Man Arrested in Boston Craigslist Slaying

Man Arrested in Boston Craigslist Slaying

news.aol.com

Davis said that authorities had the Boston University student under surveillance "for days" before making the arrest. Markoff is originally from upstate New York, but lives in Quincy, just south of Boston, police said.
Markoff is charged with killing Julissa Brisman, 29, who was found dead Tuesday at the Boston Marriott Copley Place. The New York City woman advertised massage services on Craigslist and had a massage table set up in the room where she was shot Tuesday, police said.
Markoff is scheduled to be arraigned in Boston Municipal Court on Tuesday.
Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley said Markoff is also charged with unlawful possession of a firearm. In addition, Conley said Markoff is charged with kidnapping and armed robbery in a separate case involving another woman he met on Craigslist.
Police said they had long suspected that Brisman's killer was connected to a robbery at the Westin Copley Hotel in Boston.

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
www.switched.com

www.switched.com...
This weekend in Worcester, Massachusetts, local police arrested 50 people in a prostitution sting, Worcester's Telegram reports. Taking place in an area hotel from Thursday night to Saturday morning, the sting's success was largely contingent on Craigslist's 'Casual Encounters' section, where police had posted false solicitations and offers of prostitution.

This is only the latest in a recent rash of news stories related to the racy Craigslist section. The questionably regulated forum is commonly used to seek anonymous sex, although some take it even further towards prostitution. Friday, the New York Times published an exposé of the site and, last week, Boston police reported that an at-large homicide suspect had attracted his two victims to area hotels by using the Craigslist. While the Worcester police had hoped that their sting would nab the "person of interest" from the Boston incidents, they were unsuccessful.

According to the Times, 'Casual Encounters' has become the online hotbed for prostitutes and their johns ever since Craigslist -- in an attempt to purge prostitution listings from the site -- began requiring phone verification and credit card authorization of all posters to its separate 'Erotic Services' section. Apparently, as the site reported a 90-percent drop in 'Erotic Services' listings, the pimps and prostitutes scurried over to 'Casual Encounters' instead.


---okay does this seem odd to anyone else? First off this college kid is the murder suspect, so I guess it's a good thing he didn't murder his fellow students as some mass murderers have on college campuses BUT, this is odd. Isn't the "profile" of a serial killer older than this kid (he's 22). And there seems to have been an attempted "purge" of these prostitution posts on Craigslist before and then after the murder....I guess maybe the best way to end this kind of thing IS murder though, really. I dunno, I smell a conspiracy.

edit to add: he is only suspected of one murder, therefore NOT technically a serial killer, although he did kidnap another woman, so it seems he had the "makings" of a serial killer I suppose

news.aol.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 20-4-2009 by mkultraangel]

Evidently this is not the first time this has happened...and the other murderer was a pretty young kid (19)

wcco.com...


Michael John Anderson was charged with second-degree murder Tuesday for allegedly killing Katherine Ann Olson, who answered an online job posting for a baby-sitting job.

According to the Savage Police Department, the body of 24-year-old Katherine Ann Olson was found in the trunk of her car in Burnville's Kramer Nature Preserve around 10 p.m.

A woman who responded to an online request for a babysitter told her roommate that the person who placed the ad "seemed kind of strange."

Katherine Ann Olson went anyway, thinking she would be meeting a woman named Amy, or a couple. Instead, authorities say, she was lured to the home of her killer, who shot her in the back before stuffing her in the trunk of her car.

On Tuesday, prosecutors charged Michael John Anderson, 19, of Savage, with second-degree murder. Their evidence: blood spatters in the suburban home he shared with his parents, a gun in his bedroom and drag marks on the stairway.

Olson's body was found Friday in the trunk of her car, which was abandoned in a park about five blocks from Anderson's house. Her ankles were bound with red twine, according to the criminal complaint filed in Scott County. Her purse, her smashed cell phone, and bloody towels -- one of which bore Anderson's name -- were found in a garbage can nearby.

I hate to say it, and i feel sorry for all the people this guy harmed, but meeting people you find on craigslist (or anywhere online, for that matter) just isn't the brightest idea in the world.


TheAssociate

You are totally right about that...however a young medical student (I just found a source saying this kid was a med student) killing a massage therapist and a 19 yr old posing as a babysitter just is not what you would expect...

1. Is the technological age creating new kinds of killers?

2. Is there a conspiracy against Craigslist for a new publication to take it's place?

hmmmm I worked in advertising, so I would not be surprised on #2---at any rate tho, it's either #1 or #2

reply to post by mkultraangel


i dont think its creating new kinds of killers. just giving those same sick people a new way to find their targets. with or with out the internet sickos are still gonna kill people in the same manner for the same sick reasons. makes me glad everyday that i carry a gun with me every where. thank God i have never had to use it in selfdefence. though ive been glad more than once ive had it. i had a hobo pull a knife on me, you would believe the look on his face when he asked for my wallet and got my .45 instead.

edit: changed ways to reasons

[edit on 15pmu102007 by DaleGribble]

I heard about this the other day froma f reind at work.. I frequenst craigslist alot..becuase im a single guy, whohas a very High Libido..abut i dont wnat a relationship. Ive met 2 women so far, in my city past 6 months, both of them freaks, not mentally thier. Its more of a palce for cheating wives or g/fs to frequent. But..if you look under NYC, especially under exotic services, its ALL massages and sexual favors for money...thats is sick... around me, its common now, becuase of the economy, women providin services for $$$..and ide neer go that far, as sex shuold be mutual. but..yuo dont know if thier cops..thatts my point. Their was a post a few months ago, thanking all those that participated in last months prostitution sting...cops put up adds, and over 620 people were arrested,,according to the add. that was NYC alone, in one month!
Ive dated women from online too ever since i got aoll 10 years ago..and in my local experince, ive met the whackjobs or freaks. Ive met a few normal women, notice how i said few.. online dating has never worked for me, and in chatrroms, yuo shuold se some of the guys that come in..my chatroom is a black female for ivory male and sometimes the racist guys come in...the things they say, form murder to ethnic cleansing...rarely yuo get a woman who is racist..but jesus, their not people yuode wannan meet at all in person..and being online, yuo dont know who yuor tlaking too!

Wouldn't it seem more convenient (and I suppose you would have to get into the mind of the killer to figure this out ewwww) to just grab a neighbor or for the med student, someone at his college? Why risk the trail that is left when you go online and make calls, etc....unless this technological age is giving people a sense of anomynity (sp?) in EVERYTHING they do....

Something to keep in mind when reading stories about Craigslist.

Newspapers, and their online equivalents, have lost MILLIONS upon MILLIONS in revenue to places like Craigslist. They would love to see it fail.

While I'm not defending Craigslist, or those that frequent the more freaky parts of the site. It's worth remembering that news agencies have no love for Craigy, and his list.

Thank you for furthering my conspiracy #2 on the aforementioned list...meaning that this is all a diabolical scheme for the demise of Craigslist

On a more serious note, but along those same lines, it seems like the MSM IS creating more of a "stink" over the publication than the killer...obviously since they have been surveilling the guy for some time, they do know quite a bit about him BUT all the stories I have read go on about this scandalous site and all the current "stings" and surveillance and not the supposed/possible serial killer.

Interesting

edit to say: I am replying to SpaceDoubt although I thought I hit "reply to"....

[edit on 21-4-2009 by mkultraangel]

Well yes, it would be easier to just grab the neighbor or med student..but serial killers, or murdrs are jsut as selective as anyone looking for a lifemate partner. Ive read abuot serial killers, like ed gien, dahmer, ted bundy...it wasnt necessarliy just anyone they killed..it was 'the one' that caught caught heir attention..something abuot that one person, struck thier killer interest. Thier selective.. plus, grabbing yuor neighbor would DEF put yuo closer to the crime scene for forensics...the farhter away a body is, the afer a killer feels. Well, thiersa few that ddi differnet, Casey, kept them buried under his house..dahmer kept them all over his apartment and refrigerator, Ed gien made soup bowls outta thier skulls and lampshades outta thier skin..thats a different taboo, becasue its absed on possession..keeping thier lovers or trophys as close to them as posible without alerting detection.
Killers, dump bodys, usualy in the woods. They have no desire, to keep the corpse around, thiey have their adrenalin rush, over ceasing that ones sepficif heart to stop beating.

reply to post by mkultraangel


It is believed that many serial killers actually start at a young age and just don't get caught until many years later. For example it is believed that John Wayne Gasey started killing when he was young.

Most serial killers have a certain profile that they look for, like prostitutes, or a certain physical attribute, he was probably looking for girls that advertised their willingness to meet with strangers, or something similar.

Really there are two things going on here...

1. The weirdness of a med student/serial killer (when I heard 'student', I was thinking criminal justice major but whatever) and since he was bold in his MO, it does beg the question that I asked before---do we (collectively as a society) feel we are more anonymous with all the technology we have now?---

2. Will this reflect back on Craigslist as part of the problem (and other sites/publications/)?


www.usnews.com...

Will "Craigslist Killer" Reignite Legal Debate Over Internet Classifieds?
April 17, 2009 10:39 AM ET | Matthew Bandyk | Permanent Link | Print

The "Craigslist killer" is back in the news again. A Warwick, Rhode Island woman became the victim of an attempted robbery last night after meeting with a potential client in a hotel. She had advertised massage services on Craigslist. Police believe this crime may be linked to the murder of a woman in a Boston hotel two days earlier. Again, the victim is believed to have met the killer through Craigslist.

Authorities have critcized Craigslist in the past for providing criminal avenues. Last month, a Texas sheriff sued Craigslist, saying that the site provided a "safe haven" for prostitutes.

Will the law crack on Craigslist to try to prevent these tragedies? These cases
could force online classified and social media sites to have to be more careful about what they allow for fear of liability.