Philip Markoff, accused Craigslist Killer, commits suicide in jail

BOSTON (FOX 25 / MyFoxBoston.com) - Authorities say a former medical student accused of killing a masseuse he met through Craigslist apparently killed himself inside a Boston jail.

The 24-year-old former Boston University medical student was pronounced dead at 10:17 a.m. on Sunday. The Suffolk County District Attorney's Office said in a press release that Markoff was alone in his cell and that all evidence indicates that he took his own life.

Sources say that Markoff suffocated himself with a plastic bag and cut an artery on his leg.

Markoff was charged in the April 2009 fatal shooting of Julissa Brisman, 26, of New York City, and the armed robbery of Trisha Leffler, a 29-year-old Las Vegas prostitute, both at Boston hotels. Authorities say he used anonymous e-mail addresses and pre-paid cell phones to set up meetings with the women he met through Craigslist, where they had advertised in its "erotic services" category.

The Boston Police Department crime lab identified two blood stains taken from swabs on a handgun that was seized during a search of Markoff's apartment in Quincy, said prosecutors, who alleged Markoff used the weapon to bludgeon Brisman before she was shot three times at close range.

Investigators also found several other items in the apartment, including four pairs of women's underwear wrapped inside socks and hidden in a box spring, authorities said.

Markoff had plead not guilty. He was also charged in an alleged attack on a stripper in Warwick, R.I. He was put on suicide watch this past May after trying to commit suicide with a pair of shoelaces. He was scheduled to stand trial in March 2011.

Saturday would have been Markoff's 1st wedding anniversary to his fiancée Megan McAllister, who initially defended Markoff after his arrest.

Markoff was arrested on April 20, 2009 in Walpole as he drove with McAllister to Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut.