Craiglist Killer?

CNN Article - Med Student held without bail in possible Craigslist killing

In Boston, MA a 22-year old med student Philip Markoff from Boston University was arrested for killing a woman that he met through a Craigslist ad. Markoff is charged with killing 26-year-old Julissa Brisman of New York on April 14 at Boston's Copley Marriott Hotel. Police said Brisman, a model, advertised as a masseuse on Craigslist, a popular online classifieds service.

Markoff is also charged in connection with the robbery four days earlier of a woman at a Westin Hotel. In that case, the woman made arrangements to meet a man through Craigslist for a massage at the hotel, but was held at gunpoint and bound. She was robbed of $800 and personal items, and left tied to a door handle with duct tape over her mouth.

Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster told CNN the company is "horrified and deeply saddened that our community services have been associated in any way whatsoever with a crime of violence." He promised that Craigslist will evaluate the incident to see if additional measures could be introduced to protect users.

Police traced the Internet communications with Brisman to an e-mail account opened the day before her death. Using Internet provider information, they found the computer was at Markoff's residence. Authorities put the home under surveillance.

This article shows how new media frontiers may lead to new types of crimes and murders. We already know that there is a lot of cyber-crime pertaining viruses and bugs, but this article shows how people can be put into danger by using popular internet websites such as Craigslist.

Also the article shows that using Internet communications makes it a lot easier to track people's actions and thus help solve crimes. By tracking Markoff's e-mail account the Police have a lot more evidence showing that he committed the murder.