BOSTON — A former Boston University medical student accused of killing a masseuse he met through Craigslist was found dead in his jail cell on Sunday, NBC News reported.
Suffolk County Sheriff's Office told NBC News that Philip Markoff, 24, was declared dead by emergency medical workers at about 10:15 Sunday morning. The body was found in the Nashua Street Jail.
In April 2009, Markoff pleaded not guilty to fatally shooting Julissa Brisman of New York and robbing a Las Vegas woman. Both occurred in Boston hotels.
John Salsberg, who was Markoff's lawyer, said he was shocked and saddened about his client's death. He would not comment further.
anytime someone kills themselves in custody, it's a shock. and the sheriff and state will be liable. i looked forward to this trial, now we will be deprived of knowing what motivated this kid who had it all. i take no pleasure in hearing this.
Accused ‘Craigslist Killer’ Philip Markoff commits suicide.
Sources say former med student apparently suffocated himself
Boston Herald
Sunday, August 15, 2010 - Updated 4 minutes ago
Accused “Craigslist Killer” Philip Markoff was found dead alone in his cell at Nashua Street Jail in Boston this morning, after apparently suffocating himself, sources told the Herald.
Markoff, 24, was pronounced dead at 10:17 a.m. by Boston Emergency Medical Services, Ed Geary, the jail’s deputy director, confirmed.
Sources said state police assigned to Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley’s office are investigating, however, it appears Markoff committed suicide.
“Sad to say, it’s very true. It’s shocking and very saddening,” said Markoff’s defense attorney John Salsberg.
Geary declined to elaborate on the circumstances of Markoff’s death or where his body was found. “The matter is under investigation,” he said.
The former Boston University medical student, who was to go on trial in January, would have celebrated the one-year anniversary of his marriage to ex-fiancee Megan McAllister yesterday had he not been arrested in April 2009 for the murder of erotic masseuse Julissa Brisman at the Boston Marriott Copley Place and the robbery of Trisha Leffler at the Westin Hotel.
Both women met Markoff through ads they ran on Craigslist. He was also a suspect in the attempted armed robbery of an erotic services advertiser working out of a Rhode Island hotel.
he had been on a suicide watch from the start. if he was still on a watch, heads are going to roll. a watch usually entails a check on inmate every 15 minutes and constant observation.
i'm sorry for the family of the victim who will never see justice. and sorry for his parents. suicide isn't justice.
she was working as an "escort". her family says she was getting straight. but prostitutes are always easy targets.
edit to add...Markoff was found suffocated with a plastic bag tied over his head, alone in his cell at Nashua Street Jail in Boston this morning, after apparently committing suicide, sources told the Herald.
(08-15-2010, 02:15 PM)Lady Cop Wrote: he had been on a suicide watch from the start. if he was still on a watch, heads are going to roll. a watch usually entails a check on inmate every 15 minutes and constant observation.
Glad I read all the posts first, that would have been the first question I asked, the UK is the same but we all know that the 15 mins can also be bullshit time.
i could have happily torn john couey apart with my bare hands. and some others i have met.
the contradiction is that according to our Constitution, markoff was innocent until proven guilty. he may well have been a future ted bundy in physician disguise. we'll never know.
i do know i have cut people down from hanging. it's not pretty. i'd like to know how he got a plastic bag if he was on suicide watch. or the watch became desultory after so much time. the buck will stop with the sheriff of suffolk county. because there WILL be lawsuits.
those who are gloating over monies "saved" will be paying with their taxes.
if that fucker neil entwistle (or justin barber) had done this after trial and sentencing, i wonder why it wouldn't have bothered me?
Herald this morning...(he was NOT on suicide watch.)
A top Hub official is calling for an independent probe into how alleged Craigslist killer Philip Markoff - Nashua Street Jail’s most infamous inmate - could commit a slow, gruesome suicide, denying his alleged victim’s family justice.
Sheriff Andrea Cabral “failed in her duty to provide care and custody to an inmate awaiting trial, and because of this failure, the Brisman family will never see justice served,” Boston City Councilor Stephen J. Murphy, chairman of the Committee on Public Safety, told the Herald.
Markoff, 24, had been awaiting trial for erotic masseuse Julissa Brisman’s execution in a Back Bay hotel last year when he was found suffocated by a clear plastic shopping bag from the jail’s canteen yesterday morning. The apple-pie handsome former medical student at Boston University had also stabbed himself with a pen, sources said.
He was pronounced dead at 10:17 a.m. He had not been checked on all night, sources said.
The shocking demise of the former doc-to-be - who sources said used his medical know-how to try to sever major arteries so he would bleed to death - was preliminarily ruled an “apparent suicide” by authorities on the day after the one-year anniversary of what was to be Markoff’s marriage to New Jersey bombshell Megan McAllister.
Philip Markoff, the accused "Craigslist killer," scrawled his ex-fiancee's name in blood on the wall of his cell before killing himself, according to several law enforcement officials with knowledge of the case.
Near the word "Megan" he also wrote the word "pocket," which had no immediate significance to investigators, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss the case with the media. Markoff and his fiancee, Megan McAllister, had intended to marry Aug. 14, 2009 -- a year and a day before his body was found. Markoff's body was discovered yesterday morning in his jail cell in Boston.
sorry God, i have some compassion for his young former fiance and for his parents who all were shocked, stunned, and hurt by what seemed a completely out-of-character departure for this promising young guy. the same compassion i have for the family of a dead girl who went into prostitution...at least now they will be spared having to hear her life/character dragged through the mud in a trial. everyone loses, everyone hurts. and there are never any answers for anyone.
indeed they will carry on. but never the same.
I do appreciate and accept what you say, Lady Cop, truly.
Instead of giving compassion and therapy to the victims,
would it not be better to have given it to the guy before he
went on the rampage?
I know you say it's out of character but there are always signs.
Loneliness, moodiness, sudden change of character, all sorts.
When I worked in the schools, we used to have bets on which kids
would end up in prison, what for and by what age. We could see it,
why couldn't the others? Because it was seen as "wrong" to call it
as you see it and every child is this wonderful world full of opportunities
when in fact they live in sheer desparattion with few life-chances.
![[Image: Zy3rKpW.png]](https://i.imgur.com/Zy3rKpW.png)
