JACKSONVILLE, N.C. – Federal authorities planned to post billboards nationwide with the picture of a Marine wanted in the slaying of a pregnant colleague, and the sheriff announced a $25,000 reward Monday for information leading to his arrest.

Authorities are looking for Marine Cpl. Cesar Armando Laurean, wanted in the death of Marine Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach, who had accused him of rape. FBI officials said the first billboards with Laurean’s photo would appear in Tampa, Fla., Columbus, Ohio, and Las Vegas.

“The search for Laurean is Earthwide,” Onslow County Sheriff Ed Brown said at a news conference.

“You’re never gone for good when law enforcement is after you,” Brown said. “It may be two days or two weeks, ten days or ten years, but you’re never gone for good.”

Authorities recovered what they believe to be the burned remains of Lauterbach and her unborn child from a fire pit in Laurean’s backyard over the weekend. Detectives believe Laurean, 21, of the Las Vegas area, fled Jacksonville before dawn Friday, and have said he left behind a note in which he admitted burying her body but claimed she cut her own throat in a suicide.

North Carolina is one of 15 states without a fetal homicide law, but Onslow County District Attorney Dewey Hudson said he has no plans to step aside in favor of a military prosecution. Georgetown University law professor Gary Solis said local authorities have primary jurisdiction in the case.

“They have the crime scene and they have the physical evidence,” Solis said. “The military would have secondary jurisdiction if the DA decided not to pursue the case.”

That makes it unlikely that Laurean would be prosecuted under the federal fetal homicide law passed in 2004 during the height of attention on the California trial of Scott Peterson, who was accused of murdering his pregnant wife, Laci.

The federal law makes it a crime to harm a fetus during an assault on a pregnant woman, but the anti-abortion activists who pushed for it believe it has never been used – in part because murder cases are typically prosecuted in state courts.

The military could technically seek charges at the same time as civilian authorities, said Scott Silliman, a former military lawyer who is now director of the Center on Law, Ethics and National Security at Duke University. But a joint prosecution is not recommended by the military’s manual for courts martial, Silliman said.

“As a matter of law, the military could prosecute him separately,” Silliman said. “But as a matter of policy, it rarely happens and only in a very unusual set of circumstances.”

In Lauterbach’s hometown near Dayton, Ohio, hundreds of people were expected Monday evening at a prayer service for her. Many remembered her participation in youth theater and other activities, including softball and soccer. She was a standout in both sports.

Some in the community recalled her drive to follow in her father’s footsteps and join the Marines.