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Nancy Grace

Marine Murder Suspect Caught on Surveillance Video

Aired January 18, 2008 - 20:00   ET

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

PAT LALAMA, GUEST HOST: Tonight: The brutal death of a young Marine, eight months pregnant when she vanishes at Camp Lejeune, the burned remains of 20-year-old Maria Lauterbach and her unborn child found buried in the backyard of murder suspect Cesar Laurean.
Breaking developments: Caught on tape. Police say surveillance video shows Laurean actually using Lauterbach`s ATM card and buying paint, concrete blocks and a wheelbarrow at a local hardware store. We know police discover blood inside the suspect`s home, apparently covered up with fresh paint.

Tonight, the manhunt in high gear, a Mexican national with roots in Nevada. Police reveal a new sighting of Laurean out west. This as the FBI continues to follow leads south of the border. And the latest on bombshell developments that Laurean`s wife knew about the murder a full day before reporting it to police.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A new development in the hunt for a Marine suspected of murdering a pregnant colleague. Investigators say they believe someone may have seen Corporal Cesar Laurean, but they won`t say where.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There`s word out there he`s in Mexico. There`s word he`s out there in three stays. His parents live in Las Vegas. He`s got family in Mexico. At this point, there`s just nothing, I think, that concrete to hang your hat on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is apparently some video that perhaps shows him at Lowe`s hardware store, buying paint. There`s also the ATM withdrawal on December 24, which has been identified as an unidentified male making that withdrawal, someone who wasn`t Maria Lauterbach. And you know, the suspicion has been that perhaps this is Laurean.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LALAMA: Tonight, the brutal murder of Marine Corporal Maria Lauterbach and her unborn child, the manhunt for suspect Cesar Laurean.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There are new details today in the death of pregnant Marine Maria Lauterbach. Police say that the wife of the Marine suspected in the killing knew about the death but didn`t report it to police until the next day. Police say that while driving to a lawyer`s office last Thursday, Corporal Cesar Laurean told his wife, Christina, that Lauterbach had demanded money from him and then claimed that the eight- month pregnant Lauterbach killed herself and that he then buried her in the backyard. The next day, his wife gave several notes that were written by her husband to police. They say that his wife, who is also a Marine, has been cooperative and is not a suspect. Laurean is believed to be now hiding out in Mexico.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There`s also this video I hear just emerging. Apparently, there might be some video of Cesar Laurean buying paint?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We`re not going to confirm any of the details as to what those images are. Investigators are still following up on leads. But the images that we do have certainly corroborate information that we have, and they are providing a firm timeline for us in the investigation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LALAMA: Good evening. I`m Pat Lalama, in for Nancy Grace. Nancy has the night off and is spending some time with the twins, Lucy and John David. And before we take you to North Carolina, be sure to check out brand-new pictures of Nancy and the twins at CNN.com/nancygrace.

And now, a brutal turn that we have to take in the brutal murder of Marine Corporal Maria Lauterbach and the manhunt for the prime suspect. This is hot off the presses, this picture. And authorities say it is, in fact, Cesar Laurean at an ATM machine using her card. It`s dated December 24. This is brand, spanking new. He`s doing this at approximately 5:02. There will be more footage that you will see eventually, buying the supplies.

Susan Candiotti, CNN national correspondent, as evidence goes, it doesn`t get a lot stronger than this, does it not?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It certainly is compelling evidence, I mean, to say the very least. And you`re going to be seeing this video on Anderson Cooper`s show on CNN at 10:00 o`clock tonight, but you are seeing some freeze-frames from that video at this time.

First of all, this ATM video shows, according to police, Cesar Laurean withdrawing money from an ATM machine, using the murder victim`s ATM card. That`s happening on December 24, as you pointed out.

We are also getting brand-new surveillance video that police are releasing. And we have confirmed from police that it shows video of Cesar Laurean, the suspected killer here, and he is leaving, coming and going, from a Lowe`s store, home improvement store, and that is dated December the 16th. He is purchasing, according to the police, supplies, paint, concrete blocks and a wheelbarrow that, according to a police spokesman, say is information or pieces of evidence that might have been used to cover up the death of Corporal Lauterbach.

LALAMA: Let me ask you, Susan, just very quickly. The footage of the supply purchase, is that the same date as the ATM, or is it a completely different time?

CANDIOTTI: It`s a different date, and it`s very interesting because it happened on December the 16th. And by the way, police say they have documented evidence to indicate -- from the store, in fact -- that he made these purchases. Now, what`s interesting about the date, Pat, December 16, police say they believe that she was murdered on December the 14th.

LALAMA: Right.

CANDIOTTI: And of course, Laurean claims to his wife that Lauterbach killed herself on December the 15th.

LALAMA: Right.

CANDIOTTI: So we have all kinds of dates floating around.

LALAMA: Yes. And the fact that so much of it is coming from him through his wife, it`s his -- basically, it`s his side of the story against everything else that we`re trying to figure out that`s factual. So everything seems to be still up in the air to some degree, does it not?

CANDIOTTI: Well, obviously, the police are interviewing a lot of people to try to document all of this, people at the store. Obviously, they`re talking to his wife, who they still call a cooperating witness this day. They`re talking to other Marines, who were allegedly with him on December the 25th and with his wife, having that barbecue at the house, back behind the house, where allegedly she had been buried.

LALAMA: Well, pretty compelling. Once again, we do have pictures, and there will be more, of him using an ATM, and then footage of him buying supplies.

Lori Mack, North Carolina correspondent for Westwood One Metro Networks, they`re now saying, as Susan just mentioned, originally, it was thought that she was killed on the 15th. Now they`re saying the 14th. Why do they believe so firmly now it was the 14th?

LORI MACK, WESTWOOD ONE METRO NETWORKS: Well, what they`re saying is -- you know, this case has had more twists and turns than a roller-coaster. And because -- they feel she was killed on the 14th, based on just various evidence. It`s not clear exactly why they feel she was killed on the 14th. But based on the evidence that they have reviewed, they`ve come to the conclusion that they do believe she was killed on the 14th, instead of the 15th.

LALAMA: All right. I want to go back to Susan Candiotti, CNN national correspondent. You have information on this news of sightings. What is specific? What do we know for sure?

CANDIOTTI: Well, not only about the sightings -- but the reason they think it`s December the 14th is because witnesses, by the way, at the bus station say, and confirm, that they saw Maria Lauterbach at the bus station on December the 14th.

LALAMA: Aha.

CANDIOTTI: And that`s the same day that Laurean claims she came over to the house and that she killed herself. That`s why they think it`s the 14th, as one reason.

Now, in terms of these sightings, there have been reports that the police were getting sightings of Laurean in the southwestern United States, in some states there. However, those are just sightings, and none of them have been confirmed. None of them have been deemed credible at this point.

LALAMA: Very interesting. Is it credible that he did, in fact, though, mail a letter from Houston? Can we confirm that that was for real?

CANDIOTTI: Haven`t been able to confirm that. Not yet.

LALAMA: OK. All right. Let`s go right to Donald Schweitzer, former detective, Santa Ana PD. You`ve chased many a guy on the run in your career. What`s inside his mind right now? And how long can he hold out?

DONALD SCHWEITZER, FMR DETECTIVE, SANTA ANA PD: I don`t think he`s going to hold out very long. I mean, he`s going to have to have some destination to go to, and it very well may be Mexico. If I were law enforcement, I`d be trying to catch him before he slips into Mexico because, Pat, as you know, the chase stops right there at the border. Once the cops get at the border, they`ve got to stop and wait for the Federales or the Mexican authorities to cooperate.

But as far as where he`s going to go, I don`t think in this day and age he can go very far for very long because of shows like this. His picture is on the TV right now. People are looking at it. Where can he go? I know this much, he ain`t going to be on a Marine base any longer, though.

LALAMA: No, that`s for darn sure. Michael Farkas, former active duty JAG officer and military law attorney, what can be the military`s actual role? Do they have to sort of step aside and let the feds handle this? Can the Marines be actively involved in this search for him?

MICHAEL FARKAS, MILITARY LAW ATTORNEY: Certainly, they`re going to be very involved in this. There is intense cooperation between federal authorities especially, but also here, with the North Carolina authorities assisting. This is a crack team.

LALAMA: Patricia Saunders, you`re a clinical psychologist, and I want to know -- I worked for "America`s Most Wanted" for three years. I chased around a lot of these kind of guys, but I`m not a psychologist. Go inside the mind. What is he thinking? Is he sane? Is he dangerous? What is in his mind right now?

PATRICIA SAUNDERS, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: Well, what comes to mind, Pat, is the term from the old common law, the "abandoned and malignant heart," which would translate now as a psychopath, someone who is able to detach from human emotions, from empathy, from guilt, and just think about their own survival and their own needs. This guy can be as cool as a cucumber. You`d have to be to plan a barbecue like he did.

LALAMA: Unbelievable. Susan Moss, family law attorney, can we -- I know you`re not a psychologist, you`re a great attorney. But from the prosecutor`s perspective, are they thinking this guy, if he did it once, he can do it again? What are they thinking? How dangerous is he? Because there`s a reward out there, and a lot of people want to be heroes. And we`re thankful for those people, but there`s a lot of money involved, but you`ve got to be careful about trying to track down somebody like this as a civilian, correct?

SUSAN MOSS, FAMILY LAW ATTORNEY: Absolutely. They`re thinking that this man is as dangerous as they come. He was so cold and unfeeling to have a cookout over the very firepit where, allegedly, the body of this woman was. I mean, who is this guy, the modern-day Sweeney Todd? He is unfeeling. He is frightening. And he is as dangerous as they come.

LALAMA: Daniel Horowitz, defense attorney. You know, we now know there`s this amazing surveillance tape. I`ve got the still photo right in my hand of him using the ATM. But he`s already said he buried her. So from an evidentiary perspective, so what? What`s so -- what prosecutors still have to do is prove he murdered her, correct?

DANIEL HOROWITZ, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Right, Pat. You know, I`ve been sitting, watching everybody`s comments, and it seems that there`s an assumption that he committed murder just because it looks like he probably killed her. And I`m sitting here, saying, Wow, this is almost like Scott Peterson in reverse.

What if this was where he got the mistress -- in other words, Amber Frey character -- pregnant, instead of his wife, and then something happened wherein the heat of passion, he killed her? We`re assuming that he raped this woman and that then he coldly killed her, and I don`t see that adding up. And I`m not favoring him just because he`s a man and he killed a woman, or I`m a defense attorney. The facts only add up if she was making up the rape and his life was being ruined, and they had an argument and he killed her in the heat of position.

LALAMA: Darryl Cohen, defense attorney, weigh in for that. I mean, it ain`t looking good for this corporal, is it.

DARRYL COHEN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, it`s looking really bad for him, Pat, because he decided to leave. He split. Once somebody leaves, the flight is going to be extremely important. And did he kill her? Likely he did. Did he tell his wife...

LALAMA: But the flight itself is a consciousness of guilt, is it not? I mean, if you`re innocent, you stick around and you call 911, if she`s trying to commit suicide.

COHEN: Well, let`s face it, Pat, she didn`t commit suicide by hitting herself with a blunt instrument in the head. He said that she killed herself by slicing it. Doesn`t work. Doesn`t fly. The pig doesn`t fly.

LALAMA: We`ve got a little time for our all-important callers, and we`ll take Jamie from Tennessee. Hi, Jamie.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Pat. How are you?

LALAMA: I`m well, thanks. What`s your question?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was just wondering, has there been any recent word of who the father might be of this child?

LALAMA: Well, Susan Candiotti, you know, that is the thing that weighs on a lot of people`s minds, not that it`s necessarily a big aspect of whether he murdered her or not, but do we know it was his child? Do we know it was anyone else`s child? And what`s being done to determine that? In other words, what priority is that for authorities at this point?

CANDIOTTI: Well, they`re saying it`s a priority, but it`s not the main priority at this point. And of course, tests are currently under way to get that match, to find out whether there is a relationship between the fetus, the unborn child, and whether Laurean is the father. They`re working on that. They don`t have the information yet. That could take some time, as we certainly remember from the Anna Nicole Smith case, as an example.

LALAMA: Exactly. Very good point. And Susan, the important thing about knowing whether he was the father is that it sort of plays into motive, if he doesn`t want this unborn child and -- you know, I mean, just as a possibility. We don`t know for sure. But that`s what makes who the father is important here, correct?

CANDIOTTI: That is one possibility. Certainly, obviously, the authorities have been looking into that. By "authorities" I mean the military investigation that was going on at Camp Lejeune. Remember, she had claimed that he had raped her. He denied it. She changed her story, apparently, at some point along the way. But according to her friends, she remained very fearful of him.

LALAMA: Donald Schweitzer, I`ve just got a couple of seconds here. As a former detective, give me just a quick tip for people out there who think they might want to be the one to turn him in. What do you do if you see him?

SCHWEITZER: You don`t confront him directly because this guy`s desperate. He might try to kill you next. Just call the cops and stand back.

LALAMA: But how do you -- I mean, you don`t try to talk to him. You don`t do anything. You get a clear picture of him and say, OK, now I`m just going to be quiet and make my little phone call to 911, right?

SCHWEITZER: Yes, keep your eye on him. Make sure he doesn`t go anywhere. But I wouldn`t try to capture him yourself. This guy is dangerous. He`s a Marine. He just killed somebody. He`s going to kill you, if you put your hands on him.

LALAMA: All right. To tonight`s "Case Alert." Will music superstar Britney Spears`s latest string of wild behavior cost her permanent custody of her two young sons? Spears losing even the minimum of visitation rights after two bizarre incidents. First, she`s rushed to the ER in a custody standoff at her LA home, then she shows up hours late to a key custody hearing and leaves without even entering the courtroom. Her latest escapade, buying a pregnancy test with paparazzi in tow, as a reported stunt for publicity. The next custody hearing concerning her toddler boys set for February 19.

And tonight: Do you know a parent who is an inspiration to others and deserves to be recognized? If so, get your videocamera and go to CNN.com/nancygrace, click on Ireport and enter them in the Extraordinary Parent contest.

And tonight, check out brand-new photos of Nancy and the twins, Lucy and John David. It`s all on Nancy Grace`s baby blog.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cesar Laurean and his wife, Christina, left their house near Jacksonville a week ago today, headed for an attorney`s office. On the way, according to this search warrant, he asked her if she was with him on this. She responded, I do not know. Is there anything you have not told me? There was a lot, and that has apparently led investigators to believe that she was not involved in the killing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As of right now, we do not anticipate charging her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LALAMA: I`m Pat Lalama, in for Nancy Grace. And let me show it to you again, surveillance footage of Cesar Laurean at an ATM, using the deceased`s ATM card. There`s also footage, which you will ultimately see, of him buying supplies, wheelbarrows, paint. It`s not looking good.

Susan Candiotti, back to you, CNN national correspondent. His wife, Christina, authorities have referred to her as a highly cooperating witness. Where does she stand on all this today? What`s the latest?

CANDIOTTI: Well, police continue to say that she is a cooperating witness. Obviously, she has been talking with them for some time. It`s unclear how often she is talking with them, whether she still is.

But there is that outstanding question. We know from police that she went to the them a day after she found out from her husband about what he says occurred. We don`t have an answer for that. We`ve asked the police for an explanation for it. They`re unable or unwilling to provide one for us at this time, other than to say that she is working with them.

LALAMA: Lori Mack, Westwood One Metro Networks, is she laying low? Do people see her around much?

MACK: Well, authorities -- that`s what authorities are saying, she`s pretty much laying low because I`m sure this is a difficult situation for her. But as you stated before, she is cooperating with authorities. But they are still not sure. There is some question as to how much she really knew, and if, in fact, she did release all the information within the amount of time that she said she received the information.

LALAMA: Susan Moss, family law attorney, does it look bad that she waited a day? And if I have this correct, she waited until after he took off.

MOSS: She absolutely waited until after he took off. You know, she waited for a day, and now this guy is a needle in a stack of hay. It is devastating, what she did, because now we may not find this guy and this guy may be over the border. And if he gets over the border, then he`s never going to be prosecuted with the threat of the death penalty and he`s never even going to be prosecuted with the threat of life imprisonment because the Mexican government will not release him if those punishments are still on the table.

LALAMA: We`re going to get to that. That`s a very big issue. And being based in LA and covering crime out of Los Angeles, I know how tough it is to deal with Mexico on this matter. We`ll talk about it in a minute.

To tonight`s "Case Alert." A Honolulu man behind bars -- this is so hard to read -- after dropping a toddler boy 30 feet to his death. According to witnesses, 23-year-old Matthew Higa (ph) dressed in hospital scrubs when he carries the 2-year-old boy onto a pedestrian overpass, then drops that little baby onto the freeway, right into oncoming traffic. At least one car hits the boy. Higa facing second degree murder charges and now undergoing a mental evaluation.

Happier news tonight. The NANCY GRACE show is looking for parents, good ones, who are an inspiration to others and deserve to be recognized. If you know a deserving mom or dad, get your videocamera and go to CNN.com/nancygrace, click on Ireport and enter them in the Extraordinary Parent contest.

And tonight, check out brand-new photos of Nancy and the twins on the Nancy Grace baby blog.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Investigators say they`re tracking Laurean`s movements from Jacksonville to the triangle, where his truck was found, and they`re doing it with the help of surveillance video.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We do have credible images that we believe do help to determine that timeline.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LALAMA: I`m Pat Lalama, in for Nancy Grace. And we`ve got it for you, hot off the presses. This is the man that they are looking for, Corporal Cesar Laurean, and he is using Maria Lauterbach`s ATM. And the footage gets better, which you`ll ultimately see.

I want to take a call from Dee from my home state of Ohio. Hello, Dee.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hey, there, Pat. I`m glad to hear you`re from Ohio, too.

LALAMA: I am. I`m a Buckeye.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right. Thanks for taking my call. But I have one question. How in the world is he getting by with using an ATM card, which when you use an ATM, you have to put a PIN number in to withdraw cash?

(CROSSTALK)

LALAMA: Darryl Cohen, defense attorney, probably, you know, if they had any kind of relationship, or he forced her to give him the PIN number, don`t you think?

COHEN: My best guess is you`ve got that right. They probably had sex. It was consensual, is my guess. Maybe it was rape, but certainly, they had a very, very good relationship. And maybe she was like so many other people, she kept her PIN in her billfold. Not the right thing to do, the dumb thing to do, but people do it.

LALAMA: Michael Farkas, former active duty JAG officer and military law attorney, he could have actually watched her use the card at one point, as well, and been clever enough to figure it out, correct?

FARKAS: Sure could have. But I think the most interesting part about this ATM withdrawal is that it comes on December 24, Christmas Eve, am I right? Wasn`t there a barbecue the next day at his house, right over the bodies where they were buried?

LALAMA: You know what? It`s absolutely shocking to think about. Darryl -- excuse me -- Daniel Horowitz, what is the ATM use mean to you, very quickly?

HOROWITZ: Well, Pat, I think there`s some indication that somebody`s trying to attempt to say that she was alive and running away on her own, and that may have been part of his cover-up in that respect.

LALAMA: Very interesting.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Laurean`s friend who we`ll call Lisa says Lauterbach and Laurean became romantically involved in December 2006. Lisa remembers Lauterbach telling her they had consensual sex at least once before she accused him of raping her. Lauterbach never told Lisa whether she thought Laurean was her baby`s father.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She said that she just did not want to be around him, she was scared of him.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why, then, would the Marines tell us Lauterbach told them she didn`t feel threatened? We tried to ask, but were told they`re not discussing the case anymore. Was she attempting to cut off the relationship with him?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She wanted nothing to do, she was nowhere near him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LALAMA: I`m Pat Lalama in for Nancy Grace. And let me remind you once again. I mean for shock value purposes, this still photo of Cesar using the ATM with her card is, you know, it has a lot of shock value.

But Howard Oliver, former deputy medical examiner and forensic pathologist, first of all, thank you for your patience. Here`s my question, it still doesn`t prove he killed anybody, because he`s already said, you know, I buried her, she tried to kill herself. What people need to know, and this might get a little gruesome, is there a way, after bodies have been burned, that you can tell? Now we know that they say she died of blunt force trauma. But regarding the alleged slitting of the throat that he claims she did, can that ever be proved in these circumstances?

HOWARD OLIVER, FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST: Well in this circumstance, you should be able to prove the blunt force trauma took place first. There would be hemorrhage after the injury to the inner part of the skull, to the outer part of the scalp. And as far of the throat slitting, there may not be any hemorrhage if the blunt force trauma took place first. So yes, there are ways to prove this.

LALAMA: Even if bodies have been charred? I guess our assumption, those of us who are pedestrians in this field, you can`t imagine that you could piece anything together with a charred body. But it doesn`t necessarily mean it has to be all ash, correct?

OLIVER: That`s correct. It`s doubtful that it is all ash. You`d have to have a tremendous amount of heat for a great period of time to turn the body to ash. So usually, in my experience, the inner tissues are still well preserved and you can ascertain the cause of death.

LALAMA: Is it possible to tell whether someone slit their own throat, or it was done at the hands of another?

OLIVER: I would think you would be able to tell with the splatter patterns. If you cut your own throat, then you would spurt blood from a carotid artery. But the spatter pattern is going to be different from that scene when someone struck you. So it would be up to an expert to determine what the spatter pattern indicated.

LALAMA: Susan Candiotti back to you, CNN national correspondent. We were talking a moment ago about the sightings. Is it possible, and I kind of feel this, having worked for "America`s Most Wanted," and with lots of law enforcement agencies over many years, sometimes they kind of want to throw you off the pattern. I mean they don`t want 50 cameras where they think the guy is going to be, correct? I`m not accusing of lying, but they might want to mislead or send us on a mission, so to speak.

CANDIOTTI: Well naturally, that`s entirely possible, Pat. On the other hand I think there`s a very good possibility, certainly would be an understandable one if, by now, Laurean had made it down to his native Mexico where he certainly has relatives living there. And we do know the police have acknowledged that they are spending part of their, certainly zeroing part of their investigation on Mexico. Obviously he has relatives living in Nevada, as well. So there`s a lot of territory to cover in the southwestern part of the United States. And in Mexico.

LALAMA: And it`s quite complicated. It really is. There`s a lot of different ways he could go.

Donald Schweitzer is a former detective. Do you think it`s smart sometimes to put it out there that they`re at point "a" when really they`re at point "b" and you know it?

SCHWEITZER: No, I don`t think that it`s good in most cases. I do think the police should be careful as to what they release. But to actually fool people could cause problems later on in the prosecution of the case. If they`re going to do something like that, they should clear it with the local D.A. or the prosecuting authority so they don`t wind up with problems with that.

LALAMA: Susan Moss, family law attorney, he allegedly said to someone if I ever got in trouble, I`d go to Mexico. And now can I have a beer. I mean when do people bring up something like that and what does that show you?

MOSS: Well, it shows you that he was thinking that his goose was about to be cooked. He said that allegedly to some Marine friends when he said that it appears as if he`s going to go down for the race, that he`s going to Mexico and that obviously is putting us all on the course of looking for him down under.

LALAMA: Patricia Saunders, clinical psychologist, get us inside the mind of his wife. It`s a weird situation for her, I`m sure. "A," if she had nothing to do with any wrongdoing, especially. Isn`t it true that a wife automatically or a spouse automatically doesn`t want to believe it`s true, or that your first instinct might be to protect someone?

SAUNDERS: Well, there are three possibilities, Pat. One is that she deliberately gave him lead time. Two is that she was afraid of him, when she realized just what she was married to and waited until he split at 4:00 in the morning. Or three, as you`re suggesting, that she was really in denial. We`re used to thinking of being in denial in terms of addictions. He was in denial about his drug use. Normal psychological defense in order to survive something that`s emotionally unacceptable, we recognize the event, but we deny the logical consequences, or the emotional impact.

LALAMA: Darryl Cohen, defense attorney, what does it smell like to you from the wife`s situation? Does it sound like she`s possibly trying to work with cops or maybe she knew more than we believe she does?

COHEN: Well it sounds to me like she probably was in denial or even she was with him. But now she`s gotten away, she knows what she needs to do and as long as she`s cooperating with the police, as long as she`s cooperating with the authorities, they`re not going to arrest her.

And they`re not going to charge her. And she knows that and they probably told her as much, or at least intimated as much. And so she has got to continue to help them as much as she possibly can. And now, maybe she realizes just how bad he is, and how bad he was, and she`s trying to do it out of a sense of justice and a sense of morality.

LALAMA: Daniel Horowitz, defense attorney, how far can you go in striking a deal with someone who`s helped someone commit a horrible crime?

HOROWITZ: Well, we don`t know what she`s done, Pat. I put myself in her state of mind. She probably believed her husband. She thought there was an affair. She was angry at him. She does not believe the rape. And she believed her husband was stalked by this woman.

LALAMA: But, Daniel, there`s blood in your house. I don`t know about you, but I know where every spot on every wall is in my house. Are you telling me that after December 14th, she didn`t go, hmm, what`s that?

HOROWITZ: No. She did. She probably did. But given what I said coming before it, in her mind she`s conflicted. She`s saying well, she was stalking my husband, taking my husband. My husband was being falsely accused, our lives ruined. I don`t know what happened but I`m going to back my husband, and work this out. That`s what she probably was doing. And I think the police and the prosecutors will have some compassion for her, and her situation. She`s a victim in this.

LALAMA: Interesting. Gladys, another Ohio girl, I`m happy to say, hey, Gladys.

CALLER: Hi, Pat. It`s good seeing you.

LALAMA: Thank you. What is your question?

CALLER: Kind of curious, seems how she knew about this 24 hours after she let him go, couldn`t it be a possible way that she could be charged with something?

LALAMA: Well, that`s what we were just talking about. And Michael Farkas, former active duty JAG officer, military law attorney, and by the way, the wife, she is a marine reservist, is that correct? I believe she is. You know, how culpable can she be? Twenty four hours is a long time to say, I just am going to wait. You know, maybe she did fear for her life. Maybe she had a feeling he was going to take off and thought I`ll just wait till then. I mean, who knows? But she could be in some trouble, couldn`t she?

FARKAS: At the very least, Pat, she is facing a relatively minor obstruction of justice-type charge, both either from North Carolina or from the military authorities as a Marine.

LALAMA: But what if she knew -- what if she knew he had buried the charred bodies in her yard? What if that -- are you saying the cops would just look the other way as long as she cooperates?

FARKAS: Absolutely not. That`s why I said at the least. I`d like to go back to what one of my colleagues said a moment ago about how conflicted she is, and I recognize that. But we are not anywhere near prepared to say what her state of mind is at this point. Maybe she was trying to get one over on cops. Maybe she was trying to protect her husband. Whatever the bottom line is, the fact is, is that as we all suspected, it`s confirmed that she knew more than she said. She is now talking. And I don`t know if it`s altruistic just because she knows how evil this guy Laurean is. I think it`s because also but she knows that she has hanging over her head potential charges for either obstruction or worse.

LALAMA: Donald Schweitzer, what do you say, being a veteran detective, what does it sound like to you that she knew a lot more than we know that she knows?

SCHWEITZER: No, no --

LALAMA: Or is saying she knows?

SCHWEITZER: I think we`re missing one important point. She has a moral dilemma here. This is somebody that she`s committed to for life. Somebody that she probably loves very much. She`s young. It`s reasonable to take 24 hours to decide what to do under these circumstances. No, she shouldn`t help him escape or she shouldn`t help him cover up the crime. But to delay it before reporting it is something that`s very reasonable. As a law enforcement person, she wouldn`t be expected to do anything else.

LALAMA: You know, she could have just been in a simple state of shock after hearing what her husband told her.

Tonight, do you know a parent who is an inspiration to others and deserves to be recognized? If so, get your video camera, and go to CNN.com/NancyGrace, click on i-Report and enter them in the Extraordinary Parent Contest.

And tonight, check our new photos of Nancy and the twins Lucy and John David. Click on the Nancy Grace Baby Blog.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

LALAMA: I`m Pat Lalama in for Nancy Grace. And we`re bringing to you our NANCY GRACE viewers this extraordinary footage, actually this is a still photo of some footage of Laurean taking money out using the deceased`s card.

And then there`s other footage of him buying supplies, which is just all mind blowing. But we`re glad we can bring it to you.

Howard Oliver, former deputy medical examiner and forensic pathologist, this is a hard question to ask, but people are wondering, can a stressful situation, like the fact that you might get murdered, induce a woman to have -- to go into labor? In other words, could she have given birth before she was murdered?

OLIVER: I would think any sort of stress could induce labor. And from the descriptions I`ve read about, it sounds like the -- you know, the baby might have been born, or had been taken out of her abdomen. Because you shouldn`t have seen the police officers shouldn`t have been able to see this baby had she been killed and the body been burned. The baby should have still remained inside the uterus, inside the abdomen. You don`t usually see that much damage to the inner parts of the body with dousing, you know, volatile solutions on someone and burning them. You can`t achieve that much temperature. So apparently I would think that the baby was either born or taken out of the body.

LALAMA: Oh, my. Oh. OK. Let`s go to Tennessee and Kathy. Hello, Kathy.

CALLER: Hello. My question is, if she was killed on the 14th, and he was seen buying supplies at Lowe`s, such as paint, on the 16th, how did his wife not see that blood spatter everywhere?

LALAMA: Well, I think that`s something that we`ve been talking about Susan Moss is how - I mean and we don`t know what state of mind this poor woman was in, but I just don`t see how you could not notice the blood spatter.

MOSS: Oh, absolutely. Unless she is as stupid as he is, she has a deal. And we know that she knew her way to a lawyer`s office. I honestly think she is apparently she`s being very forthright and that`s a wonderful thing. But I expect that she has a deal.

LALAMA: Patricia Saunders, clinical psychologist, could it have been something she just didn`t notice, that she`s in that sort of frame of mind?

SAUNDERS: That`s even extreme for denial, Pat. I mean, you really have to be kind of blind not to see blood splattered all over your home. So, it would suggest she had conscious awareness of it.

LALAMA: Belle from North Carolina. Hi, Belle, what`s your question?

CALLER: Hi. I have more of a comment than a question.

LALAMA: OK.

CALLER: It has been in the paper repeatedly that on the 15th she attended his unit`s Christmas party.

LAMAMA: Right.

CALLER: That`s why she wasn`t there. Now, how many wives go to their Marine husband`s Christmas party without their husbands?

LALAMA: Well, that`s very interesting.

CALLER: That makes it seem like it was all an alibi between the two of them to get her out of the house, get an alibi established --

LALAMA: Daniel Horowitz, that`s a great comment. What do you think about that? Why should she go and leave her husband at home for a Christmas party? She had friends, she`s a Marine. Why shouldn`t she be able to go?

HOROWITZ: That`s the answer, Pat. It is suspicious and the prosecution will spin it that way and the defense will spin it the other way and the jurors will line up. Whoever wants conviction will say it`s suspicious. Whoever wants acquittal will say it`s not. What I find strange, I don`t understand why is this victim, this person who`s been raped, at his house? I don`t get that. And until I understand that, I can`t really understand what happened in this case.

LALAMA: Well, that`s very curious. Susan Candiotti, CNN national correspondent, I mean, we don`t really know why she ended up at his house. Correct?

CANDIOTTI: We only know his version of it. Remember, he told his wife that all this happened on December the 15th.

LALAMA: Correct.

CANDIOTTI: The same night that she was supposedly attending, according to her, a Christmas party that he never showed up to.

Now, police are -- or part of his story about what happened on the 15th is that she confronted him at the house, demanded money. She went to the bus station, and he said he went with her to buy a bus ticket on December the 15th. Yet, police say, they have talked to witnesses who identify that woman as being Ms. Lauterbach at the bus station on December the 14th, the day before.

So now we have a couple of dates floating here. Which is it? The wife is at the party on the 15th? Or, was she not at the party -- I guess she was at the party. He says all this happened on the 15th, yet they have witnesses from the day before at the bus station.

LALAMA: Right and we only have his word in terms of that date. So we just don`t know. You know, we need to talk about the issue of Mexico. This is really important. And what happened today was Congressman Walter B. Jones from North Carolina made it public that he actually spoke to Mexican authorities, and he does not want this man to be able to stay in Mexico.

Donald Schweitzer, we know, because we live in California, and have covered these cases, you`ve tried to solve these cases, how hard it is. It`s going to be a bunch of bureaucracy if he`s in Mexico trying to bring him back, correct?

SCHWEITZER: Yeah. And maybe one of the things that they could try to do is lure him back into the country. You know, he may not have a lot of cultural ties to Mexico. Maybe if he came across for a hamburger or something --

LALAMA: Well, he`s got family. He`s got family there, though.

SCHWEITZER: That`s true. But they may not like him, Pat. Sometimes these bad guys go over and the family says get him out of here. We don`t want him here.

LALAMA: Go ahead, finish your thought.

SCHWEITZER: He may not be able to survive in Mexico. He can`t work. The family may not like him. He may have to come back.

LALAMA: Well Darryl Cohen, it`s a pretty good bargaining tool as far as the defense attorney is concerned because you can say we`ll help get him back or I`ll try to get him to come back but you cannot charge him with the death penalty.

COHEN: I`m not particularly worried about the death penalty. My concern would be getting him back at all. And frankly, bounty hunters, chasers, that can happen from both sides. And I think if he happens to get into and through Mexico, a little tip here, a little tip there and they`re going to bring him back and he`s going to find himself on the right side of justice.

LALAMA: Susan Candiotti, what do we know about investigations in Mexico? For example, can authorities just swoop down on Mexico and go stake out his relative`s house? It`s not that easy, is it? You can`t just do that.

CANDIOTTI: Well, actually, as you know, they have agreements to work in Mexico. In fact, the FBI has a large contingent working out of Mexico City all the time. So does the U.S. marshal service. So there`s an established relationship there.

I wanted to also bring up, remember, in that video at the Lowe`s, he is not alone. He is with a friend, police say. Now who is that person? What does that person know?

LALAMA: Oh, you just gave me chills.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LALAMA: Tonight, a look back on the stories and the people making the rest of the headlines this week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NANCY GRACE, CNN ANCHOR: The cause of death in Maria Lauterbach`s death, blunt force trauma to the head.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You asked me a question and then you won`t let me to finish it. I don`t have to stand here and defend the professional way that the sheriff`s office handled this investigation. I`m not going to stand up here and be for you and your shows. I have reservations -

GRACE: You`re not going to be a rhetoric?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m not going to stand up here and play

GRACE: Sir, I`m not playing games. I`m asking you some questions, I`m not hearing an answer.

Britney Spears scheduled to be in court today. At stake the custody and visitation rights of her two toddler boys. From what we hear she showed up at the courthouse, got back in her vehicle, and took off, never setting a single foot, not even a toe, not even a pinkie, in that courtroom.

MOSS: She`s gotten more chances than Deal or No Deal and she`s blown each and every one.

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 the memorabilia signing fairs he goes to.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Drew Peterson claims he`s got proof his wife was cheating and has run away with another man. Peterson`s attorney says his client found a text message from Stacy`s alleged lover. The message, purported to be from a mystery lover.

GRACE: Sounds like it from some kooky, wacky, `70s romance novel written by some old man.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LALAMA: Tonight, we`ll stop to remember army corporal Brandon Smitherman, only 21 from Conroe, Texas. He was awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart. Always wearing a smile. He loved family and country. He dreamed of going to college and majoring in criminal justice to become a wildlife officer. He leaves behind his grieving parents Teresa and Harvey. Brandon Smitherman, an American hero.

Thank you to all our guests and to you at home for being with us. And Nancy, thanks for letting me sit in the chair tonight. Remember to check out Nancy`s Baby Blog at CNN.com/NancyGrace. See you tomorrow night, 8:00 p.m. sharp Eastern. Until then, have a great evening.

END