Accused of scouting victims on Craigslist

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This article was published 22/04/2009 (6199 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BOSTON — Philip Markoff seemed to have a good life: The handsome, clean-cut, 23-year-old medical student was planning a lavish beachfront wedding this summer to a beautiful woman.

But authorities allege that his computer and surveillance video paint a picture of a serial criminal who targeted women offering erotic services through Craigslist. Now he’s accused of killing one and suspected of robbing and tying up another. And police have said there could be more victims.

"This was a brutal, vicious crime — savage, and it shows Philip Markoff is a man who is willing to take advantage of women, to hurt them, to beat them, to rob them," District Attorney Daniel Conley said Tuesday. "He probably thought he was going to get away with it. He thought he was too smart for us."

Authorities refused to comment on reports that Markoff might have been seeking money to pay gambling debts, but a Connecticut casino confirmed it was co-operating in the investigation.

Markoff, a second-year medical student at Boston University, appeared in court Tuesday on charges including murder, kidnapping and armed robbery. Dressed in a wrinkled button-down shirt and khakis, he said nothing during the brief hearing and was jailed without bail.

Defence lawyer John Salsberg said later that Markoff is not guilty of the charges and "has his family’s support."

Markoff is accused in the death of Julissa Brisman of New York City, who was found dead April 14 in a Boston hotel after being bashed in the head and shot three times.

Brisman, 26, was an aspiring model and actress who had advertised erotic massage on Craigslist. Authorities said she and Markoff communicated through email and cellphone to set up a meeting.

Investigators traced an email to Markoff, who created a new address the day before Brisman’s body was found at the Marriott Copley Hotel. He was arrested Monday in Walpole, less than 35 kilometres southwest of Boston.

Authorities say he was the man seen on surveillance video near where Brisman was found and where a woman was robbed in Rhode Island. Police said Markoff has no prior criminal record.

Markoff is also suspected in the attempted robbery Thursday in Warwick, R.I., of a stripper who had posted an ad on Craigslist. She was held at gunpoint before her husband entered the room and her attacker fled.

Boston University has said Markoff was suspended immediately following his arrest.

Police say they found a semiautomatic weapon, duct tape and restraints — what prosecutors called "critical, powerful" evidence — in the upscale apartment he shared with his fiancée in Quincy, about 15 kilometres south of Boston.

"I can’t even put it into words, the disbelief I’m feeling right now," neighbour Jonathan Uva said. "This is a great guy … just a total disconnect from what we’re hearing in the news."

Markoff’s fiancée, Megan McAllister, insists police have the wrong man.

"He could not hurt a fly," McAllister said in an email to ABC’s Good Morning America.

 

— The Associated Press