Craigslist killer to be arraigned today

Details emerge about trail of evidence in Craigslist slay
Markoff faces arraignment this morning
By Laurel J. Sweet | Monday, June 22, 2009 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Local Coverage


The aspiring doctor alleged to have moonlighted as the Craigslist killer lacked a surgeon’s precision when he left a long trail of fingerprints and physical evidence that prosecutors say put him not only in his victims’ hotel rooms, but also buying the murder weapon.

Accused by Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley of “vicious, terrible crimes,” former Boston University medical student Philip Markoff, 23, was secretly indicted by a grand jury Thursday. Markoff was engaged to be married when he was arrested in April for terrorizing erotic servicewomen plying their wares on Craigslist.

Over two months, grand jurors heard and saw “a wealth of information,” Conley said, “all of it pointing directly at (Markoff).”

Markoff will be arraigned this morning in Suffolk Superior Court on multiple charges, including the first-degree murder of Julissa Brisman, 25. Conley said Markoff arranged to meet Brisman, a Big Apple actress, in her room at the Marriott Copley Place on April 14, then crushed her skull with the butt of a 9mm semiautomatic pistol before pressing it to her chest and firing three times.

What has eluded local, state and federal investigators is a motive.

“It’s a question we often wrestle with and often can’t answer,” Conley said. “This may be one of those cases.”

Markoff’s defense attorney John Salsberg declined to comment.

Among the stunning new details Conley revealed yesterday is the weapon that killed Brisman was bought “over the counter” in late February in Mason, N.H., Conley said. A source told the Herald it was purchased at the State Line Gun Shop.

The shop’s owner could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Markoff, Conley alleged, bought the handgun using the driver’s license of a New York man named Andrew Miller.

Authorities have interviewed Miller and, “We do not believe he is implicated or involved in any way. We don’t believe they even know each other,” Conley said.

Police recovered the purchasing documents for the gun and, “Markoff’s fingerprints are on those documents,” Conley alleged.

The semiautomatic was allegedly found in Markoff’s Quincy apartment secreted in a hollowed-out “Gray’s Anatomy” textbook.

Conley said police also recovered four pairs of women’s panties stuffed into socks hidden in Markoff’s mattress box spring and plastic ties similar to those used to bind his alleged victims. They also found laptops - one with the “remnants” of an e-mail arranging to hookup with Brisman - and “several” disposal cell phones.

Markoff’s prints were also lifted off duct tape Conley said he used to gag Trisha Leffler, 29, of Las Vegas during an armed robbery April 10 at the Westin hotel in Copley Square. They were also found at “multiple locations” at the Holiday Inn Express in Warwick, R.I., where he allegedly attacked a third woman on April 16.
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