Julissa Brisman, 26, was shot dead Tuesday night in a posh Boston hotel by a man whom police believe hired her via Craigslist for a massage.
"It appears that the victim engaged in a struggle in the threshold of the hotel room immediately prior to the shooting," read the report from the Boston Police Department.
Brisman's body was riddled with bullets, a plastic "restraint" of some variety was found on her wrist. There was a massage table set up in the room.
The murder is believed to be part of a string of crimes committed by the same man.
A woman was robbed last week at the Westin Copley Place Hotel in Boston and in Warwick, R.I., a woman who advertised her services on Craigslist was tied up with cord and held at gunpoint. She managed to escape when her husband barged into the hotel room and confronted the attacker, the Providence Journal reports.
With the incidents moving closer to Connecticut, police here are warning businesses, particularly hotels, to be on the lookout for a "person of interest." Law enforcement released photos of a young, clean-cut blond man wearing jeans and a dark jacket calmly sending a text message from his phone as he left the hotel.
“Because the path of these incidents appears to be coming south on I-95, we wanted to reach out to you with a copy of the picture of the subject of interest in case someone of similar description and or circumstances appears in one of our hotels,” police said.
Local
The CEO of craigslist, Jim Buckmaster, said in a statement, "There appears to be a psychopath on the loose in the Boston Area, and we will of course do everything in our power to assist law enforcement in apprehending the perpetrator as soon as possible." The company also said its hearts go out to the family and friends of Brisman.
Former FBI profiler Clint Van Zandt told The Today Show that the suspect's identity would probably be uncovered in cyberspace.
"Between cell phone calls, e-mails, he would have traded with the victim, I would guess law enforcement is only a couple of steps behind him right now,” he said. He also said it's likely the man lives in Boston.
