Here's a very odd case ... a 20-year-old Marine, 8 months pregnant, missing from Camp Lejeune since mid-December, has been declared dead by Onslow County, SC Sheriff Ed Brown. But he's "not ready to call her death murder", the suspect — also a Marine — is on the lam, and they don't have a body. The most Sheriff Brown will say is she died from "an injury to her" and that "authorities had obtained physical evidence of Lauterbach's death" which "links [the suspect] to her death".
Uh, now, pardon me, but ... unless this "physical evidence" is, say, a major severed body part or something comparable ... if you don't have a body, you don't have a witness¹, you don't have a suspect in custody, and you don't have a confession, isn't it a little premature to be declaring her dead? "Missing, presumed dead", sure. But it doesn't seem like they have enough to be saying flat-out "She's dead."
[1] Unless, of course, the "female former Marine" who "contacted military authorities" this morning was a witness to her death. But if that's the case, why not say they have a witness, and why say they're not ready to call it murder? Or perhaps she stumbled across Lauterbach's body; but in that case, why are they still looking for it?
Update:
Looks now like some of the mystery is starting to unravel. Poor girl.
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*sigh*