BROWN-LEA

MURDER  VICTIM  IN  AN  UNPROVOKED  ATTACK

Lea Anne Brown was born on November 5, 1976, in Del Rio, Texas.  She joined the Navy in August 1999 and following recruit training at Great Lakes she received training at Yeoman “A” School in Meridian, Mississippi.  She graduated first in her Yeoman class and was permitted to pick her first duty assignment.  She chose to be assigned to the Military Sealift Command in Washington, D.C.  Here she reportedly volunteered during off-duty hours at a nearby Nursing Home and at an Elementary school near the Washington Navy Yard.  She reportedly was loving her work in the Navy and was considered by her shipmates to be an exemplary sailor for which she was given a “Sailor of the Quarter Award” in early 2001.

On June 10, 2001, when Yeoman Third Class Brown failed to appear for work without explanation, her coworkers considered it very unusual and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) was notified.  That afternoon a motorist discovered two bodies in the woods in Prince George County, Maryland.  A joint Investigation by NCIS and the Prince George County Sheriff revealed that the bodies were YN3 Brown and a male friend who had spent the evening together.  Intensive investigation revealed that when the pair stopped at a church parking lot they were accosted by a group of five men who were bent on evil.  The group had reportedly decided to find out what it was like to take a life and unfortunately YN3 Brown and her friend became their victims when the friend’s car was hijacked, the pair was ordered into the trunk and they were taken into the nearby woods where both were shot execution style while kneeling on the ground.  All five men are serving lengthy prison sentences after being identified and found guilty of their crimes.

YN3 Lea Anne Brown is buried at the Masonic Cemetery in Del Rio, Texas.

Submitted by CDR Roy A. Mosteller, USNR (Ret)