seek medical care or to seek the assistance of a victim advocate, or secondly, to report it for an investigation.

GRACE: How do you think it was handled in this case, Terri Nelson?

NELSON: Well, obviously, she reported it for an investigation. I think there`s a couple of things that come up that are concerning. First of all, there was obviously some military authority who thought it was important enough to issue the military protective order and they are issued to safeguard victims at the DoD and U.S. Marine Corps policy, and they`re issued because of a concern for potential harm or violence.

Obviously, they don`t always work to ensure victim`s safety but they should alert other authorities that there`s a potential for more violence. So that`s a big concern, is what happened there, what was the break down.

GRACE: You know, to Mike Brooks, I`m just wondering if he has bamboozled all of us and is headed somewhere else. I believe his parents actually live in Vegas while other extended family are there in Mexico. I would advise heading to Vegas. We`re about to go there ourselves on the O.J. Simpson story but that would be a -- it would not help him whatsoever in his bid to avoid the death penalty.

BROOKS: No, not at all, Nancy. You know, his friend had described him, this woman, that Randi Kaye had interviewed described him as being MacGyver. But just like you said, he`s a clerk. If he was such a MacGyver, then why didn`t he go to the two Force Recon Marines? But be that as it may, no, I would not -- I wouldn`t be going to Nevada. You know, the other thing, the one thing that really puzzles me, we talked about there last night.

GRACE: A MacGyver?

BROOKS: Yes.

GRACE: You know, this guy is a clerk.

BROOKS: That`s what I said.

GRACE: He`s behind a typewriter. MacGyver? What? Change the ribbon?

BROOKS: Or type 100 words a minute. But back again, Nancy, you know, we talked about this one-way ticket to El Paso that she had gotten. That still -- there`s something that really bugs me.

GRACE: Yes. There`s nothing.

BROOKS: There`s something that really bugs me about that.

GRACE: There`s something (INAUDIBLE) there.

BROOKS: There`s something to that, because where`s El Paso? Right across the river from Mexico. Real easy to get into Mexico from El Paso. We see it done every day both ways.

GRACE: You know, it`s very interesting that that ticket, I believe Rusty Dornin told me last night, was recovered in her car. Right, Rusty?

DORNIN: From what I understand it was never used and it was recovered in her car.

GRACE: Out to the lines, Deanna in Arkansas. Hi, Deanna.

DEANNA: Hello, Nancy. Welcome back.

GRACE: Thank you.

DEANNA: And congratulations on your babies.

GRACE: Thank you.

DEANNA: My question is - OK, she left the note saying that -- supposedly left a note saying that she was going to leave and get away from the Marine Corps. Did any -- handwriting analysis look at her note and decide if it was actually her writing it and some the analysis can be made if they were -- if things like that were written under stress.

GRACE: Rusty, has there been a handwriting comparison?

DORNIN: Well, they did -- the Marine Corps press coverage yesterday, the NCIS is going to be sending those notes, the ones that was left with Christina Laurean and the note that`s purportedly was left by Maria Lauterbach and they`re going to be comparing the handwriting and doing an analysis on that.

GRACE: Everybody, when we come back, Orenthal James Simpson back in the court of law. A Vegas judge doubles his bail after he makes a threatening phone call stemming from a casino armed robbery.

Also tonight, APB, all points bulletin for special moms and dads. If you know one who`s an inspiration to others, get your camcorders. Go to CNN.com/Nancygrace and click on "i-Report." Enter that mom in the "Nancy Grace Extraordinary Parent Contest."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACKIE GLASS, DISTRICT JUDGE: It`s whether you`re a flight risk and whether you`re a danger to the community, I think that the bail has to be raised at this point. It was $125,000, it`s now going to be $250,000. And it`s going to be $250,000 cash surety and Mr. Galanter understands that there`s no get-out-of-jail-free card today. He`s going to have to have the premium posted or something posted. He`s not getting out the way he got out the last time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRACE: Oh boo hoo. O.J.`s got to stay in jail for a night until he digs up cash to make bond. Maybe he can dig down into those bags of money he gets from all those memorabilia signing fairs he goes to. Walks out with cash. Bags of cash.

Let`s go out to "Court TV`s" legal correspondent Jean Casarez. She was in court all day long today.

Jean, what happened?

JEAN CASAREZ, LEGAL CORRESPONDENT, IN SESSION TRUTV: Well, the judge, Jackie Glass, and this is going to be the judge for the trial of O.J. Simpson, you just heard she doubled the bail to $250,000 but she did something that normally a judge doesn`t do at this point in time. She told O.J. Simpson through his attorney, Yale Galanter, that not only did his personal home have to be posted to ensure that bond, but also, he had to pay in cash 15 percent of that $250,000, and that`s just sort of a bail premium. That`s how the bail bond company makes money.

She had those stipulations because last time the first bail bondsman didn`t get the money. He asked O.J. for the 15 percent. O.J. said, "You know what? I don`t have it. But I`ll pay you later." So he allowed him to have that bail posted through his surety company. O.J. got out and then O.J. said after that, "Sorry. I just don`t have the money to pay you, Mr. Bail bondsman."

GRACE: Lance, when you get a chance, pull up the photo of O.J. Simpson`s home there in Florida. It`s huge. It`s a mansion. He has money for that and money to go out partying every night so I have to read about it in the newspapers every other weekend. He`s got money.

So to you, Kristen Flowers with KXNT AM 840, can`t he just call one of his posse, one of his many admirers, his hangers on and get the money? He needs about $40,000.

KRISTEN FLOWERS, NEWS ANCHOR, KXNT AM 840: Well, during the press conference today, his attorney actually said that he was going to be pooling money from friends and colleagues of Simpson. He said Simpson did not have any money and he estimated that the house that you`re talking about is actually 800 to $900,000.

GRACE: You know, Jean, has it ever occurred to him he could -- what`s that dirty word? Work for a living? Instead of playing golf and partying and stealing cable TV to the tune of $10,000? I mean, has he held one job since he was acquitted of double murder?

CASAREZ: I think, Nancy, he would tell you himself that he had not and that`s where the Goldman family comes in because you look at this cash money that has to be paid and the question that I had for the Goldman`s attorney today was that cash money that`s coming in, can Fred Goldman come in and get it because it`s O.J. Simpson that is paying the 15 percent premiums? So we`re talking about $37,500.

Well, it`s a difficult question to answer but if it`s O.J. Simpson`s money, yes. They can get it as it`s coming in or they can get it at the end of all the proceedings but if anybody else takes that money and gives it to the court on behalf of O.J. Simpson, the Goldman family cannot get it even in the end.

GRACE: Well, Jean, what about the money he got from that book? The book that never made it to the bookstores? The most recent book "If I Did It," as if there`s a question. He got a lot of money off that.

CASAREZ: He got $600,000. I`m in the middle of reading that book, Nancy. And at the beginning you have a prologue and what it says that O.J. said that what he did with that money was that he paid off IRS liens and he also paid off his home with that money. So I don`t think that money`s around anymore.

GRACE: Out to Renee Rockwell and Alan Ripka, both veteran defense attorneys. Alan in New York, Renee in Atlanta.

Long story short, how do you get out, Renee, of paying anything to a bails bondsman and then you stay on bail?

ROCKWELL: Well, Nancy, if they -- that bondsman could have gone and surrendered him himself. He could have put him in the car and brought him back to the jail. But Nancy, there are many -- most people, most of my clients have these arrangements with the bondsmen where they get out on a payment plan because if you don`t pay, the bondsman can put you right back in jail.

GRACE: To Alan Ripka, was the judge`s move today appropriate just raising the bond? I`m surprised she did that instead of totally revoking the bond.

RIPKA: Well, I completely disagree with you, Nancy. I mean, first of all, I think the judge should not have doubled the bond. I don`t think that he violated any agreement that he has with the court.

GRACE: He contacted a co-defendant.

RIPKA: He said to the bail bondsman tell him how upset he was over what he said. He wasn`t conspiring to do anything, to change the witness`s testimony.

GRACE: That is -- wait. Let`s see Ripka`s face. I want to see him saying this with a straight face. So even though he sent a message to a co-defendant, you said that`s not contacting the co-defendant?

RIPKA: You know, saying something sort of in the moment like -- inventing and saying, look, tell him how upset I am, that doesn`t mean that he`s a flight risk.

GRACE: That`s a message. And that`s not what he said.

RIPKA: He`s not a flight risk.

GRACE: That`s not what he said. First, it was laced with filthy obscenities and Simpson sent the message to a co-defendant about how upset he was that the co-defendant may be changing the testimony. That`s what the message was, Alan Ripka.

RIPKA: Meanwhile, he`s telling the bail bondsman, the very person who may revoke the bail. So obviously he doesn`t think he`s doing anything wrong because he`s not worried.

GRACE: He thinks he`s a friend.

RIPKA: Exactly. He thinks he`s a friend. He`s doesn`t think he`s doing anything wrong. He`s venting.

GRACE: Just like he thought it was all Nicole Brown`s fault that she died, because she used cocaine when she was a teenager.

To Mike Brooks, do you think Simpson ever intended to pay the bail bondsman? And I`m not as worried about that as I am about him arrogantly trying to contact the co-defendant and display his displeasure of his changing story.

BROOKS: It was very clear from the judge from the beginning, no contact either direct nor indirect. This is a perfect example of indirect communication, Nancy. And no, he wasn`t planning on paying back any of that money. I mean, he has green fees to pay. Come on.

GRACE: To Mary in Ohio. Hi, Mary.

MARY, FROM OHIO: Hi. I`m glad to speak to you and I`m so happy for your blessings.

GRACE: Thank you. Thank you. What`s your question, dear?

MARY: You know, evidently, you were speaking out, you know, on live broadcast so everybody can hear that he`s carrying bags of money out of these different projects he has of autograph signing?

GRACE: Yes.

MARY: why hasn`t anyone on behalf of the Goldmans walked up and, you know, helped themselves to that money?

GRACE: I`ll address that when we get back. We`ll be back in just a few moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRACE: To "HEADLINE NEWS PRIME`s" Glenn Beck. Hi, friend.

GLENN BECK, CNN HOST: Well, Mike Huckabee won in Iowa. John McCain won in New Hampshire. Last night, Mitt Romney claimed his second primary victory in Michigan. Still a close race. What will it take for a frontrunner to emerge from the pack? I`ll tell you in just a bit.

Then Mike Huckabee made a statement about God and the constitution. Some will find it very outlandish. What did NBC`s "Today Show" do with that? They asked Mitt Romney about it. I`ll expose the double standard coming up and I`ll bring you the latest on Newt, Karl Rove, Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani in their own words, coming up.

GRACE: Jean Casarez, it would be so onerous for the families of -- the Goldman and Brown families to try to track down that money at memorabilia fairs.

CASAREZ: Oh, it`s been very difficult. They can`t trace it. But Nancy, once the $37,500 is paid to the bail bondsman, the Goldmans then have the time to try to trace where that came from. If they can find in any form or fashion it came from O.J., they would stand at the bail bondsman`s office when this case is over and get the money. But remember the defense is saying there are donations that they are getting right now from family and friends.

GRACE: To Caryn Stark, psychologist.

Caryn, one, do you think the judge`s lecture had any impact on Simpson? No. And two, why are friends and posse and entourage so willing to go along with Simpson?

STARK: Well, because of his notoriety, Nancy. He happens to be a celebrity. Not somebody that we would admire but people like to hang on to celebrities, to be part of an entourage. And do I think he`ll pay attention? He won`t pay attention at all because he`s above the law. He doesn`t have any kind of moral code. He doesn`t listen to what people say. He does whatever he wants.

GRACE: Renee, Alan, I`ve got 10 seconds. Will this guy ever go to trial, Renee?

ROCKWELL: Yes. You know what, Nancy? He`s going to go to trial and he`s going to get acquitted. We`ll tune in.

GRACE: Alan, yes, no trial?

RIPKA: I agree. He`s going to go to trial. He`s going to get acquitted on this one.

GRACE: Let`s stop and remember Army Private First Class Rush Jenkins, just 22, Clarksville, Tennessee, killed Iraq on a first tour, lost his life on his birthday, loved football, wrestling, traveling, skeet shooting, playing guitar. Leaves behind dad, Ricky, four siblings including his twin brother Michael.

Rush Jenkins, American hero.

Thank you to our guests but especially to you for inviting us into your homes. See you tomorrow night 8:00 sharp Eastern and until then, good night, friend.

END