Serial rapist Willie Brown spread fear through a community for 14 months: 48 Hours on ID: NCIS investigates

This week on 48 Hours on ID: NCIS, the team are investigating the actions of serial rapist Willie Brown, who spread fear throughout the community of Jacksonville, North Carolina,  for fourteen months.

The authorities believe that Willie Brown was responsible for at least twelve sexual assaults in the area.

Of the victims, five of them were the wives of marines based at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, which led to a joint investigation between Jacksonville police and NCIS.

It was a particularly tricky case as Brown left very few clues as to his actual identity, but criminals tend to slip up eventually, particularly when they become overconfident, and that is precisely what happened in this case.

In the end, Brown was charged for his assaults against four specific women, two of whom he raped on the one night on September 11, 2012, and two of whom were four and eight months pregnant at the time of the attack.

The rapist’s first victim was a marine’s wife; he broke into her home wearing a ski mask while her husband was on deployment. He threatened to snap her baby’s neck before raping her. He then forced her to drive to an ATM machine to withdraw $600.

Willie Brown identified using stolen credit cards

On September 11, 2012, Brown broke into another woman’s home and pistol-whipped his victim. Luckily, she was able to escape before he raped her. The rapist stole her credit cards, which would eventually help to bring about his downfall as he was caught using the stolen cards on surveillance footage in several stores.

Later that day, he struck again, this time he tied up his victim before pistol-whipping her and raping her repeatedly.

When the investigators finally caught up to Brown, they recovered the gun he’d used to beat his last two victims, which was covered in their DNA.

Brown was convicted of the 33 counts against him, which included six counts of first-degree rape, first and second-degree kidnapping, first-degree sexual offense, robbery with a dangerous weapon, felony breaking and entering, and assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury.

In March 2014, he was sentenced to spend a minimum of 400 years in prison.

More from 48 Hours on ID: NCIS

Follow the links to read about more heinous crimes investigated by NCIS.

Pamela Hartley slowly fed her husband, Navy Lt. Lee Hartley, arsenic poisoning over a period of months. Doctors were unable to comprehend why Hartley was sick, and he eventually died in agonizing pain. His wife later explained that she wanted out of the marriage but didn’t want to give up her status as a Navy wife.

Naval Officer Corey Allen Voss was brutally gunned down at a gas station having been sent on an errand by his wife. It later transpired that Voss’s wife, Catherina, and her lover, Michael Draven, had orchestrated the killing in the hope of collecting on a life insurance policy.

48 Hours on ID: NCIS airs at 8/7c on Investigation Discovery.