Strange twist, or leaping to conclusions?

[unixronin]

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.

Comments

[house-pundit.livejournal.com]

Note he says not willing to call her death a murder. Very likely they are still playing the same semantics games they play when calling suspects "persons of interest" now.

[house-pundit.livejournal.com]

Maybe he thinks it might be manslaughter, or even involuntary manslaughter. Twists and turns--maybe there was a relationship and a fight--maybe she even started the physical part? We don't know.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

True, there's a lot of unknowns. The suspect is accused of raping her, and she was scheduled to testify against him, if I recall correctly.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Huh. Looks like the mystery's starting to unravel ... though not the reason for why they were so mysterious about it. Apparently the suspect claimed to his wife that Lauterbach had committed suicide and that he'd buried her body.

*sigh*