Brisman, according to information released by the Boston Police Department, was found at the Copley Marriott after having been shot three times in the abdomen at close range. She also had been repeatedly struck in the head with a blunt object. The woman had been advertising massage services on Craigslist. In what police said they believe to be a robbery, the victim and assailant struggled in the doorway to a hotel room before Brisman was shot. She was pronounced dead at Boston Medical Center.

Police reported that the murder is connected to an April 10 robbery at the Westin Hotel, which is about two-tenths of a mile from the Copley Marriott and connected to the other hotel by a shopping mall. A 29-year-old woman, who had been advertising "sexual services" on Craigslist, was robbed at gunpoint in her hotel room, according to Wark. The woman was bound with restraints and threatened at gunpoint but escaped serious physical harm, he added.

A were taken by surveillance cameras of a blonde-haired man in both hotels at the time of the incidents.

Wark said whether Markoff can be tied to a similar assault and robbery at the Holiday Inn Express Hotel in Warwick, R.I.