Medical student indicted in Craigslist killing

Philip Markoff has been charged in the April 14 killing of 26-year-old Julissa Brisman, a masseuse who advertised on Craigslist, with a gun he purchased under a false identity. Four days earlier, Markoff allegedly bound and robbed Trisha Leffler, a 29-year-old prostitute from Las Vegas.

He is also charged with "the armed and forcible confinement" of the two women, as well as two counts of unlawful firearm possession, the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office said Sunday.

In both cases, as well as in a third attack in Warwick, R.I., Markoff allegedly used prepaid cellphones that don't require registration and temporary e-mail addresses to make appointments, then used plastic ties and duct tape to bind his victims. 

A spokesman for Mr. Conley, said Markoff bought the gun used in the death of Julissa Brisman at a shop in Mason, N.H. He used someone else’s name and identification to make the purchase.

A search of Markoff’s home in Quincy, Mass., produced a 9-mm semiautomatic handgun, ammunition and zip ties like those used in the attacks. Investigators also recovered several of the cellphones, or TracFones, laptop computers and four pairs of women’s underwear inside socks hidden in a box spring.

The 23-year-old upstate New York native who had been living in Quincy is being held without bail after pleading not guilty in district court.

Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said the grand jury reviewed dozens of exhibits, including Internet and telephone records, during a two-month investigation.

"Contained in those records was a wealth of information, all of it pointing directly at the defendant," Conley said. Markoff, a second-year medical student at Boston University, was arrested April 20 on Interstate 95 while driving with his fiancee to Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut.

Defense attorney John Salsberg said Markoff would continue to plead not guilty.