Laurean home under purchase contract

A local real estate agent says someone has agreed to buy a Half Moon community home where authorities made a grisly discovery last year.

The charred remains of Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach and that of her unborn child were found in a shallow grave beneath a makeshift fire pit in the backyard of 103 Meadow Trail in mid-January 2008. Lauterbach had been missing for three weeks and was in her last trimester of pregnancy. She had previously accused Cesar Laurean, who owned the home at the time, of rape. Recent DNA tests conducted by the Department of Defense show Laurean is not the father of her unborn child.

After a year on the run in Mexico, Laurean, who has been discharged form the Marine Corps, is in the Onslow County Jail awaiting trial on first-degree murder charges in Lauterbach's death. The trial is tentatively scheduled for sometime in the spring.

The home's new owner is aware of its macabre history and has signed a full disclosure statement, said Todd Daughtery, a broker with RE/Max Home Connections.

"They are under contract to buy the home," he said. "We are not due to close for 30 days."

Daughtery would not reveal the final closing cost, but said the house had been listed on the market at $92,900.

The house was the focus of a national media whirlwind surrounding Lauterbach's disappearance and eventual discovery of her body in mid-January of last year.

Laurean's wife, Christina Laurean - a lance corporal in the Marine Corps - and their young child moved into Camp Lejeune base housing after 103 Meadow Trail became one big crime scene.

For months the house sat eerily empty with three-foot high unmowed grass. Then the lending bank foreclosed on the home earlier this year and attempted to auction it off with an opening bid of $102,000. There were no takers.

Residents in the neighborhood said they were relieved when the satellite trucks and helicopters left, but that many people still drive by the house to get a glimpse of the now infamous backyard.

Neighbor Carl Greene said he hopes that after a family moves into 103 Meadow Trail things will return to normal.

"It will be nice when our road is not known as the road where Cesar Laurean lived," he said.

 Contact Lindell Kay at 910-219-8456. Read his blog at http://onslowcrime.encblogs.com.