Two beers into my night, I had this thought: What would happen if I linked to this page?

Mike turned over some more info about the bus station today. 1) The customer in front of Maira at the Jacksonville Bus Station on Dec. 14 is demographically dissimilar to anyone central to the case. The issue is a rabbit trail. 2) We are confident in saying the surveillance camera at the bus station was [...]

Dateline NBC conducted exclusive interviews with Onlsow County authorities at Comfort Suites in New Bern today. The Cesar Laurean case was their topic of discussion. A producer with the show said that Dateline just arrived in the area this week and that they are not sure whether they will run a segment on Laurean. However, sources in [...]

Some people like to see their name in the newspaper. Politicians usually do, unless they’ve been caught with their hand in the cookie jar. Cops like to see their names every once in a while. But people accused of a crime… People accused of a crime generally do not like to see their name in [...]

    Daily News reporter Molly DeWitt took a ride downtown with Swansboro police on Friday for a story in the newspaper today. She had so much fun, she wanted to tell everyone about it. Ride alongs are fun, I suggest you ask your local police to see if you can spend a couple hours with them, but leave [...]

OK, Drake and Lindsey. This is for you. While I continue to put together a facts sheet, I have agreed to post a theory thread. Please let us know what your theory is on the death of Maria Lauterbach. Be respectful, of course, but this is the place to tell everyone what you think happened [...]

- Jennifer Hlad (the newspaper’s interactive content editor / military reporter) and I are having a drink tonight with the producers of a major network news magazine show. I wonder what they want to talk to us about… – Search warrants in the Laurean case still have not been released. Perhaps they ran out of [...]

The Daily News ran another cold case article Sunday. I am very proud of the story. It is weird how each one of these cold case articles have come together differently. For this one, a story about a triple-homicide nearly 30 years ago, I was limited in what information I could find. I couldn’t track [...]

I had a chance to sit down at my home computer this morning and read through seven or eight pages of comments on the students arrested at rally story. A lot of people were knocking the newspaper for the usual, “sloppy reporting,” “shouldn’t have printed it,” etc. Had we not printed the story and word [...]

Mike and I had to take a long drive to come up with this. Mike swears it was 499 miles, but I think it was actually a few laps shy of that. We have been able to substantiate with documentation what the Jacksonville Bus Station clerk told Mike on Friday. According to the printouts we posted, Maria [...]

OK. So far so good. I have received some complaints from people and some people are not happy with the whole Boxing Ring concept. BUT, it has kept arguments contained and that was my goal. I know I said I was going to name the next debate quarantine thread the Wrestling Match, but given the [...]

I know it seems like the warrants are taking forever, but I got the feeling authorities are doing a little something different with them this time. You’ll see what I mean when they finally come out… In the meanwhile, I wanted to talk a little bit about public documents. I got a crash course in [...]

While I was writing about a local doctor with malpractice issues and an arrest at the Clinton rally, Mike was really busy too. Here is his report: Our hunch became fact as to where Maria Lauderbach was recorded by an ATM camera making a transaction on Dec. 14, 2007, at 4:19 p.m. Using the roof [...]

I was at the Clinton rally in Jacksonville today. Two local high school students got arrested. The newspaper is working on getting some pictures from crowd members. Meanwhile, here is some pictures I took:  The Secret Service: The reporters: Melissa and Jennifer (from The Daily News) and Chelsea (from WITN) The brass: Deputy Chief Paul Spring, Capt. [...]

Mike checking to see what position the sun would have been in December from the viewpoint of the ATM surveillance camera that captured Maria Lauterbach’s image Dec. 14 at 4:20 p.m.   Mike says: The location of the ATM filming Maria Lauterbach Dec. 14, 2007, at 4:19 p.m. is a Marine Federal Credit Union / Cash Points kiosk in the parking lot [...]

Capt. Sutherland had originally put this at the end of his answers to Q&A part 3, but I felt it would get buried beneath all of his “I can’t answer that” answers, so I cut and pasted it here. He refers law-enforcement officers as “LEOs” and calls the Sheriff’s Department the “SO” a lot, which [...]

Mike and I killed some time today by riding around Jacksonville taking photos of buildings. (I din’t win a 2007 NCPA photography award for nothing.) Welcome sign: Idlebrook: Law office: Law office: Bonus: JPD in action on Western Boulevard Bus out of town: Hunters Creek: Mike is holding strong to the theory that Laurean must [...]

- Rep. Turner has asked the DoD to look into the handling of the Maria Lauterbach investigation by the Marine Corps. – The two judges, a magistrate and a bus load of lawyers story is online. One poster at jdnews.com has already called it, “Onslow County at its best!” – Cliff Hill, who was a crime reporter at [...]

So far, I have written about four cold case homicides for The Daily News. The newspaper is working on an interactive map for jdnews.com that will provide information on all the unsolved homicides in Onslow County, including Jacksonville and Camp Lejeune. The first cold case I wrote about moved to the front burner when the [...]

Here is a copy of the story the newspaper will run tomorrow:   ——–     Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, will ask the Department of Defense to investigate the handling of the rape and homicide cases of Maria Lauterbach, a Camp Lejeune Marine killed in December. Lauterbach’s mother, Mary Lauterbach, will join Turner in the [...]

- Jacksonville Police in Deputy Chief Paul Spring’s office talking to the Secret Service about Sen. Hillary Clinton’s planned visit to Jacksonville on Thursday.   – I have put the finishing touches on the story about a practical joke that may end up with serious repercussions for two judges.   – I have talked with [...]

I don’t know how much longer Sutherland is going to answer questions. He mentioned being inundated with them the other day. So make this round really count with the absolute best questions you can come up with, it might be the last go round. Here’s mine: Sir, do you know whether it was an issue [...]

A few months ago, a professor in Texas had his students go through a mock grand jury for Cesar Laurean as a way for his students to learn about the process. You can read about that here. The good professor just sent me word that his students conducted a mock extradition also. He e-mailed me: [...]

I have received a few calls and e-mails about the whole robbery with a dangerous weapon indictment the grand jury handed down in the Laurean case back in January. The Associated Press muddied the waters with an erroneous report and several media outlets – including The Daily News – followed suit. We were the only [...]

- The shuffle for me today consisted mainly of sleeping late and taking the wife and two youngest kids to Wal-Mart.- I have learned some stuff about the 1981 Camp Lejeune triple-homicide. Be writing about that for Sunday. - I am wrapping up the story about two judges, a magistrate and a bunch of lawyers. (Doesn’t that [...]

A lot of the InSessions crowd like to duke it out. I am trying to keep this blog above the fray, but some things are inevitable. Please fight it out here so the normal threads can go unmolested. So get in your best shot and lowest blow and see who really is the smartest-assed cyber [...]

A few more stops on the 5-cent tour: Law office: Law office: The man can’t even cross the street without news hounds on his trail: 109 1/2 Western: Mike finding out what happened to the missing piece of fence at 103 Meadow Trail while being careful not to trespass: More to come…

Check out Jacksonville Deputy Police Chief David Shipp checking out Off the Cuff. – I wrote a story a while back about a guy winning a crazy court of appeals case, well there is more coming on that and this time he is the one filing charges against the government. – Judge Henry unsealed seven [...]

A few more spots in Jacksonville. Sheriff’s Department: Onslow County Courthouse: Sheriff’s Department sally port: District Attorney’s Office: Courthouse Cafe: Magistrate’s Office: Courthouse fountain: Side Trip Bonus: 101 Meadow Trail: More to come…

Some posters have brought up really good points about what federal and military law says about aiding and abetting a fugitive. So far we have heard the D.A. talk about North Carolina law, but I don’t know if we have heard from the Marines (since Cesar has been classified as a deserter) or the Feds [...]

PLEASE POST NEW QUESTIONS ABOUT THE LAUREAN CASE HERE. HOPEFULLY BY MAKING IT MORE MANAGEABLE WE CAN GET SOME ANSWERS. THANKS. On Saturday, Capt. Sutherland must have found a few moments between chasing his kids around and helping with the new baby, because he has answered round two of your questions. I have boiled the [...]

While a county commissioner is asking for a second opinion, someone wants my opinion of the former county manager. We live in a weird world. -Onslow County Commissioner Delma Collins has been hospitalized. He called me from his hospital bed to talk about about a cold case from when he was the chief of detectives. [...]

Jennifer Hlad, our interactive content editor / military reporter / chief cook and bottle washer has an excellent blog for all you Marine-types, Marine-type spouses and Marine-type offspring (which is just about everyone in the area). The blog started as a way for her to detail her trip to Afghanistan, when she was embedded with [...]

For those of you outside of Onslow County, there are more locations relevant to the Lauterbach / Laurean story than the front of the Sheriff’s Department and the backyard of 103 Meadow Trail. Jacksonville Bus Stop: 103 Meadow Trail: Camp Lejeune: ATM: The Neighbors, formerly of 101 Meadow Trial: Sharpshooters: More to come…

Today has been jam packed for me. – I finally sat down and went through the 10 search warrants in the 2005 double homicide of the Bullen brothers. Lot of info in those warrants. After that I sat down with two of the detectives that are working the cold case. The story will be in the [...]

-A Jacksonville man who police say stabbed his mother to death back in January and has been in jail since then has been sent for psychological observation. -Brandon Scott Delozier was acquitted on charges of first-degree sexual offense, indecent liberties with a child and sexual battery. The trial lasted several days and the jury deliberated [...]

A reliable source inside the federal investigation has told me there is a very strong possibility that Cesar Laurean is not the father of Maria Lauterbach’s unborn child. In fact, officials are pretty sure he is not. The signposts to this have already been laid out by officials: -District Attorney Dewey Hudson told me he [...]

Chief Assistant District Attorney Ernie Lee tells the jury that the cap to the water bottle full of insecticide was tightly closed when Pat Garvey, a crime scene investigator with the Onslow County Sheriff’s Department, found it in Kayla’s bed the day she died, Aug. 24, 2003. The Dasani water bottle was between a bloody [...]

   I don’t know anything about it, but Timmi has is covered.

News trucks. Surreal: Futrell trial and The Price is Right. Chelsea (from WITN), Phillip (from WNCT) and Heather (from WCTI).  Parul Joshi (from WNCT) interviewing Carolyn Futrell on her way out of jail after receiving a time-served sentence in the death of Kayla Allen.  Jerry Allegood (with the N&O) talks to District Attorney Dewey Hudson outside the Onslow [...]

If you haven’t heard by now, the little 4-year-old boy I wrote about the other day has died. I expect more from that soon. Four and a half years in the making, the jury will be desiding Carolyn Futrell’s fate soon, maybe today. As part of my work for the next cold case story, I [...]

This is working out pretty good. I am surprised that Sutherland answered a couple of the questions in part one, but I am glad he did. Highlights from part one: If he did not answer a question from part one, either he has already answered it, he can’t talk about it or the question needs [...]

  ADA Mike Maultsby talks to the jury about there being only 10 documented cases in the U.S. of ingestion of Atroban and only one death – Kayla Allen. Carolyn Futrell’s co-Defender Richard Miller reminded the jury to make their decision based ”not on evidence presented in the newspaper, not anywhere else, but from the witness [...]

Capt. Sutherland, were Luminol tests conducted on the driveway at 103 Meadow Trail on Jan. 11 or thereafter?

Closest to farthest: Paul Ciccarelli, Special agent in charge of Naval Criminal Investigative Service field office in North Carolina and South Carolina. FBI Special Agent in Charge Nathan Gray. Sgt. TJ Cavanagh, a detective with the Onslow County Sheriff’s Department. In the background: Christopher Welch, attorney of the wife of the accused.

Readers rejoice! No more letters to the editor from Mike McHugh. Our publisher has decided that given Mike’s recent contributions to the news side of the house, he will no longer be able to write letters to the editor. The decision reflects on the newspaper’s commitment to providing fair and objective coverage. Mike will still [...]

It took a lot of work but I finally got investigators to confirm that Maria’s car (pictured here in the sally port behind the Onslow County Sheriff’s Department on Jan. 9) was not at the Jacksonville Bus Station for the three weeks after Maria went missing Dec. 14. The car was found by Maj. Terwilliger [...]

At the beginning of the Futrell trial last week, Tre with bluelineradio told me he was going to get a crime scene photo of the Dasani water bottle in Kayla’s bed. I said good luck on that. But he schooled me because I looked on their site and sure enough, their it is. The photo shows the [...]

So the story is online. I can finally say something. The Daily News’ Web site was viewed on a computer inside Laurean’s home at around 4 a.m. the day that he took off. Whoever looked at the Web site looked at these two things: a story and attached documents. The person may have looked at [...]

Update: since the sat truck had to go, I won’t be on Geraldo now. I was supposed to be on national TV and had plans to drop in at the Clinton thing too Saturday, but couldn’t do either one. I hope the paper appreciates my priorities.   What happened to me and Geraldo? Well, I [...]