Autopsy Confirms Cause Of Death, Brown Steps Aside

By: Philip Jones/Eyewitness News 9 | WNCT
Published: January 15, 2008

New developments this afternoon in the case of Maria Lauterbach the pregnant Marine whose body was found buried in Onslow County.

This morning press conference was one of the shortest we've seen so in the week that we've been covering the disappearance and now murder of Maria Lauterbach.

It did however provide us with several more key pieces of information with these case.

The main points of this news conference conclude that autopsy results indeed confirmed the buried body to be that of Maria Lauterbach.

Her cause of death was blunt trauma to the head.

Sherrif Ed Brown announced that he is stepping aside from the case.

They still wont say how that happened or what was the murder weapon.

Sherrif Ed Brown said he is stepping down from the murder case and will make no further comment except for obligations he’s already scheduled.

"The stress of this case has been overwhelming to me since I became aware of it on January 5^th, 2008 though all of you have been great to work with and are beautiful people. I have never in my 41 years of law enforcement reached the level of stress of fatigue that I reached this past Thursday evening," said Brown.

At six, were going to have more on the toll this case is taking on the Onslow County Sheriff's Office and the latest on the hunt for Cesar Laurean.