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Sources: Slain prosecutor was tortured

Autopsy reveals multiple stab wounds

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Luna, 38, was married and had two children.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Luna, 38, was married and had two children.

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Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan P. Luna was found stabbed to death in a Pennsylvania river.
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U.S. Attorney Tom DiBiagio discusses Luna's death.
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BIOGRAPHY
NAME: Jonathan P. Luna
AGE: 38
EDUCATION: Fordham University and the University of North Carolina law school.
EXPERIENCE: Raised in New York, Luna was an associate of the Washington law firm of Arnold and Porter in 1993 and 1994 before becoming a staff attorney with the Federal Trade Commission's general counsel office from 1994 until 1997. He then served as assistant district attorney in Brooklyn before becoming assistant U.S. Attorney in Baltimore.
FAMILY: Wife and two children.
QUOTE: "We will find out who did this and we are dedicated to bringing the person responsible for this tragedy to justice." -- U.S. Attorney Thomas DiBiagio.
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Baltimore (Maryland)

BALTIMORE, Maryland (CNN) -- The assistant U.S. attorney found dead early Thursday was tortured and stabbed as many as 36 times before his body was found under his blood-drenched car in a Pennsylvania creek 70 miles away from his home, sources said Friday.

A law enforcement source told CNN Friday that prosecutor Jonathan Luna, 38, had returned to the courthouse late Wednesday night to work on a plea agreement in a drug case, and left the courthouse around 11:40 p.m.

Investigators said Luna did not go home after he left the courthouse, but took an indirect route to Pennsylvania. Electronic records show he made two stops along the way, but it's not clear if he was alone.

Authorities found Luna's idling car in a creek near Ephrata, Pennsylvania -- 70 miles from Baltimore -- about 5 a.m. Thursday, with his body underneath. Inside the car was a great deal of blood, as well as his cell phone and money, officials said.

Sources said the killing was brutal. Torture wounds were found on his torso, and he had been stabbed as many as 36 times.

Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, coroner Dr. Barry Walp said Luna died "sometime in the early a.m." Thursday -- as early as midnight.

Walp pronounced Luna dead at 8:05 a.m. Thursday.

An autopsy conducted by a forensic pathologist found that Luna "died of fresh water drowning and multiple stab wounds of the neck and chest," Walp said.

Luna was alive but incapacitated when he was thrown in the water, Walp said. "He couldn't get out."

"Some wounds were superficial and others caused internal hemorrhage," he said.

Luna had worked out a plea deal on Wednesday in a drug trial involving rapper Deon Lionnel Smith, 32, and his former associate Walter Oriley Poindexter, 28.

An attorney for Smith said he had no reason to believe Smith was involved in Luna's killing.

In Luna's four years with Baltimore's U.S. attorney's office, he prosecuted cases involving child pornography, Internet sex stings, crack cocaine distribution networks and a bank robbery in which the money was never recovered.

Luna had a wife and two children.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in Baltimore said the office is "taking steps to assure the safety of other prosecutors in the office" in the wake of the slaying.

U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, in a statement Thursday, said, "On behalf of the entire United States Department of Justice, I express our deepest condolences to Jonathan's family, colleagues and friends. We share his family's grief and will provide any support and assistance to help them through this difficult time. All appropriate resources will be dedicated to investigating this matter."

Thomas DiBiagio, the U.S. attorney for the state of Maryland, vowed, "We will find out who did this, and we are dedicated to bringing the persons responsible for this tragedy to justice."

CNN correspondent Elaine Quijano and Justice Department producer Terry Frieden contributed to this story.


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