“Timothy McVeigh, a former U.S. Army soldier, is convicted on 15 counts of murder and conspiracy for his role in the 1995 terrorist bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. On April 19, 1995, just after 9 a.m., a massive truck bomb exploded outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. The blast collapsed the north face of the nine-story building, instantly killing more than 100 people and trapping dozens more in the rubble. Emergency crews raced to Oklahoma City from across the country, and when the rescue effort finally ended two weeks later, the death toll stood at 168 people, including 19 young children who were in the building’s day-care center at the time of the blast.” Read more from This Day in Historyhere.
‘A Clue from the Grave’ by Irene Pence is a fascinating look into the investigation of US Air Force wife Kathleen Lipscomb’s murder in San Antonio, Texas in 1986. Her husband MSgt William Lipscomb, who was stationed at Lackland Air Force Base as a Military Training Instructor, would eventually be accused of her murder and stand trial at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia in 1989. This book shows the difficulties the detectives face when it comes to investigating crimes perpetrated by a transient military member.
If not for the persistence of Kathleen’s mom Nadine and her sister Darlene, Bill Lipscomb almost got away with murder. Kathleen’s family did not want to believe that Kathleen’s estranged husband committed this crime but nonetheless wanted to find out who killed Kathleen. Kathleen was found battered and nude on the side of the road outside the city limits of San Antonio. It appeared that she had been raped and murdered elsewhere and her body was dumped at this location. As a result, the Bexar County Sheriff’s Department had jurisdiction of the investigation of Kathleen’s murder. The book revealed that Air Force leadership was not aware that Bill Lipscomb was even considered a suspect by the local Sheriff’s Department. In the meantime, Bill Lipscomb requested a humanitarian transfer to Langley Air Force Base, Virginia so that he would be near his parents who would help him care for Kathleen and Bill’s two children.
After the investigation stalled at the Sheriff’s Department and it looked like no one would be held accountable for Kathleen’s death, Nadine and Darlene decided to hire two private investigators to find out who killed Kathleen. The private investigators carefully went through the list of suspects to rule people out but they could not rule out Bill Lipscomb after what they discovered. These investigators learned that Bill had plenty of motive to kill Kathleen including the fact that Kathleen threatened to turn Bill and his Air Force colleagues in to Air Force leadership for their role in a WAPS test promotion cheating scandal. Bill also wanted custody of the two children so Kathleen used her knowledge of this cheating scandal as leverage in the divorce proceedings so she could keep custody of the two children. In addition, Bill Lipscomb had over $300,000 worth of life insurance on Kathleen, one policy was purchased after Kathleen decided to divorce him. Coincidentally, Kathleen was murdered just days before the final divorce proceedings. Nadine and Darlene began suspecting Bill more and more as time went on because of statements made by Bill and Kathleen’s children and the controlling behavior he exhibited after Kathleen died.
It would be the private investigators that Kathleen’s family hired who convinced the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) to get involved. Bill was no longer in the San Antonio area so no one but the AFOSI had jurisdiction over him. The crime was committed in Texas yet Bill had been conveniently transferred to Virginia. Thanks to the thorough work by the two private investigators, the AFOSI had probable cause to investigate Bill Lipscomb. The AFOSI used both their knowledge of the WAPS test cheating scandal and what they learned from the private investigators to begin their own investigations. They would learn from others involved in the cheating scandal that Bill did in fact cheat on his promotion testing which is how he was able to achieve the rank of MSgt so soon. They would also learn from Kathleen’s date book that she was fully aware of the cheating scandal and knew that Bill was having an affair with another Air Force member he worked with. It would be this date book that gave the investigators involved in the case a reason to suspect Bill Lipscomb of her murder. In the end this information would become ‘A Clue from the Grave’ that helped Kathleen solve her own murder.
Marine veteran Andrew Urdiales is accused of murdering eight women from 1986 to 1996, five in California and three in Illinois, and raping and abducting 19 year old Jennifer Asbenson who escaped and survived. Urdiales was indicted for three murders in Illinois and was sentenced to death but the death sentence was commuted after Governor Pat Quinn of Illinois abolished capital punishment in 2011. Instead he received three life sentences for the murders of Laura Uylaki, Cassandra Corum, and Lynn Huber. A gun confiscated in a separate incident linked the three murders in Illinois together and during an interrogation, Urdiales admitted in detail to five cold case murders in California too.
After years of legal wrangling, Urdiales was eventually extradited to California and indicted in 2009 on five counts of first degree murder. He was accused of killing Robbin Brandley, Julie McGhee, Mary Ann Wells, Tammie Erwin, and Denise Maney while stationed at Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base. On May 23, 2018, Andrew Urdiales was convicted of five murders by a jury that deliberated for about a day before recommending in June 2018 that he be sentenced to death for each of the five murders. On November 2, 2018, corrections officials said they found Urdiales unresponsive during a security check at San Quentin State Prison; former Marine and serial killer Andrew Urdiales died by suicide.
In the News:
The murders occurred when Andrew Urdiales was stationed at various Marine Corps facilities in Southern California. -CBS Los Angeles (October 5, 2018)
July 14, 1996: Cassandra Corum, 21, Pontiac, Illinois
Marine veteran Andrew Urdiales is accused of murdering eight women from 1986 to 1996, five in California and three in Illinois, and raping and abducting 19 year old Jennifer Asbenson who escaped and survived. Urdiales was indicted for three murders in Illinois and was sentenced to death but the death sentence was commuted after Governor Pat Quinn of Illinois abolished capital punishment in 2011. Instead he received three life sentences for the murders of Laura Uylaki, Cassandra Corum, and Lynn Huber. A gun confiscated in a separate incident linked the three murders in Illinois together and during an interrogation, Urdiales admitted in detail to five cold case murders in California too.
After years of legal wrangling, Urdiales was eventually extradited to California and indicted in 2009 on five counts of first degree murder. He was accused of killing Robbin Brandley, Julie McGhee, Mary Ann Wells, Tammie Erwin, and Denise Maney while stationed at Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base. On May 23, 2018, Andrew Urdiales was convicted of five murders by a jury that deliberated for about a day before recommending in June 2018 that he be sentenced to death for each of the five murders. On November 2, 2018, corrections officials said they found Urdiales unresponsive during a security check at San Quentin State Prison; former Marine and serial killer Andrew Urdiales died by suicide.
In the News:
The murders occurred when Andrew Urdiales was stationed at various Marine Corps facilities in Southern California. -CBS Los Angeles (October 5, 2018)
Navy Petty Officer Elise Makdessi worked as an Air Traffic Controller at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia. Elise was married to Eddie Makdessi for five years and they lived off base in Virginia Beach. Elise unknowingly helped plan, organize, and carry out her own murder and it is unclear if she was a willing participant in the original plot with Eddie to scam the government out of money or if she was controlled by Eddie. Eddie Makdessi murdered Elise Makdessi and Navy Petty Officer Quincy Brown on May 14, 1996 as part of an elaborate scam. The whole thing was a set up. Elise thought she was part of an arrangement where she would invite Quincy Brown to the house, have sex with him, then accuse him of rape. She also manufactured evidence to make it look like she was documenting sexual abuse in an effort to sue the Navy and make millions. She had journals and created what looked like a rehearsed video outlining what four Navy men, including Quincy Brown, did to her on the job.
Five years earlier in 1991 the Navy Tailhook scandal in Nevada made national headlines. Navy Lieutenant Paula Coughlin was one of the alleged victims who went public with her story. Two years before Elise and Quincy were murdered, Paula Coughlin won 1.7 million after suing the Las Vegas Hilton hotel where the Tailhook Association convention was held. Eddie must have convinced Elise that they too could make millions if they alleged that Elise was sexually assaulted on the job. What they didn’t realize is that you can’t sue the Navy; Coughlin won a lawsuit against the Hilton hotel. The Feres Doctrine prevents any soldier or their family from suing the Department of Defense for compensatory damages. Investigators believe that knowledge of this information gave Eddie and Elise Makdessi the motive to come up with the false accusation scheme to sue the Navy. Eddie was a scammer and always looking for new ways to make quick money. Elise didn’t know she was double crossed until Eddie was plunging the knife. A month before the murders, Eddie purchased $700,000 worth of life insurance on Elise.
Eddie and Elise Makdessi invited Petty Officer Quincy Brown over to the house under the guise of having a threesome. DNA evidence revealed that Elise and Quincy Brown had sex. Investigators would learn that Eddie shot Quincy first, then stabbed Elise. He hurt himself to make it appear that Quincy invaded the house, knocked him out, raped and killed Elise, and then he awoke from unconsciousness and shot the intruder. Eddie staged the crime scene and he almost got away with it. But investigators figured out this was a ‘set up’ based on the crime scene evidence, interviews with Elise’s co-workers, the video tape, and the large insurance policy. They were also savvy enough to recognize that this was a copycat case. Elise’s sexual harassment and sexual assault claims were in fact fabricated. All the men she accused of sex crimes in the video passed a polygraph examination and her supervisors testified that Elise never reported sexual harassment or sexual assault like she claimed in her video testimony. Unfortunately Quincy Brown was the pawn they used in their game and he never got the chance to see that the allegations were proven false.
Eddie was indicted in 2001. But by the time investigators were ready to arrest Eddie Makdessi for the murder of Elise Makdessi and Quincy Brown, Eddie had fled the country. They eventually caught up with him in Russia. Unfortunately, Russia did not have an extradition treaty with the United States so police could not force Eddie to come back to the states. Mike Mather, an investigative reporter, went to Russia to interview Makdessi and learned that he was remarried with a child yet things weren’t going so well for Eddie financially in Russia. After that interview, Eddie decided to leave his wife and child in Russia and go back to America to face the charges. He was going to prove his innocence and clear his name. He was sure he would beat the charges. It would be ten years after he committed the first degree murders of Elise and Quincy Brown before he went to trial. On March 16, 2006, Eddie Makdessi was convicted of two counts of murder, sentenced to life in prison, and ordered to pay a $202,500 fine. The motive was the life insurance money. He used the $700,000 payout to travel the world before settling in Russia. Eddie continues to deny committing the crimes.
Elise Makdessi’s sister, Dawn Crosby, asked the jury to “show Eddie Makdessi that my sister’s life was worth more than $700,000.” –The Virginia-Pilot (March 17, 2006)
Forensic Files:
Full Episode: Virginia Beach police arrive at the Makdessi apartment to find Elise Makdessi and her lover, Quincy Brown, dead. Elise’s husband Eddie had reported that he killed Quincy Brown in self-defense after Brown had murdered Elise. Eddie gave the police a videotape Elise had made a week before, alleging that she had been the victim of sexual harassment. -Double Cross, Forensic Files (S13,E5)
Investigation Discovery:
Paramedics respond to a horrific crime scene – a woman is found tied to a bed with slashes across her body. Next to her on the floor, a man with three gunshot wounds. Detectives spend the next several years unraveling this bizarre mystery. -Last Man Standing, Solved (S2,E10)
When a Naval Officer is apparently raped and stabbed by a coworker, a mysterious VHS tape suggests the victim may have been silenced to prevent a scandal. Dogged investigation and cutting edge forensic science reveals a shocking murder plot. -Deadly Accusations, Unusual Suspects (S7,E4)
Editor’s note: With a cable subscription, you can download the free ID Go app and watch Investigation Discovery programming at your convenience. And for those who do not have cable, you can watch “unlocked” episodes on the ID Go app including the latest premieres. For those who prefer commercial free programming during your binge session, Prime Video has an ID channel: ‘True Crime Files by Investigation Discovery” available for $3.99 a month. It’s a compilation of older seasons but totally worth the cost if you are a true crime addict. Download the ID Go app or purchase ID True Crime Files & binge away.
Honoring Navy Petty Officer Quincy Brown who died on May 14, 1996 in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Petty Officer Brown and Petty Officer Elise Makdessi were murdered by Elise’s husband Eddie Makdessi in the Makdessi home. Quincy Brown was lured to the residence under false pretenses, not aware that he was part of a plot that ended with murder. Eddie shot Quincy Brown and then stabbed Elise Makdessi. He told the police that Quincy Brown broke into his home, knocked him out, raped and murdered Elise, and when he awoke he shot the intruder. Forensic science proved that Eddie’s version of events were not supported by the evidence. Investigators concluded that Eddie was most likely motivated to kill by his wife’s $700,000 life insurance policy he had purchased a month earlier. Eddie Makdessi was indicted in 2001 but wouldn’t go to trial for his crimes until 2006 as he fled the country with his life insurance money. Unfortunately, the United States didn’t have an extradition treaty with Russia. After Eddie Makdessi finally returned to the US, he was charged with two counts of first degree murder, found guilty, and sentenced to life in prison. He continues to deny that he committed the crimes.
Investigation Discovery:
Paramedics respond to a horrific crime scene – a woman is found tied to a bed with slashes across her body. Next to her on the floor, a man with three gunshot wounds. Detectives spend the next several years unraveling this bizarre mystery. -Last Man Standing, Solved (S2,E10)
When a Naval Officer is apparently raped and stabbed by a coworker, a mysterious VHS tape suggests the victim may have been silenced to prevent a scandal. Dogged investigation and cutting edge forensic science reveals a shocking murder plot. -Deadly Accusations, Unusual Suspects (S7,E4)
April 14, 1996: Laura Uylaki, 25, Hammond, Indiana
Marine veteran Andrew Urdiales is accused of murdering eight women from 1986 to 1996, five in California and three in Illinois, and raping and abducting 19 year old Jennifer Asbenson who escaped and survived. Urdiales was indicted for three murders in Illinois and was sentenced to death but the death sentence was commuted after Governor Pat Quinn of Illinois abolished capital punishment in 2011. Instead he received three life sentences for the murders of Laura Uylaki, Cassandra Corum, and Lynn Huber. A gun confiscated in a separate incident linked the three murders in Illinois together and during an interrogation, Urdiales admitted in detail to five cold case murders in California too.
After years of legal wrangling, Urdiales was eventually extradited to California and indicted in 2009 on five counts of first degree murder. He was accused of killing Robbin Brandley, Julie McGhee, Mary Ann Wells, Tammie Erwin, and Denise Maney while stationed at Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base. On May 23, 2018, Andrew Urdiales was convicted of five murders by a jury that deliberated for about a day before recommending in June 2018 that he be sentenced to death for each of the five murders. On November 2, 2018, corrections officials said they found Urdiales unresponsive during a security check at San Quentin State Prison; former Marine and serial killer Andrew Urdiales died by suicide.
In the News:
The murders occurred when Andrew Urdiales was stationed at various Marine Corps facilities in Southern California. -CBS Los Angeles (October 5, 2018)
MILITARY JUSTICE FOR ALL 