..... Breaking news out of Mexico in the case of that Marine wanted in the murder of a fellow Marine. CNN`s Harris Whitbeck (CNN Mexico City Bureau Chief) reports a cousin of Cesar Laurean says he saw the suspected killer in Mexico recently.
Juan Antonio Ramos (Cesar's cousin) told CNN Laurean visited him at his liquor store near Guadalajara a week ago.
..... Harris Whitbeck: Cesar Armando, the one who lives in the United States, came to see you here?
..... Juan Ramos: Yes, just a few days ago, last week.
..... Harris Whitbeck: And what did he tell you?
..... Juan Ramos: Just, Hi, I`m just passing by.
He told me he was here with some buddies for a few days, and you know, it`s not the first time he`s come by to visit, say hi to the family.
..... WHITBECK (voice over): We asked him if at the time he knew of the charges that have been levied against his cousin, and he said no. Shortly after that visit, he saw the news on CNN that his cousin was being looked for.
..... GRACE: . . . Harris, thank you for being with us. What`s the latest?
..... WHITBECK: Well, Nancy, people are kind of reeling at the news today that a cousin of Corporal Laurean actually confirmed having seen him last week. We spoke to Mexican law enforcement authorities just a while ago and asked them if they were launching any special investigations.
.....
They were asking us for information. They said that they had no information as to the whereabouts of this individual and they also reiterated that the federal law enforcement agency in Mexico had not received an official request of help from the U.S., which contradicts what the U.S. embassy has been telling us here in that U.S. and Mexican law are working together trying to find this individual. . . .
..... GRACE: The family says you guys were the first ones to approach them about a sighting of the fugitive Marine wanted for rape and murder. You guys are the first ones to speak to them?
..... WHITBECK: That`s correct, Nancy. That`s what they told us. We spent two or three days working on this . . . -- producer Mirea Lopez(ph) from our bureau in Mexico City first approached this by trying to get a copy of his birth certificate. She was able to do that quite easy here in Guadalajara. She went to the city hall, asked for a copy of his birthday certificate with his name, last names, add the information from FBI Web site, and
with that birthday certificate, we were able to find the addresses that eventually led us to this liquor store. It`s not rocket science.
..... SUSAN CANDIOTTI (CNN national correspondent) . . . First, let`s give you the route. We understand that he went from Raleigh to Houston and that the FBI tells me that they do have confirmation evidence that he got to that bus station in Houston but a law enforcement source will not reveal what that information is. We know that from Houston, he got on a bus from a company called the Tornado Bus Company, paid about $170 for that ticket, and went from there to a town called San Luis Potispo, and then from there he went on to Guadalajara.
..... We don`t know exactly how long it took for him to make this very long journey. By our calculation,
it`s about 2400 miles at least from Raleigh all the way to Guadalajara. . . .
Complete transcript @
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0801/22/ng.01.html
Think capture! :behindbar