A Marine accused of staging his disappearance to avoid returning to duty had invented an "amazing plan" to be presumed dead so he could collect insurance money through his brother, his girlfriend said.
Lance Cpl. Lance Hering, 21, has been missing since Aug. 30 when he and a friend fabricated a story about Hering falling while they were hiking in Eldorado Canyon State Park, sheriff's officials have said. Hering was missing when the friend came back with help.
Hering was on leave from Iraq when he disappeared. He was due back at Camp Pendleton, Calif., on Sept. 18.
According to a search warrant released Thursday, Hering's girlfriend, Kaley Sutton, told authorities he had talked about disappearing. She said he had come up with a "great idea, an amazing plan" about a year ago and intended to tell only her and his brother, Air Force Lt. Brendan Hering, about it.
Sutton said Lance Hering intended to fake his death and assume a new identity in another country using insurance money by naming his brother as a beneficiary and having the money funneled to him.
Hering's father, Lloyd Hering, said Brendan Hering knew nothing of the plot and that the stress from his younger son's time in Iraq - not the notion of the insurance money - led to his disappearance.
