Trisha Leffler Tells 48 Hours

From CBS :http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/04/25/48hours/main4968896.shtml News

Exclusive: Craigslist Victim Speaks Out

Boston Robbery Victim Trisha Leffler Tells 48 Hours About Encounter At Boston Hotel

Trisha Leffler (CBS)

Craigslist: Classified For Murder?

In Full: 48 Hours delves into the life of Philip Markoff to uncover how he went from promising young medical student to alleged killer. | Share/Embed

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  Craigslist: Classified For Murder? (41:44)
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  Markoff Victim Speaks Out (4:24)

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The Craigslist Killing

A Boston med student is accused of killing a woman who advertised as a masseuse on the popular Web site.

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• Craigslist: Classified For Murder?

• The Craigslist Killing: Case Overview

(CBS) Trisha Leffler, a Las Vegas masseuse who advertised her services on Craigslist, says she was bound with a plastic cord and robbed at a Boston hotel by Philip Markoff, the man later accused of the Craigslist killing. She talks exclusively with 48 Hours Mystery.

Read the complete transcript of the interview.

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QUESTION: So, Tricia, if you could do the thing that we talked about. First, identify yourself, and what your relationship is in this case.

TRICIA LEFFLER: I am Trisha Leffler. I am the first victim robbed in the Phillip Markoff Craigslist murder case.

QUESTION: All right, so, Trisha, give me a little bit through - you live here in Las Vegas. And how did you end up in Boston, and how did you end up in a hotel room at all? How did this all come about?

LEFFLER: I went out there to work.

QUESTION: How did you end up meeting Philip Markoff? How did this -

LEFFLER: I had placed an ad on Craigslist. And he called my - I had my number on Craigslist. He called my number off of Craigslist. And asked me what, you know, what part of town I was in, what location I was in, and he'd like to come see me, and spend some time with me.

QUESTION: So, you decided to go to Boston. So, how was it that you and Philip ended up meeting?

LEFFLER: Like I said originally, I placed an ad on Craigslist. My number was on there. He ended up calling my number, and asking me basically what - where I was located at, and I gave him the location. And about 20 minutes later, he called me when he got to the Westin.

QUESTION: When you placed that ad on Craigslist, what did you say in the ad? What was it that you - what - you know?

LEFFLER: It basically went along the lines of, you know, if you'd like to come spend some time with a, you know, a blonde that you would like to -

QUESTION: So, what did you write in the ad? I mean, you obviously lived in Las Vegas. But did you say, "I'll be in Boston?" What did it say in the ad?

LEFFLER: It was just I was in Boston already, and that if you'd like to come spend some time with a sweet blonde, give me a call so we can spend some time together. That's basically the ins and outs of it.

QUESTION: The ad, obviously, if someone was on that ad, they would know what they were looking for?

LEFFLER: Yes.

QUESTION: Tell me a little bit about the assumption was already there. He knew when he got there, what was the assumption that both you knew was gonna happen that night?

LEFFLER: He was just gonna pay me for my time.

QUESTION: How did you get to the hotel? Were you - was this something that he was arranging to pay for?

LEFFLER: No, not at all.

QUESTION: Tell me a little bit about that. Like, what were the expectations from you and him, in terms of -

LEFFLER: I mean, I just - I was in the hotel room, and I just placed an ad on Craigslist. And, I mean, he called off my ad. I mean, that's - there wasn't any, anything like previously discussed or anything, from the time that he called me to the time that I met him. It was probably about a half hour, so.

QUESTION: Oh, so it was really quick?

LEFFLER: Yes.

QUESTION: So about a half-an-hour in time?

LEFFLER: Yes.

QUESTION: What was he like on the phone? What did he say to you? Was there ever talk about money?

LEFFLER: He just asked me how much it was for, you know. I have a half- hour rate, and an hour rate. He asked me how much it was for the half hour and the hour. And I told him it was $200 for the hour. He asked me, he said, "Okay, hour sounds fine." And then, about a half hour later, he called me when he got to the Westin.

QUESTION: And you basically said, "This is my room, you can come up?"

LEFFLER: No. He called me when he got to the Westin, and I met him by the elevator.

QUESTION: Do you do that for security purposes?

LEFFLER: Yes.

QUESTION: Tell me a little bit about that. I mean, you have precautions in place.

LEFFLER: Yes.

QUESTION: Tell me a little bit about that?

LEFFLER: Obviously, if I don't feel comfortable, then I'll just walk away from from the person. Yeah, I do it for security reasons. That way they don't know exactly what room number I'm in. I just tell 'em if I'm not comfortable, I just tell 'em, "No thanks."

QUESTION: You felt that he was safe?

LEFFLER: Yeah.

QUESTION: Tell me a little bit about that.

LEFFLER: I mean, his appearance was just - he was tall, a good looking guy. It, I mean, I felt - when I first laid eye - eyes on him, I was comfortable. Because it was, you know, just regular. Just a regular looking guy.

QUESTION: He felt like someone that you could trust in your room that night?

LEFFLER: Not really. Not really. It's not really a trust issue. It's kind of like a - I don't know what the word. Kind of like, you know, get to know the person a little bit. Come and, you know, spend some time with me. Let's get to know each other type of stuff, you know.
CBS)
QUESTION: You didn't feel like you were in danger immediately with him?

LEFFLER: Not immediately, no.

QUESTION: Tell me a little bit about. Tell me why you didn't feel like you were in danger?

LEFFLER: 'Cause, I mean, he looked regular to me. It - he didn't look like he had any other tendencies, other than just spend a little time and leave.

QUESTION: So, what does he say to you when he comes to meet?

LEFFLER: I just said, "Hi." He said, "Hi." And I said - I just motioned to him to follow me. And 'cause I really don't want to talk out in the hallway and, you know, whatnot. So, we went into the room. And as soon as I had closed the door, I had turned around, and he was standing just inside the door. And he pulled out the - when I turned around and looked at him, that's when he pulled out the gun.

QUESTION: What was going through your mind?

LEFFLER: I was a little nervous. Like, I immediately started shaking. Like, my heart started beatin' real fast. I started shaking.

QUESTION: What did he say to you?

LEFFLER: Told me to lie down on the ground.

QUESTION: What did you think was going to happen?

LEFFLER: I wasn't sure at that point.

QUESTION: What did he - what was he saying to you?

LEFFLER: He - he just told me to lay down, and I - I did. And then - he put the gun back in his pocket, once I laid down and stepped behind me. And he kneeled on the ground with one knee in the middle in between my legs, and told me to put my hands behind my back, which I did. And then - he tied me up one - one hand at a time.

QUESTION: And what is he saying to you?

LEFFLER: I was basically saying, you know, "You don't have to do all this. You don't - you don't have to tie me up. You know, I'll give you whatever you want. You don't have to tie me up." And he basically told me, "If you just be quiet, you know, no harm's gonna come to you."

QUESTION: Is he telling you he wants something at this point from you?

LEFFLER: No. As soon as he tied me up, he stepped back in front of me, and pulled out some black leather gloves, and put the black leather gloves on. And then, he asked me where my money was.

QUESTION: And what do you do? Do you - what do you - what are the instructions at that point?

LEFFLER: I told him they were in - in the - in my purse. And he walked over to - there was a desk in the room. I had my makeup case on the desk. And he picked it up. He says, "In here." I said, "No. My purse is in the top drawer of the entertainment center." And that's when he walked over and took the purse out of the entertainment center.

QUESTION: And he just took it? Took everything?

LEFFLER: No. He opened up my purse, and immediately went for the money. Took out the money, and put it in his pocket. And then, he knelt down on the floor, and was like kind of rifling through my purse and stuff. And he took out my wallet, and started going through my wallet. Like, taking each credit card out, asking me what kind of credit cards they were. I told him they were prepaid, there was no money on 'em.

Then he took out my bank card. He asked me what my pin number was on my bank card, and at that time, my adrenaline was rushing so much, I couldn't think of a lie. So, I gave him the pin number. He told me that, "That'd better be the pin number or I was gonna - there was gonna be a problem later." Whatever that meant. And then, after he took all the credit cards out and put them in his pocket, he then took my whole wallet and shoved it in his pocket. And then, at that moment, I realized that my ID was in the wallet. And I asked him if he could please leave me my ID so I could get home.

And he took it out and studied it for a good minute like he was memorizing my address. And then threw it down with all the rest of the stuff. And then, because I told him that the credit cards were pre-paid credit cards, I asked him if he could please leave me at least one of the credit cards, so I could also get home with, you know, with a credit card. And he said, "I thought you said there wasn't any money on 'em."

I said, "There's not. But I can have people, you know, put money on it so I can get home." He asked me which one I wanted - he wanted me to leave - or him to leave. And I said, "The one ending..." I gave him the one ending in - 7-6-4-9. Obviously, that was the one that he took, 'cause I think he thought there was money on there, 'cause that was the one that I pointed out. So, he gave me another one. And he threw that down, too. And then he had also picked up my camera at this point, and asked if there was - if this was my camera, and I said, "Yeah." But he had thrown that down at the time. He didn't take it right then.

QUESTION: Did he eventually take that?

LEFFLER: Yeah, he did. I didn't realize 'til about a day later.

QUESTION: Are you crying at this point? Are you -

LEFFLER: No, I mean, I'm still shaking, I'm still nervous. His demeanor's very - really was actually very calm. Like he had done it before. I mean, I'm not making presumptions. But he was actually very calm. He basically knew what to look for, that kind of stuff.

QUESTION: And you're as calm as you can be, considering?

LEFFLER: Yeah. At this point, I had asked him if I could sit up. So, I was actually sitting on the floor, with my hands tied behind my back.
(CBS)
QUESTION: What are you thinking at this point? Are you nervous that he was going to hurt you? Kill you?

LEFFLER: No, because I wasn't as nervous as before, 'cause he had actually put the gun away. When he got done going through my purse, he got up and asked me where the phone was that he had called me on. I said it was on the table. He picked it up and started going through it. And from - and - actually erased his number out of the call log.

QUESTION: Obviously, it's never permanently erased.

LEFFLER: Right.

QUESTION: What did you, I mean, did you think of that at the time? That obviously the police could trace a call. I mean, were you thinking like, "This is silly?"

LEFFLER: I actually asking him if I could do it for him, because I just wanted him to leave. But he was like, "No, I'll - I'll take care of it. I got it."

QUESTION: Did you think that was an odd scenario for him to try to cover his tracks that way?

LEFFLER: Yeah. Like 'cause I'm - I mean, obviously he brought gloves. He knew how to erase his number from my phone. And then, to make sure that I didn't get to my phone right away, he turned it over, opened up the back of it, and actually took the battery, and threw it behind the entertainment center, so I couldn't get to it right away.

QUESTION: When you say he put away his gun, where did he put it away?

LEFFLER: He put it in his pants pocket.

QUESTION: So, he leaves. Walks out?

LEFFLER: No.

QUESTION: When?

LEFFLER: Not yet.

QUESTION: What does he do?

LEFFLER: He started like looking around my room a little bit. The one thing that I thought was really weird that I didn't really say anything to him about is he walked over towards by where my suitcase was. And he picked up a pair of my underwear that were on the floor, and put them in his pocket.

QUESTION: What did you think of that?

TRISHA LEFFLER: I thought it was weird. Like, I didn't ask him what he was doing. Nothing, 'cause I didn't, you know, 'cause I didn't care to know. But it was just weird to me.

QUESTION: Did you ask him?

LEFFLER: No.

QUESTION: You just wanted him out?

LEFFLER: I just wanted him out. I wasn't trying to keep him there for anything longer. And then, eventually, he asked me if there was a safe in the room. I said, "Yes, but I haven't put anything in it." Of course he checked anyway. And then, he was kind of like walking around the room. And by this time, I was getting antsy, like I just wanted him to leave. So, I asked him what he was doing. 'Cause he was like going around, like trying to move, like furniture and stuff.

And I was like, "What are you doing." He's like, "I'm trying to find something to tie you to, 'cause I need more time to get away." And he's like, "Or should I just cut you loose." And I said, "Yeah, you can cut me loose, I'm not gonna tell anybody." And he's like, "I don't believe you." He's like, "I think I - I think I need to tie you to something so I can get more time to get away."

And so, I actually was like trying to suggest places for him to try to me, so he would just tie me up and leave. I asked him to tie me to the entertainment center door, 'cause there was a door that opened. He was like, "Oh, you can bust that right off." I was like, "I'm not that strong," you know. So, basically, he ended up tying to the bathroom door.

And then, as soon as he tied me to the bathroom door, he said, "Hold on a second," and he went back in the room. Where he went, I couldn't see, 'cause the line of vision was blocked. There was like a little wall or something there. But I heard a zipper on my suitcase. I don't know what he was doing. I didn't hear him like rustling around in my suitcase, but I just heard the zipper.

And then, he came back over and took something else out of his pocket. And he ended up taping my mouth. Putting three pieces of tape over my mouth. But I was noticing as he was doing it that he was not wearing gloves. So, I just let him put the tape on me. And also, at some point, during the robbery, he did cut both the phone lines in the room, so I wouldn't have a direct outlet right after he left. And he walked back into the room, just took one more look around, and then just walked out the door.

QUESTION: What did he tie you up with?

LEFFLER: He tied me up with some plastic zip cords.

QUESTION: You mean to the door?

LEFFLER: Yes.

QUESTION: They were long enough for him to do that?

LEFFLER: Yeah.

QUESTION: When he walks out, what does he say to you?

LEFFLER: Nothing. He did, at one point, tell me that he would wait about 15 minutes after he had left the hotel and call security, and say that he had heard something come from the room, and asked me the room number. And I gave him - I gave him the room number. I mumbled it, 'cause my mouth was taped. But - and then, he just walked out the door.

QUESTION: Did you really think he was going to do that?

LEFFLER: No.

QUESTION: How did you get out?

LEFFLER: Within one minute of him leaving, I actually twisted right out of the ties. It hurt, but I twisted out of the ties, and like, took the tape off my mouth. And I crumbled up the tape, and threw it on the bed. And I waited for probably about a minute, and looked out into the hallway to just to make sure he wasn't standing out there, and then I went to the room next door, and knocked on the door, and asked if I could use their phone to call security, 'cause I had just been robbed.

QUESTION: So, security comes. The police come. Did you give them the tape with the fingerprints?

LEFFLER: It was, I mean, everything was in the room still. I had left the room, and I hadn't been back in there.

QUESTION: Do you know if they took the tape?

LEFFLER: They took - yeah, they took everything.

QUESTION: Describe what they took.

LEFFLER: They took the tape. They took the zip ties that were on the door. They took pictures of everything, obviously. And they took my cell phone.

QUESTION: Did they ever look into your Craigslist account to try to identify who he was?

LEFFLER: No, they didn't. Not that night, no. They didn't - no, they didn't look into my Craigslist account that night.

QUESTION: When did you find out who he was, in terms of this investigation?

LEFFLER: The day that he was arrested.

QUESTION: How did you find out that Philip Markoff was the person that was the same person that ended up murdering someone?

LEFFLER: I got a call on April 13 that my phone was going to be returned to me the next day, at about 10:30 in the morning. At 9:00, I got a call saying that they had to talk to me. It was very important that they talk to me, and where I was staying. I gave them the hotel. And then the room number. He said, "Okay, we'll be there in five minutes."

They showed up. And they gave me a piece of paper with a picture on it. And I said, "Ooh, this is a really good picture of him. Where did you get this." They said, "Is that guy that robbed you." I said, "Yes." They said, "How do you know." I said, "He's wearing the same exact clothes." I said, "Is this from the surveillance from the same night."

And they said, "No. That's actually from the Marriott." And I kind of looked at him funny. And he was like, "There was a girl murdered there last night, and we think this is the same guy. He's used the same M.O. She was tied up with plastic zip cords." And my heart just dropped.

QUESTION: Did you think that you could've died that night?

LEFFLER: Yes.

QUESTION: What was going through your head when you heard that?

LEFFLER: That it could've been me. That had - I mean, he could've killed me that night.

QUESTION: What were you thinking. I mean, what was going through your head at that time? What was swirling?

LEFFLER: That it was, well, I was in this even deeper now than just me being robbed. It was now a murder investigation, and that I was right in the middle of it.
(CBS)

QUESTION: Were you at all scared?

LEFFLER: I got really scared. Yeah.

QUESTION: What kinds of things were the police now - were they helpful?

LEFFLER: Yes. Very. They were just like, you know, "We really do need you in order for us to catch this guy now." And I said, "Whatever you need."

QUESTION: So, you saw security photos. What kind of things did you see on the security photos?

LEFFLER: I'd seen him the way he was dressed. When he robbed me, he was in a black leather coat, dark jeans, with a tan shirt underneath. And about 6'2", blonde hair. And, of course, you can't see his eyes in the surveillance, but I knew they were light-colored eyes. And they asked me if I knew how old he was. And I really thought he was upper 20s. But obviously, he's 22, so.

QUESTION: The night that he had pulled out the gun, did you at all think that night that you could die?

LEFFLER: I was just so wrapped up in trying to comply with everything that he said to not think about it. I was trying to not think about me being hurt, harmed.

QUESTION: Did you think that night that you could die?

TRISHA LEFFLER: To tell you the truth, it wasn't really a thought at the time. I thought he would - you know, I had a feeling he was just there for the money. He just wanted the money, and to get out. 'Cause as soon as he pulled the gun, he had put it away, I didn't see it the rest of the time.

QUESTION: The night that he was attacking you, did you think when he pulled out that gun, I mean, obviously been attacked with a gun before. Did you think that, "I'm facing death here?"

LEFFLER: I mean, truthfully, no. Like, it was just like I got scared, obviously, 'cause he had a gun. But in the back of my mind, I'm thinking, "Oh, it's not loaded," you know. It's a toy, you know. Stuff like that. Just something to scare me. Like, he just wants my money and to get out. Like never once did he touch me, other than to tie me up, and then to tie me to the doorknob. He was very calm. He didn't tell me to shut up, he told me to be quiet, you know. I guess you could call him polite. Didn't call me names and swear at me. Nothing.

QUESTION: It only dawned on you later that -

LEFFLER: Yeah, when the other girl got killed, yes.

QUESTION: Tell me that in a full sentence. What dawned on you later?

LEFFLER: It dawned on me later that he could have very well killed me.

QUESTION: When you saw the surveillance photos, how sure where you that it was Philip Markoff?

LEFFLER: I was - I was 100 percent sure.

QUESTION: How 100 percent sure were you that it was the same person? Tell me how sure you were that it was the same person?

LEFFLER: I was 100 percent sure. Well, obviously, the first photo that they showed me, I actually thought it was from the Westin the night that I got robbed. They didn't tell me beforehand that, you know, it was from different surveillance from another hotel. I thought maybe they had gotten another clearer picture. So, I mean, I was 100 percent sure it was the same guy. He was even dressed the same, wearing the same clothes.

QUESTION: When did you start finding out who he was, his background? Did the police start telling you about that, or did you only start reading about it in the media?

LEFFLER: I only started reading about it in the media, after he was actually arrested.

QUESTION: What did you think about it?

LEFFLER: Well, I just don't understand how somebody that is obviously smart, has his own life ahead of him, has a beautiful fiancée, you know, getting married, gonna have, you know live the life, could do something like this.

QUESTION: Obviously, you know, you're reading about him. About this. He was in medical school, he seemed to have all these things going for him. Does it seem like the guy that came to your room that night?

LEFFLER: Yes and no. I mean, yes, because I know what he looks like. No, because I didn't know anything about him, characteristic type, nothing. When he called me, I did ask him what he did for a living, and he actually told me he was a student. He didn't tell me what type of a student, but he said he was a student.

QUESTION: Did he raise his voice to you? You said he was very - I mean, he, he wasn't nasty to you?

LEFFLER: He did not raise his voice to me. I kept asking him, "Can I say something, can I say something," he just kept telling me to be quiet. He didn't want to hear anything. He just wanted to, I think he just wanted to get what he wanted, and get out.

QUESTION: But he didn't curse at you, he wasn't violent?

LEFFLER: No, not at all.

QUESTION: Describe that a little bit for me. Describe his demeanor to me?

LEFFLER: I mean, he was calm. He, to me, it felt like he knew what he was doing.

QUESTION: When you started reading about him, did you have any kind of reaction about who he was, and what brought him to you? Or what would drive him to kill another woman?

LEFFLER: I mean, I can't get inside his head. But, I mean, it's just - it's just disbelief that just someone who had their whole life set out for him, and whole life ahead of him that could even fathom to do something like this. As far as - I mean, I don't know if he thinks that by targeting girls on Craigslist that somebody's not gonna come forward. But I feel that if I wouldn't have come forward, he'd still be on the streets.

QUESTION: And you did come forward immediately?

LEFFLER: Yes.

QUESTION: I mean, you gave a police report. You had no problem identifying who he was. But he might have still been out there, if someone wasn't killed, don't you think? I mean, do you have any speculation about that?

LEFFLER: I had a good possibility that they were working on the case before she had gotten murdered. 'Cause they were working with me on the case before that happened.

QUESTION: So, you think he would've been caught?

LEFFLER: Yes.

QUESTION: So, you think the police took your case seriously?

LEFFLER: Yes.

QUESTION: Tell me a little bit about why you felt that the police took it?

LEFFLER: The next day after, after the robbery, they did - they had me down at the police station, looking at photos already, and going through phone numbers in my phone, calling my bank to see if my bank card had been used. And also, calling my phone company to see if I could get the phone records.

QUESTION: You were clearly the victim in this case, but obviously you've learned some important things from all this. Do you have a warning out there for anyone? Or anything you'd want to say?

LEFFLER: Just, I mean, trust your instincts. Obviously, my instinct was this guy was good. But not all money's good money.

QUESTION: I mean, you had a lot of precautions in place. You had a system down, you knew that you had indicators. You had alert signs that you - you took that - would send off signals whether someone could be trusted or not. Philip Markoff kind of met those initial signals. I mean, he didn't - it didn't work this time. Is there something that can be said for that, or not really?

LEFFLER: Not really at this point. I mean, other girls that are on Craigslist, I mean, we all have our own screening process. I mean, obviously, some people need to be screened a little bit more than others, so.

QUESTION: Anything else that you think is really important for you to say? Is there anything else you really want to get across? I mean, this is your time.

LEFFLER: Basically, I just want to say that. I mean, I'm glad that he's behind bars, and I'm glad that I came forward with my story because I feel that if I didn't, he would still be out there possibly hurting other people. And it might have escalated into more than just what it did. And just I'm gonna be there to help through the whole thing.

QUESTION: And they just want me to ask one last question. In your words, how would you describe what you do for a living. And what you were anticipating happening that night in your words?

LEFFLER: It was just to put - I don't - I don't feel comfortable answering that question.

QUESTION: What are your plans with your Craigslist ad, and what's happening with your Craigslist ad right now?

LEFFLER: Nothing. I'm not gonna be advertising on Craigslist anymore. Don't want to go through this again.

QUESTION: What do you want to do now for a living?

LEFFLER: I don't know. Probably going to go back to school.

QUESTION: What would you like to do?

LEFFLER: No idea yet.

QUESTION: Do you have aspirations to do something in the future?

LEFFLER: I don't know. I'm kind of taking it one day at a time right now.

Philip Markoff

Suspected 'Craigslist Killer' Philip Markoff tells family 'forget about me'

BY Tracy Connor
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Updated Saturday, April 25th 2009, 10:51 AM

Senne/AP

Susan Haynes, front, and Richard Markoff, left, parents of accused Craigslist killer Philip Markoff are escorted by police as they arrive to visit their son in jail in Boston, Friday April 24.

Warga/News

Markoff at a college party while he was attending SUNY Albany, in 2005. He reportedly told family members to 'forget about me.'

Marino for News

Markoff's fiancee Megan McAllister has dinner with family and visitors in her Little Silver, N.J. home this week following his arrest

A day after trying to hang himself in jail, accused Craigslist killer Philip Markoff reportedly told relatives to "forget about me" - and suggested they haven't heard the worst.

"There is more coming out," the med student-turned-murder suspect told his brother Jonathan and sister-in-law Deanna at the Boston lockup, the Boston Herald reported Saturday.

"Move to California," Markoff advised the couple during the emotional sit-down Friday afternoon, a jail source told the paper.

The encounter came a day after Markoff, 23, was put on suicide watch because jail officers found shoelace marks around his neck.

He's now in the jail's psychiatric unit, constantly monitored by video camera and checked on by three guards, sources told the Daily News.

He also traded in his jail jumpsuit for a heavy smock called a Ferguson that is designed to stop inmates and mental patients from hurting themselves.

His parents, Richard Markoff and Susan Haynes, came to Boston from upstate New York to visit him Friday, followed by Jonathan Markoff and his wife.

"Philip's brother and sister-in-law both are very happy they had a chance to see him," defense lawyer John Salsberg said. "They love him dearly. They continue to remain very supportive to him."

A SUNY-Albany grad who was attending Boston University medical school, Markoff is charged with murdering Manhattan masseuse Julissa Brisman in a Boston hotel.

He's also accused of robbing hooker Trisha Leffler and is expected to be charged in the botched stickup of a stripper in a Warwick, R.I., hotel.

"He didn't look like he had any other tendencies, other than just spend a little time and leave," Leffler said.

But as soon as they entered the room, Markoff pounced, she said.

"I had closed the door, I had turned around, and he was standing just inside the door. ... That's when he pulled out the gun," Leffler said.
She said she had agreed to meet Markoff and arranged a $200 payment after he contacted her through a number she listed on a Craigslist ad.

Their meeting took place just days before he allegedly killed Brisman in another Boston hotel.

The 29-year-old said he told her to get on the floor, where he put a knee in the middle of her back and tied her hands.

"I was basically saying, "You don't have to do all this. You don't have to tie me up. ... You know, I'll give you anything you want."

He grabbed her purse and went straight for the cash. He then rifled through it, pulling out credit cards and demanding their PIN numbers.

She said he also fumbled around with her cell phone, trying to delete his phone number from the call record.

"I actually was asking him if I could do it for him, because I just wanted him to leave. But he was like, 'No., I'll take care of it. I got it,'" she said.

Then as he was ready to leave, he started glancing around the room.

"And he picked up a pair of my underwear that were on the floor and put them in his pocket," she said.

tconnor@nydailynews.com

With Tanyanika Samuels

From the NYT the following:

Details, but Little Insight, on Craigslist Killing Suspect

By ABBY GOODNOUGH, NATE SCHWEBER and JAVIER C. HERNANDEZ

Published: April 28, 2009

This article was reported by Abby Goodnough, Nate Schweber and Javier C. Hernandez, and written by Ms. Goodnough.

BOSTON — An eviction notice hangs on Philip

Markoff’s door at the apartment complex where he lived with his fiancée, and the medical school where he took the Hippocratic oath has suspended him indefinitely.

Mr. Markoff’s wedding is now officially delayed, too: his fiancée’s family canceled the B-Street Band, hired to play Bruce Springsteen hits at the beachfront reception on Aug. 14, its lead singer said Monday.

But while Mr. Markoff’s seemingly normal life has crumbled in the week since his arrest on charges of killing one woman and robbing another at gunpoint after meeting them through Craigslist, hints have been slow to emerge as to why he might have committed the crimes.

“What has been portrayed and leaked to the media is not the Philip Markoff that I know,” said Megan McAllister, his fiancée, in a statement released Monday through her lawyer. “To me and my family, he is a loving and caring person.”

But contrary to statements she made last week, Ms. McAllister did not assert that Mr. Markoff had been “set up.”

Pressed for details of his character, friends and acquaintances have described a young man who was competitive but not cutthroat, politically opinionated but not confrontational, nerdy but not painfully so.

Though he grew up middle class and had planned a costly wedding, Mr. Markoff, 23, was poor enough to have the court appoint him a lawyer after his arrest, according to a court document. A probation officer who signed the document reported that Mr. Markoff, who has pleaded not guilty, said he received no financial support from his parents and was “essentially living off” $130,000 in student loans.

The tuition at Boston University Medical School, where he was in his second year, is $45,000.

Mr. Markoff grew up outside Syracuse, in Sherrill, population 3,150. A welcome sign boasts it is “the smallest city in New York State.”

He was a child of divorce who lived with his mother, Susan, after the breakup while his older brother, Jon, eventually went to live with their father, Richard, a dentist. Both parents remarried; Mr. Markoff’s mother had a baby girl with her new husband in 1991, when Mr. Markoff was 5.

Mr. Markoff’s stepfather, Gary Carroll, worked as a banker, said a neighbor, Dorothy Guider. Mr. Carroll once worked at a toy store over the Christmas holidays, Mrs. Guider said.

Mr. Markoff’s mother, a doll collector, did not work during his childhood, but later worked in the gift store of the Turning Stone casino outside town.

“Every little bit helped,” Mrs. Guider said, adding that she had no idea that the mother’s second marriage had broken up until she saw her selling off her doll collection at her own garage sale.

Several former teachers said Mr. Markoff had shown no signs of emotional turmoil. He was a model student, said Sonja Hluska, a former teacher.

A bowling alley was the biggest draw for teenagers, and Mr. Markoff was avid enough to practice there daily. He was so intent on being a good bowler that, unsatisfied with the grip, he had his bowling ball redrilled.

“Everything had to be just so,” said one childhood friend.

Ms. Hluska said that high school students in Sherrill looked forward to turning 18 so they could gamble at the nearby casino. Mr. Markoff, whom several friends remembered as an exuberant poker player, would round up members of his bowling team after a match and say, “ ‘Let’s go to the casino,’ ” said Jessica Scheuerman, 22, who was a year behind Mr. Markoff at Vernon-Verona-Sherrill High School.

Later, at the University at Albany, Mr. Markoff was a member of the College Republicans, and traveled to Washington in 2004 to hear speeches by Ann Coulter and Karl Rove.

“We were surrounded by such a left-wing student body, and he was more like me: he didn’t really share those sentiments,” said one classmate, Jonathan Zierler, who said he had accompanied Mr. Markoff on the trip. “He was a traditionalist as far as things like men and women’s roles in society. He was a throwback from a more conservative era.”

Mr. Zierler could not remember Mr. Markoff’s ever having a girlfriend until he met Ms. McAllister in his sophomore year at Albany, when they volunteered in an emergency room.

Mr. Markoff graduated summa cum laude in 2007 with a degree in biology. His hard work in college paid off, and he was accepted at the Boston University School of Medicine, where 11,000 applicants compete for 150 slots.

On a handsome brick campus in Boston’s trendy South End, Mr. Markoff more or less blended in, several classmates said.

“He seemed like the rest of us in med school,” Shanna Rone, a classmate, wrote in an e-mail message, “making ends meet with some skeletons in the closet ... nothing out of the ordinary.”

Another classmate, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Mr. Markoff “was pretty passive.” The classmate added: “He seemed a pretty chill guy. He seemed to be definitely smarter than other students.”

In Quincy, Mass., Mr. Markoff and Ms. McAllister paid $1,400 a month for a one-bedroom apartment at Highpoint, an upscale complex with a pool and a clubhouse for social gatherings.

But Mr. Markoff apparently did not spend much time socializing; several neighbors said he was rarely home and when he was, he would say a quick hello before locking the door behind him.

In Ms. McAllister’s statement Monday, which her lawyer, Robert Honecker Jr., read outside her parents’ home in Little Silver, N.J., she said she would continue to support Mr. Markoff, emphasizing that he was innocent until proven guilty.

“I just can only hope that the criminal justice system will not be overwhelmed and persuaded by what is being put forth in the media,” she said. “My fiancé’s fate should not rest in the court of public opinion, but rather in a court of law.”

Abby Goodnough and Javier C.. Hernandez reported from Boston, and Nate Schweber from Sherrill, N.Y. Coleen Dee Berry and Caren Chesler contributed reporting from Little Silver, N.J., and Katie Zezima from Boston.

Julissa Brissman and Philip Markoff

A Markov process, named after the Russian mathematician Andrey Markov, is a mathematical model for the random evolution of a memoryless system, that is, one for which the likelihood of a given future state, at any given moment, depends only on its present state, and not on any past states.

In a common description, a stochastic process with the Markov property, or memorylessness, is one for which conditional on the present state of the system, its future and past are independent^[1].

Often, the term Markov chain is used to mean a Markov process which has a discrete (finite or countable) state-space. Usually a Markov chain would be defined for a discrete set of times (i.e. a discrete-time Markov Chain)^[2] although some authors use the same terminology where "time" can take continuous values.^[3] Also see continuous-time Markov process.

Contents [hide] 1 Formal definition 2 Markovian representation

Craigslist killer Philip Markoff and victim Julissa Brissman led secret lives

BY Patrice O'Shaughnessy
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Sunday, April 26th 2009, 1:05 AM

Garfinkel/Pool

Accused 'craigslist killer' Philip Markoff stands during his arraignment in Boston Municipal Court.

Mark Pines

Markoff is charged with the murder of Julissa Brisman.

Their lives intersected in the anonymous fog of the Internet, tailor-made for a young woman who made a living meeting strangers in hotels and a man looking for easy victims.

Julissa Brisman was from the upper West Side, a beautiful aspiring actress whose tough life drove her to drink and to a shadowy job offering massages on craigslist.

Philip Markoff is clean-cut, studying to be a doctor, and planning a dream wedding with his college sweetheart. Police say he also had a secret life, robbing and brutalizing women he met on craigslist.

Their shadow worlds came to light when she was shot dead in a posh Boston hotel and he was arrested as the "Craigslist Killer."

All who knew them were shocked, but looking back, there clearly were some signposts along their disparate journeys to that fateful moment 12 nights ago in Boston.

***

Brisman, who would have turned 26 on Friday, lived on W. 107th St., just outside Central Park, and had a younger sister she doted on.

She was 5-feet-5, had shimmering blond hair. A photo of her on a Web site about cell phone safety shows her with pale pink pouting lips, her almost-golden eyes giving a sultry look.

"Vivacious," "fun," "hardworking," they all said of her.

Markoff, 23, is a tall, blond, Abercrombie & Fitch type. He was raised in an upstate town, Sherill, near Syracuse. His father is a dentist and his mother worked in a casino shop. He has an older brother, Jon.

Markoff excelled in Vernon-Verona-Sherrill High School, where he was on the bowling and golf teams, and was an honors student who liked poker.

"Polite," "clean-cut," "kind," "funny," they all said about him.

When Markoff was shining in high school, Brisman was 19, a sales associate in Macy's Herald Square. She was arrested in June 2002 for stealing $3,700 in merchandise from Macy's. Cops say she falsely credited her store account for returned items and used the bogus credits to buy other things. Brisman apparently did not serve any time for this.

Markoff graduated from high school in 2004 and went to SUNY Albany to study biology. In 2005, he revealed juvenile subterfuge, and a disturbing roughness to fellow student Morgan Houston.

Houston said that before their cram sessions, Markoff would study for hours. He was a better student than she, but pretended he didn't know the material so he could spend time with her.

He frightened her once by grabbing her, shoving her against a wall on campus and trying to kiss her as they walked on campus late at night.

"I couldn't physically get him off of me," Houston told the Daily News. "Thankfully, he wasn't on top of me." A male student passing by pulled him off her.

In 2006, Brisman's life took another downward detour. She was arrested and spent six days in Rikers Island. The case is sealed and no information is available on why she was jailed.

Everything was falling into place for Markoff. He met his fiancée, Megan McAllister, when they worked at the Albany Medical Center emergency room. He graduated from SUNY in 2007 and entered Boston University School of Medicine.

That year, Brisman found some fame by making a public service ad for the Near Ear Foundation on the dangers of distraction when talking on a cell phone while walking down the street.

Last May, Markoff and McAllister got engaged. He proposed on a horse-drawn carriage ride in Connecticut. They enjoyed gambling at Foxwoods Resort.

They posted a bridal registry online, listing Vera Wang wine goblets, sterling silver picture frames and Emerilware pots and pans. On the Knot Web site they announced they'd marry on a Jersey Shore beach on Aug. 14.

A lab partner who worked closely with Markoff at Boston University would later tell reporters she was troubled by his profound mood swings.

Brisman battled alcohol abuse, and then enrolled in a two-year City College program to become a drug and alcohol counselor.

In January, a friend said, she did a photo shoot in a pink bikini for a tanning salon ad. She also worked on music videos.

Another friend said she had been paid $1,000 to fly to private parties in Chicago and strut in a bikini or topless; eye candy, nothing more. Brisman used some of the money to buy her teenage sister a computer.

***

Three weeks ago, a cousin of Brisman says, the aspiring actress told her mother, Carmen Guzman, she was going to Boston to meet a medical student she had met on the Internet.

"My aunt was like 'You better be careful, because people who are on the Internet are sometimes bad people,'" the cousin told a reporter.

On April 10, a 29-year-old Las Vegas woman, Trisha Leffler, who also advertised as a masseuse on craigslist, was attacked at the Boston Westin Copley hotel. She later identified Markoff as the man who bound her with plastic ties and robbed her.

Two days later, on April 12, Markoff was gambling at Foxwoods. Two days after that, he returned to Boston, to meet Brisman in a 20th-floor room at the posh Marriott Copley Place, arranged by e-mails, cops say.

He allegedly bludgeoned her and shot her three times and left her in a pool of blood.

The next day a friend of Brisman's looked at Brisman's e-mail account and saw messages from a man Brisman was scheduled to see the night before for a massage. The friend immediately forwarded the e-mail to detectives.

On April 16, it was another night of gambling at Foxwoods, with Markoff winning $5,300.

That same night, he is suspected of an attempted robbery in the Warwick, R.I., Holiday Inn Express of a woman who had posted a craigslist ad as a stripper. She was held at gunpoint before her husband entered the hotel room and her attacker fled.

Last Saturday, Boston cops pinpointed the physical location of the computer used to send the e-mail to Brisman - the luxury towers in Quincy, Mass., where Markoff lives with his betrothed.

On Monday, cops staked out his building, and saw Markoff and McAllister leave. They were headed to Foxwoods. Cops pulled them over on I-95 and arrested him.

***

Brisman's friends said they didn't know she had a secret life.

"What we know is that Miss Brisman was advertising masseuse services on craigslist," said Boston police spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll.

McCallister insisted her fiancée could not hurt a fly.

On Tuesday, Markoff pleaded not guilty to Brisman's murder. Evidence mounted: cops found a gun, duct tape, and plastic restaints in his apartment, along with panties reportedly from the victims stuffed in a copy of a "Gray's Anatomy" textbook.

Some speculate the motive for the attacks was to finance his gambling habit, but Vernon Geberth, a former NYPD homicide investigator and expert on sexual murders, doesn't buy the gambling theory. "He's a sexual predator, no matter what they say."

***

They are linked in the virtual world forever, their lives laid bare to millions.

Last Wednesday, a new Facebook group called "Phil Markoff is Innocent Until Proven Guilty" was launched, to rally against the media "that has forgotten that people like Phil are suspects, not killers."

Markoff is shown in a red high school graduation gown, holding a red mortarboard, with a neat haircut, tinted eyeglasses, posed against a puffy cloud-dotted sky.

The Near Ear Fundation's Web site featured a memorial page with an almost inappropriately sexy photo of Brisman. Her hair is tousled, her doe eyes peer over her bare shoulder. A videographer she worked for wrote a poem about killers.

Markoff's and McAllister's Knot Web page noted, "114 days to go!"

That same day, in the real world, Markoff sat behind bars in a Boston jail - and Brisman's mother cried in the Ortiz Funeral Home in Washington Heights.

poshaughnessy@nydailynews.com

source: Daily News

A gorgeous New York model who doubled as an Internet masseuse was shot dead

What if for some bizarre twist of circumstances -and apocalyptic distortions- this strange and terrible event could somehow be linked to literature-fantastic literature to be sure- and connected to impersonal political forces beyond the grasp of the individuals involved, making them more like marionettes on a weird stage. More specifically, connected to an arbitrary paragraph of Joseph Conrad's short story : A Point of Honor (The Duel)? Now that would be the very Heart of Darkness!!!! Wouldn't it? How about this one? :

"On these grounds an encounter with duelling-swords was arranged one early morning in a convenient field. At the third set-to Lieut. D'Hubert found himself lying on his back on the dewy grass with a hole in his side. A serene sun rising over a landscape of meadows and woods hung on his left. A surgeon -- not the flute player, but another -- was bending over him, feeling around the wound."

Source: NY Daily News

Craigslist date with murder for N.Y. beauty Julissa Brisman, model & Internet masseuse shot in hotel

BY Sarah Armaghan, Kerry Burke and Dave Goldiner
DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Thursday, April 23rd 2009, 3:31 PM

A gorgeous New York model who doubled as an Int

ernet masseuse was shot dead at a posh Boston hotel - and cops think her killer struck before.

Julissa Brisman, 26, was killed at the plush Marriott Copley Place hotel, apparently by a man who answered her ad on craigslist, police said.

A woman who came to the door of the Brisman family apartment on W. 107th St. said only, "Oh my God, Julissa ... she's dead. It's terrible. We are in pain."

Friends said Brisman's mom, Carmen, repeatedly screamed, "Somebody killed my daughter," when cops notified her. She was in Boston last night to identify the body.

"It's tragic," said Matthew Terhune, 34, a Queens photographer and friend. "It [stinks] that someone so young and so pretty could be killed like that."

The deadly drama unfolded when fellow hotel guests heard screams from her room on the 20th floor of the downtown hotel.

She was found lying in a pool of blood, with several bullet wounds and a plastic "restraint" on one wrist, cops said. A massage table was set up inside the 20th-floor room.

Brisman was rushed to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

Hotel surveillance video captured images of a young, clean-cut looking man with blond hair whom cops called a suspect.

Cops think the same man robbed a prostitute a few days before at a nearby hotel.

Police don't know if Brisman was selling sex or just rubdowns in the hotel room.

"What we know is that Miss Brisman was advertising masseuse services on craigslist," said Boston police spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll.

Pals said Brisman was an aspiring actress who did a public service ad for cell phone safety. She also worked on music videos and other photo shoots, gave her mom part of her earnings and bought school books for her 14-year-old sister.

Photographer Mark Pines, who knew Brisman for six years, insisted she was offering "straight massage, that's all. It was all legit."

He also rejected speculation she died resisting a thief.

"She wouldn't have resisted robbing her. It wasn't in her nature. She would have just given up the money."

"This is a horrible tragedy," he said. "I hope other girls with stars in their eyes learn from this. She was open and trusting, but it led to her death."

Other friends said they didn't know Brisman was working as a masseuse or advertising online.

Toya Mickens, 24, said she only knew that Brisman, whom she called "a very sweet girl," went out of town "all the time."

"I saw her Sunday night after she came home after walking her dog. She was on her way out with her luggage. She said she was going to Boston."

Terhune last saw Brisman in January when she did a sexy photo shoot in a pink bikini for a tanning salon ad campaign.

Brisman, a slim blond with a Playboy bunny tattoo on her hip, told him she had been paid $1,000 to fly out to private parties in Chicago and walk around in a bikini or topless.

"I don't think it went beyond that," Terhune said. "They were just parties where guys wanted to see hot girls."

Alleged 'Craigslist Killer' Philip Markoff pal, Morgan Houston, was shocked by his arrest

BY Erica Pearson
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Friday, April 24th 2009, 7:07 AM

AIKEN, S.C. — The moment Morgan Houston saw hotel surveillance pictures of the "Craigslist Killer," she recognized her old college pal, Philip Markoff.

The podiatry student had just gotten a call about Markoff's arrest and "started going into shock," she told the Daily News at her family's South Carolina vacation home.

"I ran downstairs. I woke up my mom and said, 'Mom, can you believe this?'" said Houston, who sat next to Markoff at their graduation from SUNY Albany in 2007.

"We turned on the TV, and the pictures from the security — they look like him. Knowing him, especially if you see his profile, it looks like him. It was Phil."

Houston and Markoff had been friends since sophomore year, fellow members of a pre-med fraternity who ran with the same crowd.

She'd had a few uncomfortable run-ins with him.

He had pinned her against a wall one dark night to kiss her — and had to be pulled away. He made lewd comments about her body. And he showed up at a Halloween party dressed as a mammogram machine, offering free breast exams.

Houston, 23, said she had chalked it up to the drunken antics of a socially awkward young man and remained friends and study buddies with Markoff.

Now that she's heard the allegations against her old pal — that he lured escorts to hotel rooms, robbed them at gunpoint and killed one woman — she wonders if she was wrong to blow off his bad behavior.

"If it is true, if this has been an escalation, maybe that ... was coming out then," she said.

Markoff, 22, has been charged with murder, kidnapping and robbery in the slaying of Manhattan masseuse Julissa Brisman, 25, and the stickup of hooker Trisha Leffler, 29, in Boston.

Cops believe he met the women through craigslist and lured them to hotels so he could rob them to finance a gambling addiction.

When Brisman put up a fight, he bashed her in the head and then shot her three times — once through the heart — police said.

"The crimes are atrocious. They are brutal, and I wouldn't have ever expected something like this from him ... that he could lead a double life like this," Houston said.

Their intimates from SUNY Albany are divided about Markoff's guilt.

"Some people are adamant there's no way he could have done this — it's Phil; he couldn't hurt a fly," Houston said.

"And then there's other people that have seen bits and glimpses, and the memories are coming back ... and it is putting doubt in their minds," she said.

"I had really passed that situation out of my mind," she said of the night during sophomore year when the 6-foot preppie overpowered her on the way home from a bar.

Instead, what she recalled most vividly was how anxious Markoff was about his future in his last year at SUNY Albany, as he waited to find out which med schools had accepted him.

"I remember when he was worried about getting into BU. He was so worried. He didn't think he would get in," she said.

"He got in and he was ecstatic; he was so happy about this, and to think that he would risk it, if this is true. ..."

epearson@nydailynews.com

Slain masseuse Julissa Brisman once worked for madam Kristin Davis

BY George Rush and Rich Schapiro
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Sunday, April 19th 2009, 2:11 AM

worked for madam Kristin Davis

BY George Rush and Rich Schapiro
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

Sunday, April 19th 2009, 2:11 AM

Julissa Brisman was found inside a luxury Boston hotel room Tuesday, her body riddled with bullets.

Roca/News

Notorious madam Kristin Davis says that the murdered craigslist masseuse used to work for her.

Related News

Articles

• Craigslist's masseuse found dead in posh Boston hotel
• Web date with murder for N.Y. beauty shot dead in hotel
• Craigslist killer suspected in new attack

The gorgeous Manhattan masseuse murdered in Boston by the craigslist killer once worked for one of the city's most notorious madams, the Daily News has learned.

Two years before Julissa Brisman began offering sexy body rubs online, she reported to "Manhattan Madam" Kristin Davis, the busty bottle blond whose black book is said to be one of the largest in the business.

"She was a good kid, but kind of a nightmare," Davis told The News on Saturday. "She had a bad drinking problem. We rescued her a couple of times from a bar where she hung out when she was supposed to be working.

"I kept giving her second chances," the madam added. "She'd come back and promise she was sober."

Brisman's friends say she stopped drinking last year and has been attending AA meetings ever since.

Davis insisted that over the year and a half she booked dates for Brisman, the stunning 26-year-old model used the name "Stacey."

Brisman offered only sensual body rubs and wasn't selling sex, said the madam, on probation for five years after pleading guilty to promoting prostitution and serving three months in jail.

"She didn't do escorting," Davis said.

Brisman's bullet-riddled body was found inside a luxury Boston hotel room Tuesday.

Cops believe Brisman was lured to the Marriott Copley Place hotel by a cold-blooded killer who may have used craigslist to assault two other women.

The suspect, a 6-foot-tall, clean-cut white man with blond hair, was captured on video as he coolly walked through the hotel lobby on the night Brisman was gunned down.

Cops suspect he also tied up and attempted to rob an exotic dancer at gunpoint in a Rhode Island hotel Thursday night. In that attack, the 26-year-old victim was saved when her husband burst into her room at the Holiday Inn Express and the man fled.

The suspect may also have assaulted a Boston hooker last week, before the Brisman slaying; an attack also targeted via craigslist, cops said.

Such craigslist-fueled violence is no surprise to Davis, who said that several young women who offer sexual services online have come to her with tales of horror.

Some online stalkers even impersonate cops and force the women to hand over their cash in the face of "arrest," the former madam said.

"If they hit the girls at the right time," Davis said, "they may come away with $1,000."

rschapiro@nydailynews.com

JuLissa Brisman's current MySpace profile is private, but back in May of 2008 it was still public. That was when it was indexed by MySpaceProfiles.org [copy of the page here] a site that scans the social network and condenses info from profiles onto a single, shorter web page without all the browser-freezing MySpace "pimpage."

So, in May of last year, Brisman described herself as "A TruE BoRN and RaiSeD ManHaTTan HoTTiE FiNaLLy GeTTin a H0Ld oF ThiS W0nDeRFuL ThiNg We caLL LIFE!!!! : )"

She was also clear about her primary interests:

ACTiNG..I live it..I breathe it-it's my Passion!, FasHion ShowS (and shopping after!!),Broadway Shows,CoNcErTs,I LoVe "SeXy TimEz"~ Hanging out and spoiling my GorGe0uS d0g CoCo ChAnEL!! He's the Man of my life!!oh ya!! lol TraveLing and HavIng Fun absolutly any single place I go ALL oveR the WoRLD!!, dancing, TaNNiNg,WoRkIng OuT, LuVV GoiNg 2 the beaCh, "SERENiTY",Loving to PUNK ppl with mY FriEndZ!! LOL!!HangiNg 0uT w/ my LiL SiS MeLissa!! We are sum CrazY LiL things when 2gether!! Heh,heheh!!, People who don't judge and they are there for you WHEN YOUR LIFE GETS WAAAAY OUT OF HAND!! , My Hilarious FrienDZ & FaM who Laugh At all my TacKy and CorNy Jokes!!! ~ KiSSeS~~

Brisman loved the movies Juno and 40 Year Old Virgin and listed among her favorite books Uta Hagen's Respect for Acting and Challenge for the Actor.

Brisman wrote that her heroes were "Sarah Jessica Parker & Marilyn Monroe," and she quoted Monroe: "I have too many fantasies to be a housewife, I guess I am a fantasy..."

Angels fans gathered at the crash site and in front of the stadium

Pitcher’s Death Stuns Angels and Baseball

By PAUL OBERJUERGE

Published: April 9, 2009 ANAHEIM, Calif. — Only a few hours after the most promising performance of his major league career, Nick Adenhart, a 22-year-old pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, was one of three people killed early Thursday when the car they were traveling in was struck by a vehicle driven by a suspected drunken driver.

Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press

Adenhart threw six scoreless innings in Wednesday night's loss to Oakland in his fourth major-league start. The accident occurred early Thursday morning.

Adenhart was a passenger in a Mitsubishi Eclipse that was broadsided by a minivan whose driver had run a red light, the police said. The crash occurred about five miles from Angel Stadium in Fullerton, about 25 miles south of Los Angeles.

The Angels postponed their scheduled game Thursday night with the Oakland Athletics. “It is a tragedy that will never be forgotten,” Angels Manager Mike Scioscia said.

Major League Baseball called for a moment of silence before every game Thursday. Late Thursday, the Angels had not announced plans for an observance before their home game Friday night with the Boston Red Sox. Players met with coaches at 3 p.m., then left the stadium without speaking to reporters.

Adenhart, a right-hander, pitched six scoreless innings against the Athletics on Wednesday night, giving up seven hits and three walks but working out of several tight situations. After the game, Adenhart told reporters he felt “just a lot more relaxed, self-confident.”

Adenhart’s father, Jim, watched his son pitch in his fourth major league appearance and first since May 2008, when he had three rocky outings. Scott Boras, Adenhart’s agent, said Adenhart called his father in Maryland on Tuesday and asked him to fly to Southern California.

“He summoned his father the day before and he said, ‘You better come here because something special’s going to happen,’ ” Boras said.

Boras said that he and Jim Adenhart spoke with Nick Adenhart after the game and that the pitcher was “elated” with his performance. “He felt like a major leaguer,” Boras said, choking back tears.

Adenhart, a native of Silver Spring, Md., was considered the top pitching prospect in the Angels organization. He had a strong spring, but he might have opened the season with the club’s Class AAA affiliate in Salt Lake City had not the veteran pitchers John Lackey and Ervin Santana sustained injuries.

At a news conference at Angel Stadium on Thursday, Kevin Hamilton, a lieutenant with the Fullerton Police Department, identified the driver of the minivan as Andrew Thomas Gallo, 22, of Riverside, Calif. Hamilton said the police believe Gallo was “driving under the influence” and had a previous arrest on that charge. Hamilton said Gallo might also have been driving with a suspended license.

Hamilton said Gallo would be booked on charges of felony hit and run, felony driving under the influence, vehicular manslaughter and could “potentially be booked for murder.” Gallo will be arraigned Monday, Hamilton said.

Also killed in the crash were Courtney Frances Stewart, 20, of Diamond Bar, Calif., who the police said was driving the Mitsubishi, and Henry Pearson. The fourth person inside the Mitsubishi, Jon Wilhite, was hospitalized, as was an unidentified passenger in the minivan.

Tony Reagins, general manager of the Angels, said Adenhart had matured rapidly since joining the organization. “Nick was an outstanding player but also a tremendous person,” Reagins said. “Many phone calls to our players and coaches, the fact of disbelief is just prevalent. We all are in shock. Obviously, watching him last night when he did so well, such a bright future, such a bright kid. We will miss him.”

Darren O’Day, a pitcher with the Mets, spent most of the 2008 season with Adenhart in Salt Lake City, where they became close friends. O’Day said he spoke with Adenhart on Tuesday.

“I told him congrats for making the team and that I had been watching him all spring training,” O’Day said in Cincinnati. “Last year he had all the talent in the world but couldn’t figure it out. Then he figures it out and six hours later he’s gone.”

Angels fans gathered at the crash site and in front of the stadium, where flowers, pennants, jerseys and the club’s signature rally monkey dolls were piled atop a brick pitching mound on the expansive patio. One poster read, “#34 One More Angel in Heaven.”

Adenhart’s death is the latest episode in the history of a franchise with more than its share of tragedy.

Lyman Bostock, a star outfielder, was shot to death on Sept. 23, 1978, in Gary, Ind., after a game with the White Sox.

Donnie Moore, the relief pitcher who never got over surrendering the home run that cost the Angels a chance at the 1986 American League pennant, shot himself to death in 1989 after seriously wounding his wife. In the 1970s, three Angels — Mike Miley, Chico Ruiz and Bruce Heinbechner — died in separate automobile accidents.

The Angels this season are wearing a patch in honor of Preston Gomez, a special assistant who died in January, less than a year after sustaining head injuries in a car accident. On Monday, a fan died after being assaulted at the Angels’ home opener.

In the past, Angels fans have wondered if the franchise carries a curse. “This brings it all back in one big tidal wave,” said David Silva, who was visiting the crash site in a Garret Anderson jersey. Jeff Anderson, a fan who brought flowers, said he had never heard of any curse and does not believe in one. “This is Southern California,” he said. “There are lots of traffic accidents out here. I’ve had two friends lose their lives in accidents. It’s what happens in this area.”

Billy Witz contributed reporting from Fullerton, Calif., and Ben Shpigel from Cincinnati.

Adenhart tragedy hits childhood friend hard

by Mark Kriegel

Mark Kriegel is the national columnist for FOXSports.com. He is the author of two New York Times best sellers, Namath: A Biography and Pistol: The Life of Pete Maravich, which Sports Illustrated called "the best sports biography of the year."

It took the announcers in Anaheim a few innings to figure out what they were seeing. But David Warrenfeltz, watching the Angels and the A's on his computer back in Hagerstown, Maryland, understood as soon as he saw that first fastball.

He had known Nick Adenhart since tee-ball, been Nick's catcher from Little League through their senior year at Williamsport High. He knew. "The way the ball came out of Nick's hand, it was just different," said Warrenfeltz.

Nick Adenhart, left, and David Warrenfeltz were batterymates from Little League through high school in Maryland. (The Herald Mail / Special to FOXSports.com)

After a couple of times through the A's order, the announcers began to comment on the telltale signs. "They started talking about his late explosive movement," said Warrenfeltz. "That was Nick. He had a two-seamer that would run in on a right-handed hitter."

Adenhart pitched six scoreless innings for the Angels Wednesday night. It was the best start of his young career, and a strong indication that the former phenom had finally recovered from Tommy John surgery. Though the bullpen blew the game, costing Adenhart what should've been his second major-league win, his ex-catcher took solace in the idea that Nick's run was just beginning.

"Five days from now," Warrenfeltz told himself, "he'll get another chance. Once every five days, I'm going to get to watch a whole baseball game."

Warrenfeltz is a senior at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County. He majors in early childhood education and plays catcher on the baseball team. But at the grand old age of 22, he also acknowledges that his athletic career is all but over. "This will be my last year playing baseball," he says.

And knowing that made him just a little more nervous Wednesday night. "The tension," he said. "It felt like I was throwing the next pitch."

David Warrenfeltz wasn't alone, either. It seemed as if the whole Hagerstown area had been talking about Nick since he got called up last season. Everyone they grew up with had become a huge Nick Adenhart fan, even the guys who had hated on him, confusing his confidence for arrogance. (Hey, if you spend your adolescence making your peers look helpless in the batter's box, someone's going to call you arrogant.)

"All of us who played, we were living vicariously through him," Warrenfeltz said Thursday afternoon. "Everybody was like, 'You see Nick? You see Nick pitch?' This is a small area. He was the pride of Hagerstown.

"We all want to play in the major leagues. He got to do it."

Looking back, Warrenfeltz figures the only reason he's still playing is because of Nick. He was an infielder as a young kid. But wherever the aspiring ballplayers of Hagerstown would congregate, they encountered the same problem.

"Who's gonna catch Nick?"

Nick Adenhart, 1986-2009

There weren't many kids who wanted to, and maybe just one who could. "It ended up being my job," said Warrenfeltz.

Even as a Little Leaguer, you could hear Nick's ball, the way it whistled though the air. Then there was another distinctive sound as it met the mitt. If no sound, Nick knew David didn't catch it just right.

"Make it pop," he'd say.

"He wanted that sound," Warrenfeltz recalled. "Even back in Little League."

One didn't just hear Nick's ball, one felt it, too. The catcher remembers an assortment of bruises below his thumb, on the meaty part of his hand.

Then again, David Warrenfeltz figured it was a small price to pay. He caught Nick on their Little League all-star teams and in Pony League, in Legion ball and in high school. Their off days were spent riding bikes, playing video games, touch football and wiffle ball, a veritable wiffle-ball stadium having been constructed in the Warrenfeltz backyard.

By the time they were seniors, back in 2004, Nick had a 95-mph fastball. Baseball America rated him the nation's top prospect, and Williamsport's varsity baseball games had become events. "There was a sea of scouts behind the backstop every start Nick made," says Warrenfeltz.

So it was for the last game of the regular season — Williamsport at South Hagerstown — just a month before the major league draft. But they put down their radar guns during the bottom of the first. Nick was on his third batter when he called his catcher to the mound.

"No more curve balls," he said. "That didn't feel right."

"That was the first time he ever said anything about his arm," recalled Warrenfeltz. "I just had a sick feeling in my stomach."

The pitching prodigy's high school career would last only a few more pitches. The scouts were packing up and getting ready to leave before the inning was over. As one of them told the Washington Post, "We're off to see if the next kid can pitch."

Nick Adenhart fell to the 14th round of the draft, and spent the early part of his professional career recovering from Tommy John surgery. Warrenfeltz recalled that half-moon of scar tissue, about six to eight inches along the inside bend of the elbow. But he can't remember Nick ever complaining about it.

Meanwhile, it was David Warrenfeltz's good fortune to remain in the game. "If it weren't for Nick, and me playing catcher, I probably wouldn't have had a chance to play college baseball," he said.

Warrenfeltz considered texting Nick earlier on Wednesday, but then thought better of it. Nick made three big-league starts last season. It seemed as if everybody in Hagerstown texted or left a voicemail before each one. Nick had to turn off his phone.

So David figured he'd text Nick later. For now, it was enough to watch him.

Thursday morning, his cell kept ringing. Finally, he woke and saw about 10 missed calls. It was his mother who told him that Nick had died in a car wreck. Police say Adenhart was one of three people in a Mitsubishi Eclipse when it was broadsided by a minivan whose driver had run a red light. This was about 12:30 a.m. PST, miles from Angel Stadium.

"Just shock," said Warrenfeltz, when asked how he felt. "It doesn't seem real ... I was looking forward to watching him. We all were. "

We. All the boys from Hagerstown, and everywhere else, who had to grow up.

Their real grieving is yet to come.

Every fifth day.

Special thanks to The Herald-Mail of Hagerstown, Md., for the photo of Nick Adenhart and David Warrenfeltz. For additional perspective on what Adenhart meant to his hometown community,