Stephen Brauer was the head of the same bomb-making company that Suzanne McNeil and Walter Richter worked for. It was later revealed that Brauer had been having an affair with McNeil but had been unable to break it off so he had sent Richter to get rid of her instead. Unfortunately, in the resulting argument, McNeil, enraged struck Richter with a statue, killing him instantly. This convinced Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs that Brauer was truly guilty. McNeil later returned to her workplace and soon confronted her boss/former lover where she told him she remembered everything that had happened.