Latest / Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast / The Craigslist Killer - Philip Markoff

Transcript

The Craigslist Killer - Philip Markoff · Wicked and Grim: A True Crime Podcast

0:07
Speaker 1: In April of two thousand and nine, police and the
0:10
Speaker 1: USA began investigating what first appeared to be a hotel
0:13
Speaker 1: room robbery that was connected to a Craigslist personal ad. However,
0:18
Speaker 1: within days, the case escalated into a multi state manhunt
0:22
Speaker 1: involving more personal ads, luxury hotels, burner phones, fake identities,
0:27
Speaker 1: and the brutal murder of a twenty six year old woman.
0:31
Speaker 1: As investigators followed a trail of surveillance footage and digital evidence,
0:35
Speaker 1: the search eventually led them to somebody nobody expected, a
0:39
Speaker 1: clean cut medical student with the desperation and darkseide no
0:44
Speaker 1: one close to him ever knew existed. This is the
0:48
Speaker 1: story of the Craigslist Killer.
0:52
Speaker 2: My name's Ben, I'm Nicole, and you're listening to Wicked
0:56
Speaker 2: and Grim.
0:57
Speaker 1: A true crime podcast material intended more matial audience listener discretion.
1:08
Speaker 2: Is it?
1:27
Speaker 1: I can't be the only person who gets hyper fixation
1:30
Speaker 1: on things, you know, My mind just wanders and like
1:32
Speaker 1: goes for a specific topic, subject, thing, or project. You know.
1:37
Speaker 2: I don't hate what you're hyper fixated on right now,
1:39
Speaker 2: though usually it's kind of like, oh, but this is
1:42
Speaker 2: kind of for me, so I'm all for it.
1:44
Speaker 1: It is I've been hyper fixated on greenhouses lately. We're
1:49
Speaker 1: not building a greenhouse this year, but we're contemplating building
1:51
Speaker 1: one next year or the year after, and so I'm
1:54
Speaker 1: just looking up designs. And this morning I went down
1:57
Speaker 1: a rabbit hole and was looking at two hundred and
1:59
Speaker 1: fifty thousand dollars greenhouses that we could never afford. Well,
2:03
Speaker 1: super gothic ones that you see in like haunted mansions
2:06
Speaker 1: and shit. But it was super cool.
2:07
Speaker 2: That was for a very large one.
2:10
Speaker 1: Though it was like a forty foot like wrought iron.
2:12
Speaker 2: I would have been I'll be fine with a forty
2:14
Speaker 2: eight thousand dollars one.
2:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh yeah, just that one. That's it. Yeah, I'm sure.
2:18
Speaker 2: But yeah, I've been having a few issues this year,
2:21
Speaker 2: well and last year. Gosh, living in this climate where
2:25
Speaker 2: it's spring or summer or whatever you want to call it,
2:28
Speaker 2: but the night still gets so ridiculously cold, and I'm
2:31
Speaker 2: just killing all of my vegetables already. It should be.
2:35
Speaker 1: Fine to plant, but it's almost near freezing at night still.
2:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I don't know how people do it, Like,
2:39
Speaker 2: I guess it's just they have to have a greenhouse.
2:41
Speaker 2: Because even you were like, well, next year just wait
2:44
Speaker 2: longer to buy your zucchini plants or whatever. But they're
2:47
Speaker 2: sold out, so.
2:49
Speaker 1: I don't know, Well you can go buy seed, I know.
2:52
Speaker 2: Maybe that's just the way that's cheaper too.
2:54
Speaker 1: So yeah, so.
2:55
Speaker 2: Then we if I did that, would we be able
2:57
Speaker 2: to afford the forty eight thousand dollars greenhouse?
3:00
Speaker 1: Maybe the thirty five thirty five thousand dollars that's more reasonable, right,
3:04
Speaker 1: spending thirty five thousand dollars in a greenhouse, that's reasonable.
3:07
Speaker 2: Would that increase your house value thirty five thousand dollars?
3:11
Speaker 2: I think it might, honestly, not that much, though maybe
3:14
Speaker 2: like ten or fifteen maybe.
3:17
Speaker 1: I think it could, But it would have to be
3:19
Speaker 1: like to a niche person to buy, right, you need
3:21
Speaker 1: to be finding someone with a massive green thumb, who's
3:24
Speaker 1: really going to be appealed to purchasing a house with
3:26
Speaker 1: this greenhouse.
3:27
Speaker 2: Who appreciates the shit out of.
3:29
Speaker 1: That for sure. Yeah, So I mean like having that
3:31
Speaker 1: sort of person you're seeking out who's really going to
3:34
Speaker 1: appreciate it would definitely be like something you need to
3:37
Speaker 1: do something like for example, like we we need to
3:39
Speaker 1: do that with our Patreon, right, we need to find
3:41
Speaker 1: people who really want to get into our niche support
3:44
Speaker 1: us and find that exact thing. Am I wrong?
3:47
Speaker 2: No, You're not wrong.
3:48
Speaker 1: And I'm talking about people just like Teddy, Sarah, Dana,
3:51
Speaker 1: Kathy Robinson, Felix, and Wandolin. They all signed up and
3:55
Speaker 1: are supporting us over on Patreon.
3:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's freaking awesome. Good segue.
3:59
Speaker 1: Thank you. I appreciate They're awesome.
4:01
Speaker 2: You're awesome. Everybody's awesome.
4:03
Speaker 1: Everybody is awesome except the person that we're talking about
4:06
Speaker 1: in this case today, because he's a piece of shit.
4:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, everyone's awesome. And then let's segue to talk about
4:11
Speaker 2: a murderer.
4:11
Speaker 1: Oh jeez, brutal that is. It's a true crime show
4:16
Speaker 1: that we put on. We don't fluff things. We are
4:18
Speaker 1: still us. And yeah, yeah.
4:22
Speaker 2: I know. Even just right before this, honey, our dog
4:26
Speaker 2: she likes to just lay on her back and just
4:28
Speaker 2: she just sprawls like, airs out everything.
4:31
Speaker 1: Basically, that's one way of putting it. Holy shit.
4:35
Speaker 2: And I was like, you're ready, honey, and are you
4:38
Speaker 2: ready to talk about murder? It's just it's just such
4:41
Speaker 2: a I don't know, vibe, well, just a very common
4:44
Speaker 2: conversation in this house, like more so than the majority.
4:49
Speaker 1: So yeah, I think most people would not have the
4:53
Speaker 1: conversations we have. I think that's true. Yeah. But anyways,
4:57
Speaker 1: I think with this shenanigans that we've got going on here,
5:00
Speaker 1: we should put those to rest and we should get
5:01
Speaker 1: on this case. If you are ready for it, I.
5:03
Speaker 2: Am, I'm very ready. Yeah.
5:05
Speaker 1: Okay. Well, we all know the website. It's a place
5:09
Speaker 1: where people went to sell things or have online personal ads,
5:13
Speaker 1: and honestly much more. And by the spring of two
5:16
Speaker 1: thousand and nine, Craigslist had become much of a very
5:19
Speaker 1: good part of everyday life across North America. Millions of
5:23
Speaker 1: individuals used the site, whether it was to buy furniture,
5:26
Speaker 1: rent apartments, find jobs, or arrange different services if you will,
5:32
Speaker 1: with strangers that they would never meet again. One section,
5:35
Speaker 1: known as the Erotic Services section, operated in a largely
5:40
Speaker 1: anonymous world where escorts, dancers, and people offering erotic massages
5:45
Speaker 1: advertised through disposable phone numbers, coded language, and anonymous email accounts.
5:51
Speaker 1: Meetings here were often arranged quickly and took place inside
5:54
Speaker 1: hotels where neither person truly knew one another or who
5:58
Speaker 1: they were. In Boston, USA, luxury hotels around back Bay
6:03
Speaker 1: and Copley Square had quietly become common meeting locations for
6:07
Speaker 1: those encounters. Hotels like the Weston Compley Place and the
6:12
Speaker 1: Marriott Compley Place were constantly crowded with tourists, business travelers, students,
6:17
Speaker 1: and convention guests. People moved through the lobbies at all hours,
6:21
Speaker 1: and strangers rarely attracted any sort of attention amongst them. Then,
6:26
Speaker 1: on April tenth, two thousand and nine, Boston police responded
6:29
Speaker 1: to an armed robbery at the Weston Copley Place involving
6:33
Speaker 1: twenty nine year old escort Tricia Leffler. Now, according to
6:38
Speaker 1: the investigation, a young man answered her escort service ad
6:42
Speaker 1: on Craigslist. Tricia later described him as young, blonde, clean cut,
6:48
Speaker 1: and well dressed in an ordinary almost in an inforgettable way.
6:52
Speaker 1: You could say he blended in pretty good. He looked
6:56
Speaker 1: more like a student or young professional than someone about
6:59
Speaker 1: to commit a violent crime or anything. But then once
7:01
Speaker 1: he was inside the room, the situation changed very quickly.
7:05
Speaker 1: According to investigators, the man pulled a handgun out and
7:08
Speaker 1: took control of the room right away. Tricia later told
7:12
Speaker 1: police he remained unusually calm throughout the robbery, rather than
7:17
Speaker 1: yelling or acting erratically, he allegedly spoke in a very
7:20
Speaker 1: controlled tone while ordering her to comply with his demands.
7:24
Speaker 1: Investigators determined Tricia was restrained using zip ties and duct
7:28
Speaker 1: tape as well, and at one point she was reportedly
7:31
Speaker 1: bound to a bathroom fixture while the suspects searched through
7:34
Speaker 1: the room, collecting valuables approximately eight hundred dollars in cash
7:38
Speaker 1: and around two hundred and fifty in American Express gift
7:41
Speaker 1: cards that were stolen.
7:42
Speaker 2: Kate was she the escort or was he the escort?
7:45
Speaker 1: She was. She was the sex worker who had the
7:47
Speaker 1: escort ad up and he was responding for the ad
7:50
Speaker 1: for the meetup in the hotel. Now detectives also noticed
7:54
Speaker 1: details suggesting the attack involved more than just simple theft.
7:59
Speaker 1: According to instigators, the suspect allegedly removed contact information connected
8:03
Speaker 1: to himself from Tricia's cell phone before leaving, which indicated
8:08
Speaker 1: an awareness of digital evidence and investigative tracing. He also
8:12
Speaker 1: reportedly stole several pairs of women's underwear from the room
8:15
Speaker 1: before he left too. Then, after the suspect fled, Tricia
8:19
Speaker 1: managed to free herself and contact authorities. Boston Police quickly
8:24
Speaker 1: obtained surveillance footage from the Western Hotel and they began
8:27
Speaker 1: reconstructing the suspect's movements. Camera showed a tall, blond man
8:32
Speaker 1: moving calmly through the hotel around the time of the attack,
8:35
Speaker 1: and investigators also began establishing an early timeline. Now, the
8:39
Speaker 1: suspect entered and exited through public areas of the hotel
8:42
Speaker 1: without drawing any sort of attention to himself. He appeared
8:46
Speaker 1: to understand how easily someone could actually blend in into
8:48
Speaker 1: an upscale hotel environment where strangers constantly moved through the
8:52
Speaker 1: lobbies and elevators. At the time, detectives treated the case
8:56
Speaker 1: as a very serious, but isolated robbery incident. However, that
9:01
Speaker 1: changed four days later. On April fourteenth, two thousand and nine,
9:05
Speaker 1: twenty six year old Julissa Brismane traveled from New York
9:08
Speaker 1: City to Boston and she checked into room two thousand
9:12
Speaker 1: and six at the Marriot Coppley Place. Like many women
9:15
Speaker 1: advertising independently through Craigslist, she arranged appointments through emails and
9:20
Speaker 1: cell phone communication. One of the clients she communicated used
9:24
Speaker 1: the name Andy. It was approximately ten pm when the
9:28
Speaker 1: guests on the twentieth floor began hearing screams and crashing
9:32
Speaker 1: noises coming from around Unit two thousand and six. One
9:37
Speaker 1: nearby guest Jill Stern, later said that it sounded initially
9:40
Speaker 1: like children were yelling in the hallway and making a rackus,
9:43
Speaker 1: but it didn't take long for her to realize that
9:45
Speaker 1: that wasn't the case, because soon the sound of gunshots
9:49
Speaker 1: rang out through the building.
9:51
Speaker 2: Who this is scary.
9:53
Speaker 1: When hotel staff and emergency responders reached the room, they
9:57
Speaker 1: found Julyssa collapsed partially in the doorway between the hotel
10:01
Speaker 1: room and the hallway. She had one plastic zip tide
10:05
Speaker 1: binding her wrists, and blood was beginning to pool beneath
10:08
Speaker 1: her head. Julyssa suffered severe blunt force trauma to the head,
10:13
Speaker 1: as well as multiple close range gunshot wounds. One of
10:17
Speaker 1: the bullets was later too discovered have been passed right
10:21
Speaker 1: through her heart. The detectives later concluded she likely fought
10:24
Speaker 1: aggressively against her attacker and may have tried even reaching
10:28
Speaker 1: the hallway before collapsing near the doorway. She was still
10:31
Speaker 1: alive when she was found, and as first responders quickly
10:34
Speaker 1: transported her to the Boston Medical Center, she was pronounced
10:38
Speaker 1: dead shortly thereafter.
10:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, that is some pretty serious injuries.
10:43
Speaker 1: Investigators immediately noticed disturbing similarities between the Marriott murder and
10:48
Speaker 1: the Western robbery that had occurred just days earlier. Both
10:52
Speaker 1: victims advertised through Craigslist, Both meetings occurred inside upscale back
10:58
Speaker 1: Bay hotels, both involved a young, blonde suspect described as
11:02
Speaker 1: calm and clean cut, and in both attacks, plastic zip
11:06
Speaker 1: tides were used to restrain the victim. See detectives were
11:10
Speaker 1: reviewing the surveillance footage from both hotels signed by side,
11:13
Speaker 1: and they realized they were likely no longer dealing with
11:16
Speaker 1: the robbery investigation. They were hunting someone whose violence appeared
11:20
Speaker 1: to be escalating. Someone moving through the Boston and Boston's
11:24
Speaker 1: area and the busiest hotels, and he was doing so
11:27
Speaker 1: almost completely unnoticed.
11:29
Speaker 2: I feel like he was doing so kind of confidently,
11:32
Speaker 2: very much so, like he just knew he'd blend in
11:35
Speaker 2: and get away with it. Almost. But these are like
11:38
Speaker 2: very vicious acts to be doing in kind of a
11:41
Speaker 2: relatively public place.
11:43
Speaker 1: And it's really fast. Four days apart, Yeah, four days apart,
11:46
Speaker 1: you escalated from a robbery to a murder.
11:50
Speaker 2: Considerable is Craigslist still even a thing today or is
11:54
Speaker 2: it done? Skies. I feel like people just use Facebook,
11:58
Speaker 2: Marketplace and stuff now for selling things. Well I do anyway, So.
12:02
Speaker 1: Craigslist is still definitely a website, but it's it's different nowadays,
12:06
Speaker 1: I believe, as far as my understanding is in my research,
12:09
Speaker 1: I haven't gone to the actual website or anything. I
12:11
Speaker 1: just did a quick Google search. It's there, oh okay,
12:13
Speaker 1: but it's definitely not the website it used to be now.
12:16
Speaker 1: In the days after the murder, much of the media
12:18
Speaker 1: coverage focused almost entirely on the fact that Jelissa Brismane
12:22
Speaker 1: advertised massage services through Craigslist and this whole manner of
12:27
Speaker 1: that meet up. But friends and family they described someone
12:30
Speaker 1: far more complicated than the headlines that followed her death.
12:34
Speaker 1: Julissa was originally from New York. She had spent years
12:37
Speaker 1: trying to rebuild her life after struggles with addiction. Friends
12:41
Speaker 1: later said she worked hard to maintain sobriety and had
12:44
Speaker 1: become involved in recovery programs, including Alcoholics Anonymous. According to
12:50
Speaker 1: people who are close to her, she even hoped to
12:52
Speaker 1: eventually work as a substance abuse counselor because she understood
12:56
Speaker 1: firsthand how difficult recovery could be. She was described to social,
13:01
Speaker 1: emotional independent and determined to create the stability for her
13:05
Speaker 1: life financially and in any way that she needed to.
13:09
Speaker 1: Now by two thousand and nine, she was traveling between
13:11
Speaker 1: New York and Boston for work and arranging her appointments
13:15
Speaker 1: independently through these Craigslist advertisements. But like many women using
13:19
Speaker 1: the Craigslist Erotic Service section, Julissa took precautions when actually
13:24
Speaker 1: meeting these clients. Appointments were arranged through emails and prepaid phones,
13:28
Speaker 1: and friends often knew exactly where she was staying. One
13:32
Speaker 1: of those people were actually helping coordinate appointments too, and
13:36
Speaker 1: that was her friend Mary Beth Simmons, who had later
13:39
Speaker 1: become important to the investigation because she actually retained those
13:42
Speaker 1: communications between Julyssa and her final client, and that client
13:46
Speaker 1: called himself Andy.
13:48
Speaker 2: Now.
13:48
Speaker 1: Investigators later determined that Julissa exchanged emails with Andy shortly
13:53
Speaker 1: before the murder occurred on April fourteenth, two thousand and nine,
13:56
Speaker 1: and the messages appeared routine and contained no obvious threats
14:00
Speaker 1: or any warnings. Then that evening, Julyisa checked into Room
14:04
Speaker 1: two thousand and six at the Marriot Copley Place in
14:07
Speaker 1: Boston's Back Bay district. The Marriot was busy that evening, tourists,
14:11
Speaker 1: convention guests, and business travelers moved constantly through the lobby
14:15
Speaker 1: and elevators. Surveillance footage later captured that blond man, who
14:19
Speaker 1: was actually wearing a baseball cap and was walking through
14:21
Speaker 1: the hotel shortly before the attack. Now, he didn't appear nervous, rushed,
14:25
Speaker 1: or nothing. The footage showed him blending in and then
14:28
Speaker 1: at a round ten PM, guests near the twentieth full
14:31
Speaker 1: floor began hearing those screamings and loud crashing noises in
14:34
Speaker 1: the chaos. Investigators later concluded that the attack escalated very
14:39
Speaker 1: quickly after he entered the room, and evidence inside showed
14:42
Speaker 1: signs of a very violent struggle. Furniture had been disturbed,
14:46
Speaker 1: blood evidence suggested movement throughout parts of the room, and
14:49
Speaker 1: of course, one plastic zip tide that was still attached
14:52
Speaker 1: to Julia's wrists when responders first found her. Detectives believed
14:56
Speaker 1: that the attacker tried to restrain her, but Julia wasn't
15:00
Speaker 1: having it, and that she fought back aggressively before the
15:03
Speaker 1: situation spiraled out of control, which ultimately left the man
15:07
Speaker 1: getting more violent. She suffered the severe blunt force trauma
15:10
Speaker 1: injuries from the butt of the gun before being shot
15:13
Speaker 1: in multiple times at close range and collapsing in the
15:15
Speaker 1: doorway of her hotel room. And what immediately disturbed investigators though,
15:19
Speaker 1: was how closely the attack mirror the robbery at the
15:22
Speaker 1: Weston Hotel four days earlier. Once again, the victim had
15:25
Speaker 1: been contacted the same manner of way, and everything seemed
15:29
Speaker 1: to line up, and for detectives the similarities were impossible
15:31
Speaker 1: to ignore, so they quickly began operating under the assumption
15:34
Speaker 1: that the same offender was likely responsible for both crimes.
15:38
Speaker 2: Which is good that they were able to connect the
15:40
Speaker 2: two so quickly for sure.
15:43
Speaker 1: Now soon they began reconstructing the suspect's movements through both
15:46
Speaker 1: of the hotels using the surveillance footage, comparing him side
15:48
Speaker 1: by side. Detectives pulled recordings from elevators, hallways, entrances, parking areas,
15:54
Speaker 1: and nearby streets, even in an attempt to establish precise timelines.
15:58
Speaker 1: But on stood out almost immediately was how normal the
16:01
Speaker 1: suspect appeared. He didn't wear a mask, he didn't try
16:05
Speaker 1: to conceal his face or move nervously through the hotel
16:08
Speaker 1: at all. In the footage, he looked relaxed, completely comfortable
16:12
Speaker 1: walking through crowded public areas, not even concerned about the cameras.
16:17
Speaker 1: Investigators even later admitted that the detail deeply unsettled them
16:22
Speaker 1: because a suspect appeared to understand exactly how easily he
16:25
Speaker 1: could disappear in this hotel environment. Now, investigators also focused
16:30
Speaker 1: heavily on the digital communications. Those emails from Julyss's friend Mary.
16:36
Speaker 1: Now they immediately began tracing the accounts connected to them.
16:39
Speaker 1: At the same time, investigators learned that prepaid cell phones
16:43
Speaker 1: had likely been used during the arrangements, adding another layer
16:46
Speaker 1: of anonymity to the case. Still, detectives believed that the
16:50
Speaker 1: offender had made mistakes. They just needed to find them. See.
16:55
Speaker 1: Even though anonymous emails and prepaid phones complicated the investigation,
17:00
Speaker 1: every single communication still created technical records, so investigators began
17:06
Speaker 1: getting subpoenas for email accounts, internet provider information, and phone
17:10
Speaker 1: activity while comparing time stamps against surveillance footage from the hotel. Meanwhile,
17:16
Speaker 1: Tricia Leffler became increasingly important to the investigation. As the
17:21
Speaker 1: only known surviving victim at that point, her recollection of
17:25
Speaker 1: the suspect helped detectives refine their timeline and the whole
17:29
Speaker 1: suspect profile as well. She described the robber as controlled, intelligent,
17:34
Speaker 1: and strangely calm during the attack. Investigators also showed her
17:39
Speaker 1: the surveillance images that were gathered from the hotels, and
17:42
Speaker 1: she confirmed the similarities between the men and the footage
17:44
Speaker 1: and the person who had robbed her. Now, as pressure
17:48
Speaker 1: was mounting, Boston police faced another concern, which was time
17:54
Speaker 1: see The city was approaching the Boston Marathon weekend, which
17:57
Speaker 1: is one of the busiest periods of the year. Hotels
18:01
Speaker 1: across Boston were rapidly filling with tourists and visitors, and
18:04
Speaker 1: investigators worried that the offender could strike again inside a
18:08
Speaker 1: very packed city with a lot of potential victims. According
18:12
Speaker 1: to later reports, detectives worked nearly non stop during those days,
18:17
Speaker 1: chasing leads, reviewing footage, comparing timestamps, and tracing any sort
18:21
Speaker 1: of electronic records it could as quickly as possible. Public
18:25
Speaker 1: tips also flooded in after the surveillance images of the
18:28
Speaker 1: suspect were released to media, but Unfortunately, they led basically nowhere. Then,
18:33
Speaker 1: on April sixteenth, only two days after Julissa Brisbane's murder,
18:38
Speaker 1: investigators learned another woman had been attacked in Rhode Island
18:42
Speaker 1: under circumstances that were disturbingly similar to the Boston case.
18:48
Speaker 1: It was on the night of April sixteenth, two thousand
18:50
Speaker 1: and nine, when Cynthia Melton arranged to meet a client
18:54
Speaker 1: at the Holiday in Express in Warwick, Rhode Island. It
18:57
Speaker 1: was just outside of the providence. Like many of the
18:59
Speaker 1: victims in Boston, she advertised services online through Craigslist and
19:03
Speaker 1: arranged the appointment privately through self phone communication. The man
19:08
Speaker 1: who arrived at Cynthia's hotel room closely matched the same
19:11
Speaker 1: description already circulating among detectives in Boston. He was blonde,
19:16
Speaker 1: clean cut, young, and seemed rather ordinary and nothing about
19:20
Speaker 1: him seemed alarming when he first entered that room. But
19:23
Speaker 1: once he was inside, however, that's when the encounter escalated.
19:27
Speaker 1: Soon he pulled out a handgun and attempted to restrain
19:30
Speaker 1: Cynthia at gunpoint using plastic zip tides, unlike the calm
19:34
Speaker 1: behavior described during the Western robbery. However, Cynthia later recalled
19:38
Speaker 1: that the suspect seemed noticeably more nervous and agitated during
19:42
Speaker 1: portions of this encounter. According to reports, he demanded money
19:46
Speaker 1: and valuables while moving through the hotel room searching for
19:49
Speaker 1: items to steal, and at one point Cynthia recalled him
19:52
Speaker 1: saying something along the lines of quote, I'm broke, I
19:56
Speaker 1: don't want to kill you. It was a statement that
19:58
Speaker 1: suggested financial desperation may have actually played at least some
20:02
Speaker 1: of a role in these attacks. But the situation it
20:06
Speaker 1: changed suddenly when Cynthia's husband unexpectedly arrived at the hotel room.
20:11
Speaker 1: Unlike the previous attacks in Boston, the suspect was interrupted
20:15
Speaker 1: before fully controlling the scene or getting whatever he was after,
20:19
Speaker 1: and from there the gunman panicked and rushed to escape,
20:23
Speaker 1: But before fleeing, the suspect reportedly pointed the handgun towards
20:26
Speaker 1: Cynthia's husband in order to try and maintain the control,
20:30
Speaker 1: and then he left and he fled the holiday in
20:33
Speaker 1: express before police were called and arrived at the scene. Now,
20:38
Speaker 1: for investigators in Rhode Island, the similarities in the Boston
20:41
Speaker 1: attacks immediately was completely obvious. Once again, the victim was
20:45
Speaker 1: contacted through Craigslist once again, the attack took place inside
20:49
Speaker 1: a hotel room. Once again, the suspect use zip ties
20:52
Speaker 1: to restrain the individual, and a handgun was produced. And
20:55
Speaker 1: once again, witnesses described a young, blonde man who looked
20:58
Speaker 1: completely ordinary before the violence.
21:00
Speaker 2: Began, but his confidence is definitely going.
21:04
Speaker 1: Down, seems like it now. Information about the Warwick attack
21:08
Speaker 1: quickly reached investigators in Boston, and detectives immediately recognized they
21:12
Speaker 1: were likely connected. At that point, the timeline of violence
21:16
Speaker 1: became deeply concerning to law enforcement because within six days
21:20
Speaker 1: six days only, investigators now believe the same offender had
21:24
Speaker 1: committed an armed robbery in Boston, a murder in Boston,
21:27
Speaker 1: and another attack in Rhode Island.
21:30
Speaker 2: That's really alarming.
21:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, investigator's intensified efforts to trace the electronic communications between
21:37
Speaker 1: the Craigslist appointments now, despite those precautions that he took,
21:42
Speaker 1: every communication method he used to set up these meetings
21:45
Speaker 1: still generated things like timestamps or digital records and Internet
21:49
Speaker 1: routing data that investigators believe they could follow see. It
21:53
Speaker 1: seems the same technology the killer used to hide himself
21:55
Speaker 1: was now becoming the key to finding him. Detectives traced
21:59
Speaker 1: the emails to a live dot com account and began
22:03
Speaker 1: examining the Internet routing data connected to these communications. Investigators
22:07
Speaker 1: eventually identified the Internet Protocol address, or the IP address
22:12
Speaker 1: tied to the account, and that digital trail led them
22:15
Speaker 1: to Quincy, Massachusetts. More specifically, it pointed investigators toward an
22:20
Speaker 1: apartment complex called High Point Circle. At that point, detectives
22:24
Speaker 1: still did not have enough evidence to arrest anyone. An
22:28
Speaker 1: IP address could identify a location or Internet subscriber, but
22:32
Speaker 1: it could not necessarily identify the exact person who was
22:35
Speaker 1: using the computer. Now, investigators still needed to confirm who
22:39
Speaker 1: inside that apartment complex matched the description of the suspect
22:44
Speaker 1: who was seen moving through the hotels, and authorities also
22:47
Speaker 1: believed a prepaid track phone device had been used during
22:50
Speaker 1: those Craigslist communications too, because many of the numbers that
22:53
Speaker 1: connected to the appointments were disposable and difficult to trace traditionally. Now,
22:58
Speaker 1: even so, investigators were able to compare phone activity against
23:02
Speaker 1: hotel surveillance and timestamps and all that sort of stuff,
23:05
Speaker 1: and it connected everything from the attacks, so the investigation
23:09
Speaker 1: was intensifying. Surveillance teams were assigned to monitor this Quincy
23:13
Speaker 1: apartment complex that was connected to all these Internet records.
23:18
Speaker 1: Detectives quietly observed residents who were entering and leaving the
23:21
Speaker 1: property while comparing them against the surveillance footage that was
23:24
Speaker 1: gathered from the hotels, and one resident immediately caught investigator's attention.
23:30
Speaker 1: It was a young, blonde man named Philip Markoff. Now,
23:35
Speaker 1: the more detectives examined him, the stranger the case became.
23:40
Speaker 1: Philip was not a career criminal or someone already known
23:43
Speaker 1: to police for a violent behavior or anything. He was
23:46
Speaker 1: a twenty three year old medical student at Boston University
23:49
Speaker 1: living with his fiance while preparing for a future career
23:53
Speaker 1: in medicine.
23:54
Speaker 2: Holy shit, not someone you would expect at.
23:57
Speaker 1: All, not at all. But inators did notice something else too.
24:02
Speaker 1: Phillips strongly resembled the man captured on hotel surveillance footage.
24:07
Speaker 1: Detectives reportedly even reviewed public photos featuring Philip and his fiancee,
24:12
Speaker 1: Megan McAllister, and the resemblance to the suspect became increasingly
24:16
Speaker 1: difficult to ignore. It seemed like this was the man. Still,
24:20
Speaker 1: investigators moved cautiously at that point. They believed they were close,
24:25
Speaker 1: but they also feared that the offender might strike again
24:27
Speaker 1: before they could act. The attacks had escalated so rapidly
24:31
Speaker 1: in less than a week, and detectives worried additional victims
24:34
Speaker 1: could follow if they delayed for too long. Then investigators
24:38
Speaker 1: learned something. They learned that Philip and his fiance were
24:41
Speaker 1: preparing to leave Massachusetts for a trip to Foxwood Casino
24:45
Speaker 1: in Connecticut, and with that, police realized they might be
24:49
Speaker 1: losing their opportunity to stop him cleanly inside Boston jurisdiction.
24:54
Speaker 1: So detectives quickly organized a formal photo lineup for Tricia Leffler,
24:59
Speaker 1: the surviving victor them from the Weston robbery, hoping to
25:02
Speaker 1: secure one final critical identification before they moved in. And
25:06
Speaker 1: as soon as Trisha reviewed the lineup, she identified Philip
25:09
Speaker 1: Markoff as the man who robbed her at gunpoint inside
25:12
Speaker 1: the Western Hotel. So investigators believed they had enough to
25:16
Speaker 1: make the arrest, and later that day, surveillance teams followed
25:19
Speaker 1: Philip and Meghan as they left Quincy and headed south
25:22
Speaker 1: on Interstate ninety five. According to reports, Megan believed they
25:26
Speaker 1: were simply leaving for a normal casino trip together, you know,
25:29
Speaker 1: before police were suddenly surrounding their vehicle near Walpole, Massachusetts.
25:35
Speaker 1: Investigators approached cautiously, and then Philip was taken into custody
25:40
Speaker 1: for detectives. The arrest marked the turning point of an
25:42
Speaker 1: investigation that had moved at extraordinary speed. In less than
25:46
Speaker 1: a week. Investigators had connected multiple hotel attacks, traced digital communications,
25:52
Speaker 1: reconstructed surveillance timelines, and followed an electronic trail from an
25:56
Speaker 1: anonymous Craigslist email directly to a Boston medical student living
26:00
Speaker 1: in Quincy. But despite the rapid progress, many of the
26:04
Speaker 1: most important discoveries in the case had still not yet
26:08
Speaker 1: been made. At the time of the arrest, police already
26:11
Speaker 1: believed they had assembled a strong timeline placing Philip knew
26:14
Speaker 1: the crimes. Still, investigators knew that the apartment search would
26:18
Speaker 1: likely determine whether the case would become overwhelming or remain
26:22
Speaker 1: largely circumstantial, and as Philip was transported into custody, investigators
26:27
Speaker 1: also reviewed Megan McAllister, who appeared stunned by what had happened.
26:32
Speaker 1: According to later reports, she initially defended Philips strongly and
26:36
Speaker 1: insisted investigators had the wrong person, describing him as someone
26:40
Speaker 1: who could quote not her to fly now. That reaction
26:44
Speaker 1: reflected how completely separate Philip's alleged crimes appeared from the
26:48
Speaker 1: life people believed he was living. To classmates, neighbors, and friends.
26:53
Speaker 1: He was a medical student preparing for marriage and a
26:56
Speaker 1: career in medicine. People exactly he had no public image
27:02
Speaker 1: resembling the violent offender. Investigators believed that they had been
27:05
Speaker 1: tracking through the Boston hotels. But while news the arrests
27:09
Speaker 1: spread rapidly across national media, detectives were already entering the
27:13
Speaker 1: Quincy apartment with search warrants in hand, and almost immediately
27:18
Speaker 1: investigators began recovering items tied directly to the crimes. One
27:24
Speaker 1: of the most striking discoveries investigators made during their search
27:28
Speaker 1: inside the apartment was a handgun that was hidden inside
27:31
Speaker 1: a hollowed out copy of Grey's Anatomy, a textbook widely
27:35
Speaker 1: used by medical students. It was later confirmed to be
27:38
Speaker 1: the same gun used in the earlier murder of twenty
27:41
Speaker 1: six year old Julyssa. Detectives also recovered ammunition that investigators
27:46
Speaker 1: had matched bullets that were used in a murder too now.
27:49
Speaker 1: As the search continued, investigators found plastic zip ties and
27:52
Speaker 1: duct tape that were similar to the restraints used during
27:54
Speaker 1: the attacks. Multiple prepaid track phone devices were also recovered.
28:00
Speaker 1: The theory that the suspect used disposable phones to communicate
28:03
Speaker 1: anonymously with victims through Craigslist What.
28:06
Speaker 2: A Sketchy little guy Hey.
28:09
Speaker 1: Investigators seized computers, hard drives, cell phones, and prosecutors later
28:14
Speaker 1: claimed that they contained communications tied directly to the Craigslist
28:17
Speaker 1: advertisements and appointments connected to the victims. Authorities also recovered
28:23
Speaker 1: evidence on those electronics connecting the emails exchange between JULYSSA
28:27
Speaker 1: and the supposed Andy.
28:30
Speaker 2: Huh. This is so interesting because it kind of in
28:32
Speaker 2: a sense makes sense that he needs money or like,
28:36
Speaker 2: you know, might be struggling financially, But it doesn't make
28:40
Speaker 2: sense at all to me how he's going about getting it,
28:44
Speaker 2: that this was his thought of how like he obviously
28:46
Speaker 2: is a terrible person, because it just doesn't make sense
28:49
Speaker 2: that he's in you know, school to become a doctor
28:52
Speaker 2: to save people, and this is how he chooses to
28:55
Speaker 2: go and try to earn money that he doesn't have.
28:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I mean something like this is clearly the
29:01
Speaker 1: move of someone who's a lot more desperate, right, rather
29:03
Speaker 1: than just having student debt and you know, a marriage
29:06
Speaker 1: and wedding to pay off. It doesn't really line up.
29:08
Speaker 1: But there is something that I'll talk about soon that
29:11
Speaker 1: might show that desperation.
29:13
Speaker 2: Okay, but still it just seems like is his fiance
29:17
Speaker 2: too that says he wouldn't hurt a fly. It just
29:19
Speaker 2: seems like he would have done it a different way.
29:22
Speaker 2: I guess without having to hurt people.
29:24
Speaker 1: You would think, I mean, maybe, yeah, sell some of
29:27
Speaker 1: your belongings and get a job.
29:29
Speaker 2: Or a store or something.
29:31
Speaker 1: If you're that desperate. Yeah, if you're going into medicine,
29:34
Speaker 1: you don't want to hurt people. Find another way to
29:35
Speaker 1: be a jackass.
29:37
Speaker 2: You know. It's a bit confusing.
29:39
Speaker 1: Well honestly that the investigators and everyone they feel the same.
29:44
Speaker 1: It's such a confusing conflict of personality types that makes
29:49
Speaker 1: it very hard to understand. You're not the only one.
29:51
Speaker 1: You're not alone in that.
29:52
Speaker 2: Okay.
29:53
Speaker 1: Now, some of the most disturbing discoveries involved items investigators
29:57
Speaker 1: believe that were taken directly from the victims themselves. According
30:01
Speaker 1: to reports, detectives found numerous pairs of women's underwear hidden
30:05
Speaker 1: throughout the apartment, including some concealed inside socks and stored
30:09
Speaker 1: within the box spring of the bed. Investigators later linked
30:14
Speaker 1: several items directly to Tricia Leffler, while other pieces reportedly
30:18
Speaker 1: could not be immediately identified, and that discovery changed the
30:22
Speaker 1: tone of the investigation very significantly, because up until then,
30:26
Speaker 1: authorities had focused heavily on robbery and debt as possible motives,
30:31
Speaker 1: but the hidden underwear raised additional psychological questions detectives while
30:36
Speaker 1: they began considering whether the attacks involved trophies, compulsive behavior,
30:41
Speaker 1: or motives extending beyond just financial desperation. Then, to top
30:45
Speaker 1: it all off, investigators also recovered clothing matching outfits that
30:49
Speaker 1: were seen in hotel surveillance footage both from Boston and
30:52
Speaker 1: Rhode Island, which placed Philip within the secrets of those
30:55
Speaker 1: movements surrounding the attacks almost directly. At the same time,
30:59
Speaker 1: forensic testing strengthened the case even further. According to prosecutors,
31:04
Speaker 1: traces of julysa Brismane's blood were discovered on shoes belonging
31:08
Speaker 1: to Philip, and that evidence became one of the strongest
31:11
Speaker 1: direct forensic links connecting him physically to the murder scene.
31:16
Speaker 2: Dang, I'm just shook here. Everything you keep saying is
31:20
Speaker 2: shocking me. More and more.
31:22
Speaker 1: Authorities also recovered a fake driver's license bearing the name
31:26
Speaker 1: Andrew Miller, which isn't a far stretch to say Andy,
31:30
Speaker 1: which was the same alias prosecutors later alleged that he
31:33
Speaker 1: had been using during the purchase of the handgun, which
31:36
Speaker 1: was tied directly to Julyssa's murder as well. All in all,
31:40
Speaker 1: by the end of the apartment search, detectives believed they
31:42
Speaker 1: had assembled an enormous body of evidence. They had surveillance footage,
31:47
Speaker 1: digital communications, forensic evidence, matching restraints, burner phones, fake IDs,
31:52
Speaker 1: and alleged property taken directly from victims, as well as
31:55
Speaker 1: blood and many more. To the outside world. Philip Markov
32:00
Speaker 1: appeared to be a disciplined medical student preparing for marriage
32:03
Speaker 1: and a future career in medicine. But inside that Quincy apartment,
32:07
Speaker 1: investigators believed they had uncovered evidence of a hidden life
32:11
Speaker 1: built around anonymous online identities, escalating violence and carefully concealed
32:18
Speaker 1: behaviors to friends, classmates, professors all at Boston University. Philip
32:23
Speaker 1: he appeared disciplined, He was focused almost entirely on medicine.
32:28
Speaker 1: He was intelligent, seft spoken, academically successful and engaged to
32:32
Speaker 1: be married happily ever after. Right publicly, there was very
32:36
Speaker 1: little about him that resembled the violent offender investigators believed
32:40
Speaker 1: had targeted women through Craigslist, but all the evidence, all
32:44
Speaker 1: the items recovered from the apartment, it painted a very
32:47
Speaker 1: different picture. According to investigators, Philip had been maintaining anonymous
32:52
Speaker 1: online identities and communicating secretly through Craigslist and other adult
32:56
Speaker 1: oriented websites long before the attacks ever even occurred. Authorities
33:01
Speaker 1: alleged he regularly used prepaid phones, anonymous email accounts, fake names,
33:07
Speaker 1: and arranged encounters, while keeping that behavior hidden from everyone,
33:11
Speaker 1: including his fiancee, Megan McAllister, and much more of his
33:14
Speaker 1: personal life.
33:15
Speaker 2: The poor girl here, she thought she was engaged to
33:18
Speaker 2: a freaking saint, really like hit the jackpot, Like he's
33:20
Speaker 2: going to be a doctor, right, Like their life is
33:22
Speaker 2: going to be set. Yeah, And here he is just
33:26
Speaker 2: the shadiest fucker around exactly.
33:30
Speaker 1: But this is where the desperation part comes in, because
33:34
Speaker 1: one of the central questions investigators explored was whether gambling
33:38
Speaker 1: debts had pushed him towards robbery. Friends from college later
33:43
Speaker 1: described Philip as intensely interested in poker and casino gambling.
33:48
Speaker 1: He reportedly spent long nights gambling with friends and frequently
33:51
Speaker 1: traveled to casinos like Foxwood's Resort Casino in Connecticut, exactly
33:56
Speaker 1: where he was on his way to go when he
33:58
Speaker 1: was arrested, and investigators eventually uncovered evidence suggesting he had
34:02
Speaker 1: accumulated major debt by two thousand and nine, with some
34:06
Speaker 1: reports placing the total of that debt well over one
34:09
Speaker 1: hundred thousand US dollars.
34:12
Speaker 2: Ooh, that is a lot.
34:14
Speaker 1: And that financial pressure quickly became one of the prosecution's
34:17
Speaker 1: leading theories. And as I said, desperation.
34:21
Speaker 2: Right, yeah, but this guy is just completely living two lives.
34:26
Speaker 2: He is, I don't know, more than I feel like
34:29
Speaker 2: it's more shocking to me than other ones, just the
34:31
Speaker 2: way that he's living these two lives, because they're just
34:34
Speaker 2: so polar opposite, right exactly.
34:36
Speaker 1: And as I said, that's kind of one of the
34:38
Speaker 1: reasons why this stands out and why this case is
34:40
Speaker 1: so talked about and why investigators can't really comprehend and
34:43
Speaker 1: put the puzzle.
34:44
Speaker 2: Pieces fully together, like he really put the investigators on
34:47
Speaker 2: a freaking journey and a half.
34:48
Speaker 1: He did. Now detectives did also struggle with the evidence
34:51
Speaker 1: that suggested the crimes like involved more than just money,
34:54
Speaker 1: because that's the thing. He has these polar opposite lifestyles,
34:57
Speaker 1: but there's also polar opposite like reasons and motives.
35:02
Speaker 2: They honestly, I feel like, probably didn't want to believe
35:05
Speaker 2: it either, probably not. We need doctors and people you know,
35:09
Speaker 2: in that kind of training to be that and stuff,
35:12
Speaker 2: and so dang.
35:14
Speaker 1: Yeah. Now the underwear hidden inside the apartment, with the
35:18
Speaker 1: combined with the fake identifications the burner phones escalating violence detectives.
35:22
Speaker 1: They began asking questions whether the attacks actually involved thrill
35:25
Speaker 1: seeking behaviors or compulsive behaviors, or psychological gratification beyond just
35:31
Speaker 1: robbery itself for needs to pay off these debts. Authorities
35:35
Speaker 1: also found communications involving sexually explicit conversations, domination fantasies, an
35:41
Speaker 1: anonymous adult encounters with other individuals. Some reports also referenced
35:46
Speaker 1: hidden communications involving men and transgender escorts, as well, details
35:51
Speaker 1: that generated anonymous media attention once the public actually became
35:55
Speaker 1: aware of this. For investigators, however, the larger issue was
36:00
Speaker 1: not necessarily the sexual behavior itself, but the level of
36:04
Speaker 1: compartmentalization Philip appeared capable of maintaining to classmates and family
36:10
Speaker 1: he was a disciplined medical student, but the facts spoke differently.
36:15
Speaker 1: Investigators also noticed contradictions in the crimes themselves. On one hand,
36:19
Speaker 1: the offender appeared organized enough to use aliases, burner phones,
36:22
Speaker 1: all these fake IDs, but he also contacted victims anonymously
36:27
Speaker 1: and arranged meetings outside crowded hotels where strangers rarely stood out. Then,
36:31
Speaker 1: on the other hand, detectives beliefs he also made remarkably
36:34
Speaker 1: careless mistakes. He exposed himself repeatedly to hotel surveillance cameras,
36:40
Speaker 1: he allegedly kept incriminating evidence inside the apartment rather than
36:43
Speaker 1: destroying it, And after JULYSSA Brisman's murder brought intense media
36:47
Speaker 1: attention and police pressure, he still committed another attack at
36:51
Speaker 1: Rhode Island less than forty eight hours later. That whole
36:54
Speaker 1: mix of planning, recklessness, and everything it made the case
36:58
Speaker 1: psychologically difficul cult to categorize cleanly. In the immedia aftermath,
37:04
Speaker 1: his fiancee, Meghan defended him strongly. As I already mentioned,
37:09
Speaker 1: during early public statements, she insisted authorities had arrested the
37:13
Speaker 1: wrong person. She described Philip as someone who was kind, intelligent,
37:18
Speaker 1: and capable of violence, and famously said he could not
37:20
Speaker 1: hurt a fly. She denied knowing anything about the anonymous
37:24
Speaker 1: Craigslist activity, the prepaid phones or email accounts, or secret
37:28
Speaker 1: sexual communications. She did, however, acknowledge that they struggled financially
37:33
Speaker 1: while balancing student loans, living expenses, wedding costs for their
37:36
Speaker 1: upcoming big day on August fourteenth, two thousand and nine,
37:40
Speaker 1: Like the same year the same year, only well, this
37:43
Speaker 1: occurred in the spring, and this was in the summer
37:44
Speaker 1: that they were scheduled to get married, so only months
37:46
Speaker 1: later really. But as more evidence emerged publicly, Megan's support
37:51
Speaker 1: for Philip reportedly began collapsing. According to several accounts, she
37:56
Speaker 1: visited him in jail after the arrest, but eventually she
38:00
Speaker 1: the end of the relationship completely. The wedding was canceled,
38:03
Speaker 1: and the future the couple had spent years building was gone. Meanwhile,
38:07
Speaker 1: investigators continued to build what they believed was an increasingly
38:10
Speaker 1: overwhelming case against Philip. After he was taken into custody
38:14
Speaker 1: on April twentieth, two thousand and nine, detectives brought him
38:18
Speaker 1: in for questioning while forensic teams processed evidence recovered from
38:21
Speaker 1: the apartment and reconstructed the timelines connected to the attacks.
38:25
Speaker 1: According to later transcripts and released footage, Philip initially appeared
38:29
Speaker 1: calm and controlled during those interviews detectives Dennis Harris and
38:33
Speaker 1: Robert Kenney. While they led much of the questioning, they
38:37
Speaker 1: were carefully avoiding any sort of aggressive approach early on,
38:39
Speaker 1: and rather than immediately accusing him of murder, they gradually
38:43
Speaker 1: walked him through questions about his recent movements, you know,
38:46
Speaker 1: Craigslist use and the hotel visits. Now, this strategy was
38:51
Speaker 1: very deliberate because they believed that if they could present
38:54
Speaker 1: the situation as something that might have gotten out of control,
38:58
Speaker 1: maybe Philip might begin explaining or minimizing his actions rather
39:01
Speaker 1: than shutting down completely. However, Philip didn't do what they wanted.
39:07
Speaker 1: When detectives asked about the hotels in Boston and Rhode Island,
39:10
Speaker 1: he often gave vague or uncertain answers. He claimed not
39:14
Speaker 1: to remember many details clearly, and repeatedly hesitated before responding
39:18
Speaker 1: to questions involving specific dates, locations, or any sort of
39:21
Speaker 1: Craigslist activity. Investigators also noticed something else During the interview too,
39:27
Speaker 1: Although Philip frequently claimed memory problems surrounding important details, he
39:31
Speaker 1: appeared very capable of recalling very specific information on other areas,
39:35
Speaker 1: particularly involving gambling and casino related topics. Now, At multiple points,
39:41
Speaker 1: investigators also attempted to place him near the hotel through
39:45
Speaker 1: innocent explanations. At first, they suggested he may have visited
39:49
Speaker 1: the Marriott or Weston casually, or or at least walked
39:52
Speaker 1: through public areas for unrelated reasons. But it was a
39:55
Speaker 1: strategy that they designed to encourage him to acknowledge being
39:59
Speaker 1: present before detectives confronted him directly with surveillance evidence. But
40:04
Speaker 1: Philip still largely avoided committing any sort of clear explanations. Then,
40:10
Speaker 1: as the interview progressed, investigators gradually increased psychological pressure. Rather
40:14
Speaker 1: than focusing only on physical evidence, detectives also pushed into
40:18
Speaker 1: the secrecy surrounding his personal life, you know, questions about Craigslist,
40:22
Speaker 1: the communications on there, and behaviors that appeared aimed not
40:26
Speaker 1: only at the crimes themselves, but also aimed at Philip
40:30
Speaker 1: and portions of his private life that he feared exposing.
40:33
Speaker 1: Philip reportedly did grow frustrated at this time, but still,
40:37
Speaker 1: despite hours of questioning, he didn't budge. He was formally
40:42
Speaker 1: charged with murder, armed robbery, kidnapping, and weapons violations connecting
40:46
Speaker 1: to the Boston attacks and Rhode Island authorities also prepared
40:49
Speaker 1: charges related to the Warwick incident involving Cynthia Milton. He
40:54
Speaker 1: pleaded not guilty during arrangement proceedings, and by then Philip
40:57
Speaker 1: Markov had become nationally known as the Craigslist Killer, and
41:01
Speaker 1: the story dominated television coverage, newspapers, and online discussions. Like
41:07
Speaker 1: The contrast between his public image and the allegations against
41:10
Speaker 1: him remained at the center of nearly every single report,
41:15
Speaker 1: But behind the scenes, another issue was becoming increasingly serious.
41:20
Speaker 1: Investigators and jail officials were growing concerned about Philip's mental
41:24
Speaker 1: state while he sat awaiting trial in the Nashuast Street jail.
41:29
Speaker 1: According to later reports, Philip made his first suicide attempt
41:33
Speaker 1: only hours after arriving at the jail. Following his arrest
41:36
Speaker 1: in April two thousand and nine, investigators stated that while
41:41
Speaker 1: being transported into custody, he stuffed toilet paper in his
41:44
Speaker 1: clothing and reportedly remarked, I might need this later. Then
41:49
Speaker 1: once in the facility, Authorities alleged that he tore leather
41:51
Speaker 1: strips from his shoes, tied them together, and attempted to
41:54
Speaker 1: hang himself from the bars in his cell. Now Afterwards,
41:58
Speaker 1: he was transferred to a secure medical unit and placed
42:01
Speaker 1: on suicide watch as he was unsuccessful. According to reports,
42:06
Speaker 1: Philip made another suicide attempt shortly after Megan visited him
42:09
Speaker 1: in jail and ended their engagement. Authorities later stated that
42:14
Speaker 1: he attempted to kill himself using a serrated spoon, but
42:17
Speaker 1: was again unsuccessful. Despite those incidents, Philip eventually returned to
42:23
Speaker 1: standard jail housing while awaiting trial. Over the following months,
42:28
Speaker 1: the prosecution continued building what investigators believed was an exceptionally
42:32
Speaker 1: strong case let's just say that, and the media's fascination
42:36
Speaker 1: surrounding the case it never faded. Television specials and newspapers
42:40
Speaker 1: online reports all continued revisiting the contradictions at the center
42:44
Speaker 1: of the story. The image of the Craigslist killer remained
42:47
Speaker 1: tied to the idea of a successful medical student secretly
42:50
Speaker 1: stalking women through Craigslist while preparing for marriage and a
42:54
Speaker 1: future career in medicine. Meanwhile, Philip reportedly remained behind bars,
43:00
Speaker 1: playing chess with other inmates, and continued following developments in
43:03
Speaker 1: his case, but jail staff reportedly remained aware that his
43:07
Speaker 1: earlier suicide attempts took place, and they meant that he
43:10
Speaker 1: was still on suicide risk. On August fourteenth, twenty ten,
43:16
Speaker 1: it marked the one year anniversary of the wedding date
43:18
Speaker 1: that Philip and Megan McAllister had originally planned before the
43:22
Speaker 1: relationship ended, and on the following morning, on August fifteenth,
43:27
Speaker 1: jail staff discovered Philip Markoff unresponsive inside his cell. According
43:32
Speaker 1: to authorities, Correction's officers became concerned after he failed to
43:36
Speaker 1: appear for breakfast and recreation periods as well. When staff
43:40
Speaker 1: conducted a welfare check, they found Philip beneath a blanket
43:44
Speaker 1: inside his cell. He had inflicted several deep cuts to himself,
43:49
Speaker 1: both on his arms and his legs using a jail
43:52
Speaker 1: issued razor before placing a plastic garbage bag from his
43:55
Speaker 1: cell trash can over his head. Philip had ki admitted suicide.
44:01
Speaker 2: Holy.
44:02
Speaker 1: There were also reports of toilet paper being stuffed down
44:05
Speaker 1: his throat.
44:07
Speaker 2: Oh okay, I was so confused of why he would
44:10
Speaker 2: need the toilet paper.
44:12
Speaker 1: Wow, Yeah, dang Okay now. According to law enforcement sources,
44:17
Speaker 1: the name Megan, who was his ex fiance, was also
44:22
Speaker 1: written in blood inside his jail cell. Another word Pocket
44:26
Speaker 1: was also reportedly written nearby and later described in some
44:29
Speaker 1: reports as a nickname connected to Megan. Authorities also reportedly
44:34
Speaker 1: found photographs of Megan arranged throughout the cell. For many
44:38
Speaker 1: people following the case, the timing of the death appeared
44:40
Speaker 1: deeply symbolic. Philip died during the same weekend that would
44:44
Speaker 1: have marked his first wedding anniversary, and of course a
44:49
Speaker 1: wedding that never occurred because of his crimes. But now
44:53
Speaker 1: after Philip took his own life, the criminal case against
44:56
Speaker 1: him effectively ended overnight. There would be no no jury,
45:01
Speaker 1: There would be no witnesses taking the stand, no moment
45:03
Speaker 1: where prosecutors publicly laid out all of the full case
45:06
Speaker 1: that they had been spending more than a year building.
45:09
Speaker 1: Investigators believed they had assembled overwhelming evidence tying Philip to
45:12
Speaker 1: the crimes, but with the defendant now dead, the legal
45:16
Speaker 1: process stopped before the case could ever fully play out
45:19
Speaker 1: in court. For Jelyssa Brismane's family, the news was devastating.
45:25
Speaker 1: In statements released after Philip's death, family representatives said the
45:28
Speaker 1: prosecution had been their only opportunity to confront the men
45:32
Speaker 1: accused of murdering Julissa, and that absence of closure became
45:36
Speaker 1: one of the defining parts of this case. Investigators strongly
45:40
Speaker 1: believed they knew what happened. The surveillance footage, digital trail,
45:43
Speaker 1: forensic evidence, witness identification items recovered from the apartment all
45:47
Speaker 1: pointed towards Philip Markoff. They believe robbery clearly played a
45:52
Speaker 1: role in the attacks, particularly given the cash and valuables
45:55
Speaker 1: stolen from the victims, but they also believed gambling debts
45:59
Speaker 1: also remained a major part two. By two thousand and nine,
46:02
Speaker 1: investigators had uncovered the evidence suggesting that Philip owed well
46:06
Speaker 1: over one hundred thousand US dollars while continuing to spend
46:09
Speaker 1: time gambling at casinos. But even with the financial pressure,
46:13
Speaker 1: many parts of the crime still do not fit neatly
46:15
Speaker 1: into a straightforward robbery narrative. The escalating violence particularly troubled investigators.
46:21
Speaker 1: Tricia Leffler survived the robbery at Weston. Four days later,
46:25
Speaker 1: Jelyissa Brismane was murdered during what investigators believed was another
46:29
Speaker 1: robbery attempt, and then less than forty eight hours after that,
46:32
Speaker 1: Cynthia Melton was attacked in Rhode Island. The pace of
46:35
Speaker 1: escalation alone was terrifying. The hidden underwear recovered from the
46:40
Speaker 1: apartment also raised additional questions that investigators never got fully answered.
46:44
Speaker 1: Some detectives reportedly believed that the items may have represented
46:47
Speaker 1: trophies taken from the victims, while others view them as
46:50
Speaker 1: evidence pointing towards compulsive or psychologically driven behaviors extending beyond
46:55
Speaker 1: financial desperation. And the fact that even people who spent
46:59
Speaker 1: years around him claimed they never suspected anything remotely questionable
47:04
Speaker 1: or harmful was another confusing part, and that ordinary appearance
47:08
Speaker 1: may ultimately be why the story continued haunting people for
47:12
Speaker 1: so long after his death. He blended into the environment
47:15
Speaker 1: so naturally that nobody around him seemed to notice him
47:18
Speaker 1: at all, and for many people following the case, that
47:21
Speaker 1: normality became more frightening than the violence itself. In two
47:26
Speaker 1: thousand and nine, the idea that strangers could arrange private
47:29
Speaker 1: meetings online using disposable phones and fake IDs still felt
47:33
Speaker 1: relatively new to many people in North America, and the
47:37
Speaker 1: Craigslist killer case quickly became one of the most high
47:39
Speaker 1: profile examples of the dangers people associated with anonymous online interactions.
47:46
Speaker 1: But ironically, the same technology that allowed the attacks to
47:49
Speaker 1: happen also became what solved the case. Now more than
47:53
Speaker 1: a decade later, the Philip Markov case remains one of
47:56
Speaker 1: the most infamous Internet era true crime stories in US
48:00
Speaker 1: North America, not simply because of the violence, but because
48:04
Speaker 1: it seemed to capture a cultural movement when online anonymity
48:08
Speaker 1: and real world danger were colliding in ways many people
48:12
Speaker 1: were only beginning to understand. In two thousand and nine,
48:16
Speaker 1: Craigslist was everywhere. Millions used the site daily to buy furniture,
48:22
Speaker 1: rent apartments, find jobs, arranged services with strangers that they
48:26
Speaker 1: never would meet again. But the erotic services section operated
48:30
Speaker 1: in a largely anonymous space. This case exposed how vulnerable
48:35
Speaker 1: that system could become when someone violence entered it. And
48:39
Speaker 1: largely in part because of this case, we are all
48:42
Speaker 1: very well aware of the dangers of online spaces, and
48:45
Speaker 1: the website Craigslist was forever tainted by that awareness and stigma.
48:51
Speaker 1: After Julyssa Brisbane's murder, public pressure on the website Craigslist
48:55
Speaker 1: intensified immediately, politicians, law enforcement agencies, advocation groups, and major
49:01
Speaker 1: media news outlets openly criticized the company over its handling
49:05
Speaker 1: of adult service advertisements. Craigslist defended itself publicly, though, stating
49:10
Speaker 1: that adult ads were manually reviewed and phone verified before posting,
49:15
Speaker 1: and company representatives also argued they cooperated extensively with law
49:19
Speaker 1: enforcement during the investigation, but the backlash still continued to grow.
49:25
Speaker 1: The Philip case became one of the several major incidents
49:27
Speaker 1: fueling national outrage surrounding online escort advertisements during that period,
49:33
Speaker 1: and eventually Craigslist shut down and restructured portions of its
49:37
Speaker 1: adult service categories under mounting legal and political pressures. At
49:43
Speaker 1: the same time, many sex worker advocacy groups argued that
49:47
Speaker 1: the public's reaction oversimplified the issue entirely. Several of them
49:52
Speaker 1: pointed out that online communication systems often allowed independent escorts
49:57
Speaker 1: and sex workers and dancers to screen clients. It's more
50:00
Speaker 1: safely than street based alternatives. Removing these online platforms, they argued,
50:05
Speaker 1: did not eliminate the danger. It simply changed where those
50:09
Speaker 1: dangers existed, and even in times, removed the history of them. Regardless,
50:16
Speaker 1: the Craigslist killer case never received the ending most major
50:19
Speaker 1: murder investigations eventually reached. There was no verdict, no sentencing,
50:25
Speaker 1: no moment where prosecutors publicly presented every single piece of
50:29
Speaker 1: the evidence before a jury. Instead, the case stopped abruptly
50:33
Speaker 1: on August fifteenth, twenty ten, inside a cell at Nashuist
50:36
Speaker 1: Street Jail, leaving behind a story filled with evidence but
50:40
Speaker 1: missing all of the final answers. Jelisa Brisbane's murder devastated
50:45
Speaker 1: her family and permanently shaped the lives of everyone connected
50:49
Speaker 1: to her. Friends described her as someone trying to rebuild
50:52
Speaker 1: her future after addiction and struggles, and she was someone
50:56
Speaker 1: who hoped to eventually help others through recovery work because
50:58
Speaker 1: she understood how difficult that path could be firsthand. Tricia
51:04
Speaker 1: Leffler survived an armed robbery that investigators believed could easily
51:08
Speaker 1: have turned deadly. Cynthia Melton survived an attack investigators feared
51:12
Speaker 1: represented an escalating pattern of violence. For many investigators working
51:18
Speaker 1: the case, one of the few conclusions seemed especially disturbing.
51:23
Speaker 1: If Philip Markoff had not been identified when he was,
51:26
Speaker 1: the attacks likely would not have stopped even still years later.
51:32
Speaker 1: The part of the story that continues unsettling people. The
51:35
Speaker 1: most may not be that escalating violence, or even the
51:37
Speaker 1: digital evidence, but it is in fact the contrast, the
51:41
Speaker 1: very contrast you are talking about. The smiling engagement photos,
51:45
Speaker 1: the medical textbooks, the future doctor preparing for marriage and
51:49
Speaker 1: hoping to help and save people. The calm, nonchalant man
51:54
Speaker 1: walking casually through crowded hotel lobbies before and after a
51:59
Speaker 1: violent attack. According to investigators, those worlds all existed inside
52:04
Speaker 1: the same person, and that contradiction continues to make the
52:08
Speaker 1: case so difficult to forget because it forces people to
52:12
Speaker 1: confront an uncomfortable reality that sometimes the most dangerous people
52:18
Speaker 1: are not the ones who look dangerous at all. And
52:23
Speaker 1: that's the story of the Craigslist killer.
52:27
Speaker 2: Uh I do not like how you ended that. No,
52:31
Speaker 2: that made me feel really uneasy.
52:33
Speaker 1: Well, and that's unfortunately that's this case. That's that's what
52:38
Speaker 1: this is. He did not fit the profile, he did
52:40
Speaker 1: not look at He was supposed to be someone who
52:42
Speaker 1: helped striving to do better in this world. He was
52:45
Speaker 1: saying for a marriage, to have a happily ever after life.
52:48
Speaker 1: And this is the sort of shit he was capable of.
52:51
Speaker 1: This is the sort of shit he was doing and
52:53
Speaker 1: hiding and so confidently executing.
52:57
Speaker 2: You know, it's interesting too, because he was hiding the
53:00
Speaker 2: weapon in a textbook that he had hallowed out. Yes, like,
53:05
Speaker 2: holy shit, right there is just terrifying. Yeah, that's just
53:11
Speaker 2: a complete example, this polar opposite shit we were talking about.
53:14
Speaker 1: Yeah. And so unfortunately, as it stands, Philip Markoff was
53:20
Speaker 1: never convicted of anything. So you may have noticed that
53:23
Speaker 1: many times I was using the words alleged things like that,
53:27
Speaker 1: because well, he was never fully confirmed.
53:33
Speaker 2: We know he would have been though, yeah, if it went.
53:35
Speaker 1: To trial exactly. We know the evidence was there, we know.
53:39
Speaker 1: But even still he was never actually convicted, which sucks
53:45
Speaker 1: because he he was a coward who took the easy
53:49
Speaker 1: way out before he could be held responsible for his actions.
53:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, he really did. Huh. I'm kind of hoping to
53:57
Speaker 2: like Megan didn't accumulate some of his debt.
54:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, I hope not. Hopefully their their finances were separate, maybe.
54:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, because and like she was literally sleeping on the
54:11
Speaker 2: bed to that houst underwear and stuff that he had taken,
54:16
Speaker 2: which is so disturbing.
54:18
Speaker 1: She was living in the vicinity of the weapon. The trophies,
54:22
Speaker 1: if you will, the cell phones, the digital trails, the
54:26
Speaker 1: blood evidence on the shoe. She was sleeping next to
54:30
Speaker 1: the one responsible for it all.
54:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, this evil, evil person, and I had no idea.
54:36
Speaker 1: And I'm so glad she got out of that well yeah.
54:38
Speaker 2: Before the wedding and everything. Gosh.
54:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, so that was a case and a half.
54:44
Speaker 2: Oh kidding. Yeah.
54:46
Speaker 1: If you guys have any thoughts or anything, feel free
54:48
Speaker 1: to message us or email us. Check out our social links.
54:51
Speaker 1: We have a new website that's been revamped. Go check
54:53
Speaker 1: it out. We're gonna start posting more on our blog
54:55
Speaker 1: and everything over there, so you can just kind of
54:57
Speaker 1: read some behind the scenes, some updates, that sort of stuff.
55:00
Speaker 1: If you want to give us a review. We are
55:01
Speaker 1: an independent podcast. No one tells us what to do.
55:04
Speaker 1: We do what we want, We do the cases we want,
55:06
Speaker 1: we write, we host all of it with us and you.
55:10
Speaker 1: That's it. So we'd appreciate a review. It goes a
55:13
Speaker 1: long way to help us grow and help other people
55:15
Speaker 1: find our podcast and show too to enjoy it just
55:17
Speaker 1: like you do. And honestly, because of you, we get
55:20
Speaker 1: to do this. So thank you, thank you, thank you
55:23
Speaker 1: so much. It means the world. And of course Until
55:26
Speaker 1: next time, stay wicked and
56:12
Speaker 2: B