By Catherine Elsworth in Los Angeles
A nationwide manhunt was underway for a marine suspected of murdering a 20-year-old pregnant colleague before burning and burying her body in the garden of his home.
Investigators said Marine Cpl. Cesar Armando Laurean, 21, had been spotted outside his home state of North Carolina, where the killing occurred.
On Saturday, authorities recovered what they believe to be the burnt remains of Marine Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach and her unborn child from a fire pit in Laurean's garden.
She was eight and a half months pregnant and purportedly carrying Cpl. Laurean's child after he allegedly raped her in April.
"The foetus was developed enough that the little hand was about the size of my thumb," said Sheriff Ed Brown, of Onslow County, who described the case as "tragic and disgusting".
The two marines served together as personnel clerks in the II Marine Expeditionary Force.
Cpl. Lauterbach disappeared in December, days after meeting with military prosecutors to discuss the rape allegations.
Police said Cpl. Laurean fled Jacksonville, North Carolina, early on Friday after leaving his wife a note in which he admitted burying Cpl. Lauterbach's body but denied having anything to do with her death, which he said was suicide. Authorities dismissed this claim, owing to the extensive blood stains found inside his home.
The case comes as a study yesterday claimed that
at least 121 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans have been implicated in a killing in the US since returning from combat.
The report by the New York Times also found 349 homicides involving all active-duty military personnel and new veterans - not just those involved in Iraq and Afghanistan - since the present wartime period began with the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.
This represented a nearly 90 percent increase in such killings compared to the six years before 2001, the paper reported.
More than half the 121 killings in which Iraq and Afghanistan veterans were implicated involved guns, and the rest included stabbings, beatings, strangulations and bathtub drowning, the study claimed. All but one of those implicated was male.
About a third of the victims were girlfriends or relatives, including a two-year-old girl killed by her 20-year-old father while he was recovering from wounds sustained in Iraq.
A quarter of the victims were military personnel. One was stabbed and set on fire by fellow soldiers a day after their return from Iraq.
An Army spokesman questioned the report's premise and research methods and said it did not offer a complete picture.
Murder is latest killing by US war vets
