Investigators Seeking Missing Pregnant Marine's Male Roommate

Authorities are looking for the male roommate of an 8-months-pregnant Marine who vanished shortly before Christmas.

A North Carolina sheriff said Thursday that detectives wanted to interview the man who lived with 20-year-old Maria Frances Lauterbach and was possibly the last person to talk to her before she disappeared.

Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown said investigators were working on getting Sgt. Daniel Durham to come back to North Carolina from a training deployment in California "so we can look him in the eyes and ask him some questions."

"He may have been the last person — other than her mother — to have seen her," Brown told reporters. "We want to talk with him and get information from him. ... We do feel like he has answers."

Brown said Durham has been summoned back to the Camp Lejeune base in North Carolina as soon as possible, but he didn't name him as a suspect.

"This young Marine is watching the unfolding of this investigation, which leads us to believe he has an interest in this," Brown said.

He declined to comment on rumors that Lauterbach may have been raped.

"That's totally out of the area of this investigation," said Brown.

Also Thursday, Lauterbach's stepmother told investigators that the expectant mother had been assaulted by a superior officer before she disappeared, according to a media report.

Lauterbach was reported missing Dec. 19 by her mother, believed to be one of the last people speak with her on Dec. 13.

Lauterbach is due to give birth any day, and was expected to testify about an incident on the Camp Lejeune, N.C., base.

Documents show that her stepmother told investigators about the assault, and that her career was threatened.

Click here to read the report.

• Click here for photos.

Meanwhile, authorities were reviewing "suspicious activity" that appeared on the young woman's bank records nearly a week after she was reported missing.

Mary Lauterbach, the pregnant Marine's mother, said it's not like her daughter not to contact her.

"It's extremely out of character for her not to call home like this," Lauterbach told FOX News. "I'm deeply concerned that something's wrong."

The sheriff's department was studying "sensitive information" from activity on Lauterbach's bank account Christmas Eve, nearly a week after she was reported missing on Dec. 24, according to a report in the Jacksonville Daily News.

Click here to read the report.

“Bank records indicate the victim made a withdrawal on 12-14-07. There was suspicious activity on her account on 12-24-07, but none since,” according to information from the Sheriff’s Department.

Her cell phone was found Dec. 20 near the main gate at Camp Lejeune. Lauterbach is with the 2nd Marine Logistics Group.

Investigators are calling her disappearance suspicious, saying her mother reported that Lauterbach was going to testify about an incident she witnessed on base.

"There are several findings and pieces of evidence that have been discovered that cause law enforcement to be concerned with the circumstances surrounding Maria's disappearance," the sheriff's department said in a news release.

The Onslow County Sheriff’s Department found Lauterbach's abandoned car Monday night, according to a report in the Jacksonville Daily News.

Lauterbach's blue 2006 Hyundai Sonata was found at the Jacksonville Bus Station.

First Lt. Richard Ulsh, a public affairs officer with the 2nd Marine Logistics Group, verified that Lauterbach is on active duty. Marine Corps and U.S. Navy investigators are cooperating with the investigation, he said.