A Boston University student was arrested Monday evening and charged with the murder of a 26-year-old woman April 14, as well as a separate armed robbery and kidnapping of another woman just days before. The name ‘Craigslist killer’ has been coined for the suspect by the media because both victims had advertised services on Craigslist.
Philip Markoff, a second year student at the School of Medicine, was taken into custody Monday afternoon and formally charged that evening for the murder of Julissa Brisman at the Copley Marriott Hotel and the April 10 armed robbery and kidnapping of another victim at the Westin Copley Place, according to Boston Police Department’s blog.
Jake Wark, press secretary for the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, said Boston Police officers stopped Markoff in his car at 4 p.m. Monday to be taken into custody for questioning and later arrested him.
‘Investigators had determined that they had sufficient evidence to charge him with murder and other offenses, and shortly after 7 p.m. the District Attorney Conley approved a warrant for his arrest,’ he said. ‘That warrant was executed, and he was arrested for murder.’
Brisman, a 26-year-old from New York, advertised as a masseuse on Craigslist, and the robbery victim was advertised as a prostitute. Brisman suffered multiple gunshot wounds to the torso and the second victim was allegedly robbed at gunpoint in her hotel room, according to the BPD blog.
Black-and-white surveillance photographs from the two hotels led police to identify Markoff as a suspect, according to articles in The Boston Globe. His attire in the pictures also matched the description provided by a third potential victim, a prostitute, who claimed she was assaulted at the Holiday Inn Express Hotel and Suites in Warwick, R.I. April 16.
Markoff graduated from the State University of New York at Albany in 2007, according to an engagement website set up for an August wedding with his fianc’eacute;e.
BU officials suspended Markoff immediately upon hearing of the charges against him, BU Medical Campus spokeswoman Ellen Berlin said.
BU spokesman Colin Riley said Markoff’s affiliation with BU is unfortunate.
‘It’s just an extremely unfortunate circumstance, and unfortunate that it’s linked to BU in any way,’ he said.’ ‘It doesn’t reflect on the rest of the students and members, though.’
Wark said other victims of similar crimes should report it immediately to BPD.
‘The evidence suggests that the individual who robbed one victim on April 10 and killed another on April 14 is preying on victims who, because of their line of work, would be reluctant to contact authorities,’ he said. ‘Our primary goal is to find justice for those victims and not to prosecute them.’
Markoff will be arraigned at the Boston Municipal Court Tuesday morning, BPD spokesman Eddy Chrispin said.
Staff writers Annie Ropeik, Lilia Stantcheva and Ben Timmins contributed to the reporting of this story.
