“Craigslist Killer” Philip Markoff’s Last Act Was to Haunt His Ex-Fiancée

Philip Markoff, the "Craigslist Killer," died from suicide in 2010 before standing trial for murder. But he didn't die before leaving a message for his ex-fiancée.

At the time of his death, Markoff was awaiting trial in the murder of Julissa Brisman, a woman whose sensual massage offer he found on Craigslist. Brisman was found dead in a Boston hotel on April 14, 2009. A week later — after investigators found duct tape, wrist restraints, and a semi-automatic handgun in his apartment — Markoff was arraigned for the crime. He was also charged with the robbery of two other women whom he had found on Craigslist.

On Aug. 15, 2010, Markoff died by suicide at Boston's Nashua Street Jail. As ABC News reported at the time, the 24-year-old used a makeshift razor to cut major arteries in his body and stuffed toilet paper down his throat so he couldn't be resuscitated. And apparently, as he bled out, he wrote the first name of his ex-fiacée, Megan McAllister, in blood.

"It was a bloodbath,'' a law enforcement source at the jail. told ABC News. "Her name was in a prominent place in the cell."

McAllister was scheduled to marry Markoff in August 2009, but she broke up with him a week after his arrest. She visited him again that June and told him she wouldn't see him again for "a long period of time, if ever," according to The Associated Press. Markoff's suicide came a day after what would have been his and McAllister's first wedding anniversary.

Suggestions of foul play were quickly dismissed by authorities. "Markoff was alone in his cell, and all evidence collected thus far indicates that he took his own life," Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis and Suffolk County District Attorney Dan Conley said in a joint statement.

Djuna Perkins, an attorney for Brisman's mother, told ABC News Markoff robbed her client of the chance to face him in court. "First, he took their daughter from them, then he denied that opportunity for them," Perkins said. "Many people who deal with homicide never get over it, but the criminal trial allows them to confront the suspect, hear the evidence, and reach some resolution in the case." With Markoff's death, however, Brisman's loved ones likely had even less closure than they would have otherwise.