Was Philip Markoff Leading A Double Life?

The world knows Philip Markoff only by his headline nickname, the "Craigslist killer," but to Morgan Houston, he is more than a suspect or a defendant. To her, Markoff was a classmate and a friend - someone she thought she knew.

"I thought he was very nice," she tells 48 Hours Mystery correspondent Richard Schlesinger. "He was dorky, but so many of us are. I mean, I can be a big dork, too. So, you can't hold that against him."

Houston first heard that her college friend had been arrested from another friend on the social networking Web site, Facebook.

"I logged on to Facebook and a girl that I hadn't talked to in about four years sent me a message, a chat message on Facebook, saying , 'Oh my God, Morgan.' And I started freaking out already because what is this girl going to say to me?"

It was the news that Markoff, the same man who just a few years ago was Morgan's classmate in pre-med, was now the nation's most famous murder suspect. When they were at the State University of New York together, Houston says she saw Markoff often.

"He was very intelligent," she says. "He was definitely lacking in some social skills. … It didn't seem like he was always 100 percent comfortable in his own skin."

Houston says she and Markoff were friends, but that was it. That was what she wanted, although she got the feeling Markoff wanted more.

Then, one night when a group of friends went out drinking, she says Markoff saw her to her dorm. She tells Schlesinger that along the way, Markoff cornered her, pushing her against a wall in an attempt to kiss her.

"I was turning my head to the side so he couldn't and I was saying, 'No, Phil. You know, we're just friends. What are you trying to do?' And I was trying to push him away. And he was being forceful," she recalls. "I couldn't physically get him off me… thankfully, one of my very close friends… had come along and he was able to pull him off of me."

Houston says she escaped upstairs, but felt shocked and betrayed by her friend, "…because, you know, I never gave him any signs that, 'Hey, Phil, I like you more than a friend.' It wasn't just the two of us out for drink. A lot of us were out. I was just hurt by it. And I just wanted to forget it. I knew he had a lot to drink that night. And I just was trying to chalk it up to that I just kind of wanted to forget about it."

Being in that situation scared her.

"I had no control. I physically couldn't push him away. And anything like that is always, it's frightening. …you don't know how far they're gonna try - I don't have experience with anything like this… He wasn't listening to me when I was saying no."

When asked if Markoff ever apologized to her, Houston replies, "No, I'm not sure he never mentioned it… it was awkward. I just wanted to forget about it. It wasn't the Phil I knew. The Phil I knew was a nice, easygoing, a little but awkward, but a nice, easy going guy. I chalked it up to the alcohol."

They remained friends, but Houston looks back at that incident now and wonders: Could it have been a sign that Markoff had a secret side?

"If all this turns out that it's proven to be true, then I should have been a lot more frightened than I was," she says.

Dr. Michael Welner has consulted on some of the most complex criminal cases in America.

"As a forensic psychiatrist, I don't hear this as a person living two lives," he tells Schlesinger. "You wanna know what a double life is? A double life is another wife, kids in another town - a different set of friends."

Looking at the evidence, Welner believes Philip Markoff was not leading a "double life." Instead, for some reason still unknown, Welner thinks Markoff suddenly embarked on a crime spree.

"In my professional opinion, I'm seeing an individual who was in school, who was in a stable relationship where there's no previous criminal history. And there are three dramatic crimes in 10 days. That has the hallmark of a spree," Welner says.

If Markoff did attack and kill, what, if anything, could have led him to do it?

"Crime sprees reflect a sudden change in a person from a significant event going on in their lives, where they become unhinged and make a lot of bad choices that can be destructive," Welner explains. "…whatever stressor it was… that has yet to be uncovered."

Prosecutors are investigating whether a gambling problem drove Markoff to murder. But at least from the outside, Markoff was living a normal life. He was raised in Sherrill, a rural community in the middle of New York State.

"Our high school graduating class, to give you a sense, was about 150. So it was sort of a small area, almost to the extent of everybody knows everybody," says Andrew Hookway, who lived down the street from Markoff, has known him since elementary school and considers him a friend.

"Sometimes there's people who stick out as being very… very bully-like. Sometimes there's people who stick out as being very introverted and nerdy. And he was neither of those extremes… he was completely average," he says.

Hookway remembers Markoff being respectful of the girls in his high school. "I don't remember any untoward behavior towards anyone."

It's become almost a cliché of crime reporting - murder suspects just don't come from towns like this. Sherrill is the smallest city in New York State; it's closely knit and in this case, closed off to outsiders inquiring about their most notable native son.

A lot of neighbors didn't want to talk about Markoff out of respect, they say, for his family. But he left a mark here. His Class of 2004 high school year book shows snapshots of a successful life. Markoff was in the National Honor Society, a bowler and he seemed proud of his poker playing skills.

Those snapshots are hard to square with the surveillance photos of a man police say is Markoff.

"It's very hard to, you know, believe in him with all the evidence that's come out," Hookway says, "but I do believe in him."

And so does Markoff's fiancé, Megan McAllister, who sent an e-mail to People magazine. It read, "Philip is a beautiful man inside and out and did not commit this crime. Unfortunately, someone else did and needs to be penalized. Philip was set up."

Under siege by reporters, McAllister and her family have been holed up at their Little Silver, N.J. home. Her father has given the family's only on-camera response to Markoff's arrest.

"She' still confident in Phil, but other than that, we are saying a lot of prayers," James McAllister told reporters on Thursday, April 23, 2009.

But by late Saturday, April 25, there were reports that the wedding was on hold, at least for now.

"If he kept secrets from his fiancé, he's certainly keeping them from us," Welner says.

And if there are secrets, Markoff also kept them from his former neighbors in Sherrill. Even with everything that's come out, there are people here who at least outwardly support him.

"There are some things that have been described as evidence that just don't seem to match up, you know," a Sherrill resident tells 48 Hours Mystery. "Duct tape and zip ties in his apartment. Do you have duct tape in your place where you live? Most people do…to repair things. A lot of the evidence like that seems a little shaky."

Hookway has even started a group on Facebook called "Phil Markoff Is Innocent Until Proven Guilty" and the online group keeps growing.

And what about those surveillance photos at the hotel? Do they look like his friend?

"The surveillance pictures show a probably tall white male with blonde hair. They don't look high-resolution enough to really pin it on Phil Markoff as opposed to many hundreds of thousands of people who might fit that description," Hookway says.

Houston saw the photos and knew that was her old friend. "Your stomach just sinks… to me it looked like him in those pictures," she says. "I can't see anyone doing this, especially someone who's going to be a doctor and do no harm."

There's one more cruel irony in this story. The hospital where Philip Markoff was training to be a doctor - to do no harm - is the same hospital where Julissa Brisman, the woman he is accused of shooting, was taken the night she died.
Produced by Parri Aronofsky and Allen Alter