Craigslist slaying suspect dies in suicide in jail

Associated Press

BOSTON

A former medical student accused of killing a masseuse he met through Craigslist committed suicide in the Boston jail where he was awaiting trial, authorities said Sunday.

Philip Markoff, 24, was found unresponsive in his cell Sunday morning in the Nashua Street Jail, the Suffolk County district attorney’s office said in an e-mailed statement, and he was pronounced dead about 10:15 a.m.

“Markoff was alone in his cell, and all evidence collected thus far indicates that he took his own life,” the statement said.

Saturday would have been Markoff’s first wedding anniversary, but his nuptials were canceled after his arrest.

Markoff, a former Boston University student, pleaded not guilty in the fatal shooting of Julissa Brisman, of New York City, and the armed robbery of a Las Vegas woman. Both crimes happened at Boston hotels within the span of four days in April 2009. Rhode Island prosecutors also accused him of attacking a stripper that week.

His trial in the Massachusetts cases was expected in March.

Markoff had met the women through advertisements for erotic services posted on Craigslist, a classified advertising website, prosecutors said.

Evidence included Brisman’s blood on a handgun that was seized during a search of Markoff’s apartment in Quincy, Mass., prosecutors said.

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