Murder victim Julissa Brisman, 26, of New York City (Facebook.com)
Posted: Friday, 17 April 2009 3:17PM
RI crime similar to 'Craigslist killer's' Boston attacks
Boston (AP/WBZ Newsroom) -- Boston police are following up on more than 150 tips in the case of the so-called Craigslist Killer.
The investigation continues in the case of a man believed to have murdered a young woman offering masseuse services at a Back Bay hotel and attacked another woman four days earlier, while police in Rhode Island said they had a case that might be connected to the two in Boston.
The common element of the two Boston cases -- both young women had advertised their services on the Craigslist Web site -- also appeared to figure in the attempted robbery of a woman at a hotel in Warwick, R.I., police said on Friday.
The exotic dancer who was bound and held at gunpoint at a Holiday Inn Express in Warwick by a man who answered her Craigslist ad suggested that her ordeal could be linked to a Boston hotel slaying, police said .
Police said they believe the 26-year-old Las Vegas woman was offering sex for money through the Craigslist posting.
The assailant fled when the victim's husband returned to the room, according to Warwick Police Chief Stephen McCartney
McCartney said that after Thursday's attack in Warwick, "The victim apparently made a statement to police that in her opinion, this situation mirror-imaged what happened up in Boston. I think at the point in time our police responded, nobody was thinking about that."
"There are strong similarities here based on the information that we have, particularly the fact that there is an individual who seems to fit the description of the individual in Boston," he said.
McCartney said he didn't know specifics of the woman's Craigslist ad, but earlier in the day said he had been told she was advertising massage services.
The description of the suspect in Thursday's attack in Rhode Island also matches that of a "person of interest" wanted for questioning in the fatal shooting of 26-year-old Julissa Brisman of New York City at the Marriott Copley Place in Boston on Tuesday night.
And the same person may have been involved in the robbery last week of another Las Vegas woman at the Westin Copley Hotel, Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis said.
The 29-year-old woman had also advertised massage services on Craigslist, the online classified service.
Police in Warwick, just outside Providence and about 60 miles south of Boston, described their suspect as a clean-cut white male, approximately 6-feet tall, 200-pounds, with blond hair, wearing a black coat and blue jeans.
McCartney said his department is working with Boston police, who have surveillance video of their suspect at both the Back Bay hotels where attacks occurred.
His department also has surveillance video from the Warwick hotel, McCartney said, but it was released immediately.
In Thursday's attack, the victim's husband briefly chased the assailant out of the room, but then returned to check on his wife, McCartney said. The woman told police she worked as a dancer at the Cadillac Lounge, a Providence strip club.
McCartney said police believe the woman was offering sex for money, but noted that a loophole in Rhode law allows indoor prostitution and said it may be at least partly to blame for what happened.
He described the woman as "shaken up" but not injured. He said police were not sure why the husband was at the hotel and planned to interview him and his wife again.
"That's an area of inquiry," he said. "It certainly is open to some area of speculation."
Boston police have said that they believe the victim at the Westin was involved in prostitution but that they are uncertain about Brisman.
Brisman's friends said they didn't know she had advertised massage services online.
Matthew Terhune, 34, a photographer from New York City, said he photographed Brisman last year for head shots she needed for a tanning salon.
He said Brisman told him she had been paid $1,000 to fly out to private parties in Chicago and walk around in a bikini or topless. "But I don't think it went beyond that," Terhune said. "They were just parties where guys wanted to see hot girls."
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Boston (AP/WBZ Newsroom) -- Boston police are following up on more than 150 tips in the case of the so-called Craigslist Killer.
"There are strong similarities here based on the information that we have, particularly the fact that there is an individual who seems to fit the description of the individual in Boston," he said.
McCartney said his department is working with Boston police, who have surveillance video of their suspect at both the Back Bay hotels where attacks occurred.
