Lab partner: Markoff seemed disturbed

BOSTON - A former medical school lab partner of accused Craigslist killer Philip Markoff says she's not surprised that he's a suspect in the case because he had profound mood swings and often appeared "disturbed."

Tiffany Montgomery tells The Boston Globe that she was often alarmed at Markoff's mood swings. She says he'd appear warm and friendly one day, then be brooding and depressed the next day. She says she was so troubled that she considered alerting school counselors that he might be suicidal.

Montgomery says even though they spent hours together in the lab while students at Boston University School of Medicine, they never became close. She says he spoke only when someone else initiated a conversation, and although he seemed nice, he was also "strange in a dark way."

Markoff, 23, of Quincy, was ordered held without bail Tuesday in connection with the shooting death of a New York woman at a Copley hotel in Boston April 14 and the kidnapping and armed robbery April 10 of a woman who was tied up at another hotel.

"There may be other victims out there, and if you are, we want you to come forward," Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley said. "Our top priority is holding Philip Markoff accountable. He's a predator."

Conley said evidence from computer forensic experts and "old-fashioned shoe leather" linked Markoff to the two crimes. The man police say is Markoff was seen on video surveillance using a hand-held texting device at several of the hotels.

Police on Monday arrested Markoff in the woman's death last week at a luxury hotel.

Markoff is charged with killing Julissa Brisman, 26, who was found dead April 14 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. A wake for Brisman was to be held this afternoon at RG Ortiz Funeral Home in New York.

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.

Authorities believe Markoff also may be connected to the attempted robbery Thursday in Warwick, R.I., of a stripper who had posted an ad on Craigslist. She was held at gunpoint before her husband entered the room and her attacker fled.

Markoff was arrested by Boston police after he was stopped south of Boston on Interstate 95 in Walpole, Police Commissioner Ed Davis said at a news conference.

Authorities said Markoff is originally from upstate New York. A Facebook profile matching Markoff's identity, including his photograph, lists him as a 2007 graduate of State University of New York-Albany and in the 2011 class at BU.

A Boston University spokeswoman said Markoff had been suspended from the medical school after his arrest.