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When arrested, Craigslist killer had victim's blood on his shoes

Print Posted by Roy Greene March 31, 2011 03:56 PM

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Boston police

Boston police photograph of Philip Markoff shoes on the date of his arrest. Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said the shoes are stained with Julissa Brisman's blood.

By John R. Ellement, Maria Cramer, and Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

When he was arrested, Philip Markoff, the so-called Craigslist killer, was wearing shoes stained with the blood of the woman he had killed, Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said today.

Audio

Listen to excerpts from a police interview with Philip Markoff

Listen to excerpts from a police interview with Megan McAllister, Markoff's ex-fiancee

Timeline in photos:
The Craigslist attacks

Conley said it was "perhaps the most damning piece of evidence" contained in a large trove of evidence from the case he released this afternoon.

"He had Julissa Brisman's blood on him, literally," he said in a news conference at his office.

Conley said his office was releasing thousands of pages of documents, audiotapes of interviews with Markoff and other principals in the case, surveillance videos of Markoff, and photographs taken by investigators.

"In essence, you will have every bit of evidence a jury would have,'' Conley said.

He said the evidence that Markoff had killed Brisman was "overwhelming, absolute, and incontrovertible. ... There is no doubt that he committed these crimes."

Conley said some photographs of Brisman were not being released and that the Brisman family had been given the photos, along with a copy of the files, today.

“Those documents reflect the memory of a vibrant young woman who came to Boston and fell victim to a predator,’’ Conley said.

Conley spoke to reporters with a table in front of him covered with some of the evidence, including a hollowed-out copy of the medical textbook, "Gray's Anatomy." Prosecutors say Markoff used the book to hide his gun, a Springfield Armory XD-9 semiautomatic pistol. Photographs collected as part of the case were pinned to a bulletin board, including a photo of Markoff's shoes.

Markoff killed himself in August in the Nashua Street Jail while awaiting trial.

The 24-year-old former Boston University medical student was months away from his wedding to his college sweetheart when police arrested him for the April 14 murder of Brisman at a downtown hotel. He was accused of shooting Brisman, a 25-year-old New York woman, who had met Markoff through an online posting she placed on Craigslist, advertising erotic massages.

He was arrested on April 20. His crime spree had included assaults on two prostitutes in separate hotels in an attempt to rob them.

Brisman, whose family and friends said had never been a prostitute but began giving massages in a desperate attempt to take care of her mother and teenage sister, was the only woman killed during the spree.

The arrest of a man with no criminal record and a seemingly bright future shocked the city and law enforcement officials. The location of Brisman’s murder and one of the other assaults in two high-end Back Bay hotels opened a window into a lurid world, where people meet in posh locales to engage in sex acts for money, and led to withering criticism of Craigslist for offering advertising for erotic services.

Markoff's double life as a dangerous criminal and a run-of-the-mill medical student was highlighted by another revelation in the evidence released today: After his first robbery and before he killed Brisman, Markoff traveled to Baltimore, prosecutors said, to visit his grandparents for Passover.

Markoff was arrested on Interstate 95 in Walpole as he and his fiancée, Megan McAllister, drove to Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut.

Boston police

Boston police photograph of Philip Markoff shoes on the date of his arrest. Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said the shoes are stained with Julissa Brisman's blood.