Lifetime’s made-for-TV movie, “The Craigslist Killer” is based on the chilling and disturbing case that gripped the country in 2009. 

Boston University Medical School student Markoff had a bright future ahead including an upcoming wedding to a wealthy, beautiful pre-med student, Megan McAllister.  It was the perfect life – until he started searching for masseuses on the classfied website, Craiglist.

Markoff was leading a double life – he seemed like he had it all together.  But in reality, a he was a killer.

He was charged with the armed robbery and murder of Julissa Brisman in a Boston, Massachusetts hotel on April 14, 2009, a masseuse he met on Craigslist.   He pleaded not guilty to the charge but he was also charged with robbing another masseuse at gunpoint four days prior to the murder.

Brisman wanted to become a substance abuse counselor, inspired by her own successful battle with alcoholism. She called home to her mother every day while pursuing her studies. The 25-year-old was also pursuing a modeling career when she became Markoff’s target.

The feeling of losing my daughter in this way and the pain she must have felt will haunt me for the rest of my life,” Brisman’s mom, Carmen Guzman, said in a statement released last year before what would have been her daughter’s birthday.

Mcallister, who stood by Markoff when he was arrested for the murders, broke off their engagement in June 2009.  After Markoff was arrested, McAllister had released a statement saying, “To me and my family, he is a loving and caring person and in the eyes of the law and constitution, he is innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Even after his arrest she thought they would still be together saying, “We expect to marry in August and share and wonderful, meaningful life together.”  

But McAllister broke up with Markoff while he was in prison.  Right before Markoff took his own life, he had written her name in blood on the wall of his jail.

The movie, from a book by Michele McPhee, details Phillip and Megan’s life together from the moment they met, until his suicide in jail just before his trial was set to begin, in August 2010.

Where is McAllister now? She is still pursuing a career in medicine and was attending medical school in the Caribbean.