Apartment Choice

Saying they were there to do work, the four talked their way inside the apartment. They walked around, as if inspecting the place, but provided only vague answers to the residents’ questions before one stranger turned to the others. “Do you want to do this now or another time?” he asked. “I’m ready,” another said. With that, they attacked — the beginning of 11 terrifying hours for a family tied up and held captive overnight in their Silver Spring , Md., apartment, according to court documents filed in Montgomery County. Police say five intruders entered this Silver Spring apartment building Aug . 1 and held a family captive all night. The family was targeted, police say, because at least one of the intruders knew that a woman at the apartment worked at a check- cashing store; holding her at knifepoint, the intruders demanded she turn over store keys and an alarm code. On Monday, the final suspect charged in the home invasion — the four initial attackers allegedly were join...

An eviction notice hangs on the door of the Boston-area apartment the accused "Craigslist Killer" shared with his fiancee until his arrest last week on murder and robbery charges. Former Boston University medical student Philip Markoff , 23, is in jail for allegedly using Craigslist to lure women selling erotic services to hotel rooms, then robbing them at gunpoint to feed a gambling habit. Markoff is charged with killing one of the women, 25-year-old New York City masseuse Julissa Brisman , on April 14 when she fought back. He is also accused of robbing another masseuse four days earlier at a different hotel in Boston. Click here for photos. Click here for charges against Markoff. [FindLaw: Commonwealth v. Markoff] And he is suspected in a third attack in Rhode Island on a Las Vegas stripper , who was tied up in a hotel room by a man she met on Craigslist but got away when her husband came in. Authorities say they expect to file charges in that case by week's end. Mark...

On Aug. 9, 2007, Lansing police discovered the beaten body of 46-year-old Debra Renfors in her apartment in the 1000 block of North Washington Street . Renfors was the third woman to be bludgeoned to death in the city in two weeks, and a grim reality was beginning to set in. Det. Sgt. Joey Dionise confronted Captain Ray Hall , giving voice to a fear that had been bubbling for days. “Captain,” Dionise said, ”We have a serial killer. Years later, Hall still remembers the “sinking feeling” that accompanied that moment. Ten years ago this month, Lansing was in the grip of a killer who preyed on single women, using whatever was convenient to murder them, and, in some instances, sexually assaulting them. Before police caught him, he had killed five women in just over four weeks. A sixth woman would survive. Matthew Emmanuel Macon , then 27, was eventually convicted of two of the murders, and the assault of the surviving victim. When detectives got Macon in an interview room, it would take ...