Does it seem like the dead pregnant marine is being dissed by media and

investigators? I may be overly sensitive, but it seems like many want to ALMOST protect the alleged perp. Is it because he is a Marine or because he is male? Watch the coverage and tell me what you think.

You got it right.

recent Marine enlistees was getting lower and lower.

That would explain the "lower quality."

"a consummate liar" just before they figured out she was dead?

Wonderful mom.

:sarcasm:

(Last public statement about your step-daughter who is lying dead in someone's backyard)

They adopted Maria when she was a toddler.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/n/content/oh/story/news/local/2008/01/10/ddn011008marineweb.html

I read an article written before they knew she was dead in which Mrs. Lauterbach claims that the investigators wrote to her by email the day after she reported her daughter was missing and asked for her to tell them "everything she knew" about Maria. So she did and she felt it necessary to be honest about such personal things, to help in locating her child.

She was aghast this week when it became a matter of national headlines.

I think this is that article:

http://www.daytondailynews.com/story/content/oh/story/news/local/2008/01/11/ddn011108missingmarineapweb.html?cxntlid=inform

tho it does not explain why a mother, even an adoptive one, would feel inclined to divulge such information about a woman with an ongoing rape case, no matter if she were missing. This isn't the exact same piece that I read on Friday morning, but Mrs. Lauterbach clearly was putting the blame onto the investigators for the "compulsive liar" statement being made public. It was someone down in North Carolina, either the Sheriff or the Naval Investigators, who decided it was in their best interest to smear this young woman as badly as possible, during her absence.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/n/content/oh/story/news/local/2008/01/12/ddn011208marinemom.html

who said that she had psychological problems and numerous other negative statements. I think that you're right, and I heard this on Friday, when they were supposedly still searching for her... :-(

Welcome to DU, jasmine621! We're glad to have you with us!:hi:

blame the victim.

not once by her given name. :mad:

it's become a real problem for them to appear to be dissing soldiers under any circumstances.

I don't get the feeling they're dissing the woman at all, but are pussyfooting around the alleged perp until there's an indictment.

Could not have said it better myself. Thank you.

:)

I was sincerely hoping she had gotten away to have her baby - and feel very sad that she and the baby are dead.

I think the thing that distreses me the most is the fact that she had to get away from the base and the harrassment she was undergoing for reporting the alleged rape.


Makes me wonder why any woman, after hearing about this case, would want to join the Marine Corps. It almost seems you would be set up to be a rape victim and no one in the Corps would care.

Things have sure changed in the past decade!!!

Even if it happens to one of their own.

She vanished just as she was going to talk to investigators about the rape that they were not acting on, until they had stalled for I don't remember how long they said. Finally asking her about it, she was supposed to come in the next day I think, and vanished. On Nancy Grace some prick named Mike Brooks who is supposedly from some law enforcement background, said maybe she took off "because she was embarrassed that she had falsely accused some poor guy," leaving her car and all her possessions, (!), and the NEXT DAY, she was found, dead. The preposterous idea that she ean off, and left her car abandoned, no money, and "ran off" because she "lied," was told over, and over, and over, and only Nancy Grace disagreed with it, with even any possibility that something else might have happended. It was unreal, and outrageous.

There is still a very real attitude that this is a "lying bitch" "causing trouble," and it also really bothers me that the only references to her are of the " 'unborn' child," with no care from anyone in the media for her, alone, as a rape victim, which they are all still telling as her "accusing" the other marine--even after she was murdered! No one had done anything up to that time--not police, not prosecutors, not the military. By the way, there has never, in the history of the military, been a conviction by the U.S. military system, of a male for rape. This rapist-murderer, protected all along, has escaped, because no one had the suspect under custody.

I must dispute your statement: "By the way, there has never, in the history of the military, been a conviction by the U.S. military system, of a male for rape."

Shocked by what you said, I did a google search on the terms "court martialled for rape" to see if this was correct and I found this dissertation by a student at the University of Melbourne. http://www.law.arizona.edu/depts/upr-intj/DSVIJTA.pdf

This appears on page 71:

In the twentieth century rape also was widely prohibited. From January 1942 to June 1947, there were a total of 971 martial convictions for American soldiers accused of rape during World War II, of which 52 soldiers were executed.187 In 1946 in Australia, the Australian Army hanged four Japanese soldiers for the rape and torture of Chinese women.188 Also, during the Vietnam War, Vietcong soldiers were prohibited from rape, facing publicised execution for such acts and 86 American soldiers were court-martialled for rape and other related offences including sodomy and statutory rape, resulting in 50 convictions.

See her footnotes for her sources.

Thank you for that response; I do not know if that is reliable, or if what I was relying on was. I remember hearing this during the course of a House committee hearing on rape and sexual abuse of women in the U.S. armed forces by males in the U.S. armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, when Republicans were still in power, chaired by Rep. Chris Shays, one of those Republicans who sometimes tries to seem moderate. The hearing focused on the riveting testimony of a raped soldier in Iraq, who was then demoted and punished by the military, while her attacker suffered nothing. Shays pretended to be outraged by all this, the way they always do, then did nothing. Nothing has happened since. It was during some of the other testimony here, that it was mentioned by a victims' rights advocate, that there has never been a conviction, in U.S. military court.

Maybe Maria was pregnant with the rapist's child and her mom or stepmom shut Maria out for her decision to go ahead and have the child. Unfortunately, not all parents react with compassion to the sufferings of their children. I know this from firsthand experience.

I'm in the Cleveland area and this is considered a "semi-local" story because of her being from Dayton.

I had on the 19 Action News last night for a while because it was on after the Jaguars-Patriots game ended (ordinarily I never watch local news and especially not this sensationalistic channel), but they were actually pretty sympathetic in that they compared her situation to that of Jessie Davis--another pregnant woman found dead, most likely killed by the man who made her so. (His house was described as having been found to have blood stains all over it that someone had tried to clean away.)

The circumstances of her situation were described--that she was scheduled to testify as having been raped--and nothing was said about her stepmother's evaluation of her mental faculties. It was said that the Marines were claiming that her relationship with her accused rapist had changed since the time of the alleged rape (in other words, that they had become lovers following the rape). I heard that and said "Good luck with that one."

Nah. I mean, I hate this particular news channel, but I actually think they presented the situation with fairness. Perhaps because they feel that after Jessie Davis, especially, if a pregnant woman turns up dead, they better be on her side if they want ratings. Even if the whole Marine Corps is against her.

It's not just this sad rape/murder, but it appears many other rape cases have been burried for fear of the effects this could have on recruiting. Women still have a very rough time in the military and I've seen many reports of rape and sexual abuse in Iraq...including from our good friends at Blackwater...which would embarass both the company and the military. Even the biggest knuckledragger may think twice about having his daughter go into the military if he thinks she'll become some "sex toy".

women have become fair game if they try to serve in the military.

This poor Marine had her property vandalized and was harassed so badly for making that rape charge that she finally had to find lodging off-base.

I'm thinking that it seems mighty odd they conveniently found out that she's been murdered (after she's been missing for three whole weeks with barely any coverage) at noon on a Friday, right before the weekend-news-blackout, and prior to one of the busiest weeks of the presidential primaries. Her alleged rapist/murderer went on the run at 4 AM Friday morning, after hiring three different lawyers and refusing to speak with the Sheriff's Department all this time. The timing of the discoveries in this case just seem extremely cock-eyed.

...... on the local news, and they were not the least bit sympathetic to the perp IMHO. They did say that he sent a letter claiming the victim slit her throat and he buried her, but they sure didn't make it sound like they were buying that story...