HENRICO COUNTY, Va. -- To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the United States Naval Criminal Investigative Service, CBS 48 Hours: NCIS launched a six part series taking an in depth look at some of the biggest cases handled by the real life agency.
The first case involved the brutal double murder of two Navy petty officers in Virginia Beach in 1996. Dan Rice, a retired NCIS special agent who now lives in Glen Allen worked on the cold case for six years.
"It has all the elements of a made for TV movie," said Rice.
Dan Rice
He helped solve the murders of Petty Officer Elise Makdessi and Petty Officer Quincy Brown who were killed by Elise's husband Eddie Makdessi who initially claimed Brown committed the crime in their apartment.
In a taped interview Eddie Makdessi said, “I'm on the phone with the police the whole time and I'm saying please get here fast. She's bleeding everywhere!"
However Rice’s investigation proved that Makdessi’s statement was false.
"We set up in a warehouse and basically reconstructed the bedroom and brought the consultant in the forensic consultant who walked us through how it couldn't have happened the way Eddie Makdessi said it did," said Rice.
Petty Officer Elise Makdessi and Petty Officer Quincy Brown
Makdessi was eventually charged for the crime, but not before he fled the country, moving to Russia to avoid extradition. He was sent back to the US in 2003 where Rice was waiting to arrest him at an airport in New York City.
"We were able to bring somebody to justice that had escaped for so many years and it's always the best feeling at the conviction when he's found guilty and you're sitting out in the audience with the family members," said Rice. "That's the best feeling of all."
Eddie Makdessi was convicted of two counts of first degree murder in March of 2006 and is serving life is prison.
