ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) – A body found in Tampa Bay has been identified as the second missing University of South Florida medical student from Bangladesh, the sheriff said Friday. He described their killing as a “heinous crime.”
Nahida Bristy’s remains were found Sunday in a trash bag found by a boater whose fishing line got tangled, Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said.
A positive identification of the badly decomposed body was eventually made using DNA and dental records, he said.
The body of his friend, also studying medicine at USF, Zamil Limon, was in another trash bag found two days earlier on the bridge over the bay.
Limon’s accomplice, Hisham Saleh Abugharbieh, 26, was taken into custody the same day and has been jailed since then, facing two counts of murder.
Chrronister said that the suspect did not show sympathy when the investigators gave him the details of the murder.
“He wasn’t doing anything,” Chronister said. “He was callous and emotionless when we showed him the information we had.”
The two students were killed at the same time and in the same place, although more investigation is needed before detectives can fully determine that, the sheriff said.
The cause of the killing is still unknown, he said. “I hope we get that.”
The April 16 student disappearances began as separate missing persons cases with the campus police and the sheriff’s office, involving two people involved in the disappearance due to involuntary manslaughter. But investigators quickly realized they were connected, the sheriff said.
The detectives first went to the apartment where Limon lived with Abugharbieh and a third roommate. Another roommate was cooperative while Abugharbieh gave vague and inconsistent answers, the sheriff said.
He had a bandaged finger and arm that had to be stitched. It was enough to make him a ‘person of interest,’ but not deserving of arrest.
They went to interview his roommate again, alone this time, and he told them that Abugharbieh used a large wheelbarrow to take things out of his room to the garbage machine on the night of April 16 and 17.
The first break in the case came when investigators searched the garbage disposal and found Limon’s glasses, his student ID, his wallet and his blood-stained clothes.
The discovery provided law enforcement with enough evidence to obtain a search warrant for the apartment itself and the suspect’s electronics, Chronister said.
A search of the apartment revealed a pool of blood in the kitchen, running down the hall and into Abugharbieh’s bedroom.
A blood test revealed blood in the form of a human body curled up in the child’s bed, near Abugharbieh’s bed, the official said.
Traces of blood were also found on the dashboard of Abugharbieh’s car, Chronister said. Tests would later reveal that it belonged to Bristy.
Investigators believe the bodies were transported to the car in a cart, under cover of darkness, he said.
Using GPS from the suspect’s vehicle and surveillance video from the fire station, investigators determined that Abugharbieh drove to Clearwater and crossed the Tampa Bay Bridge, prompting investigators to begin an extensive search along his route.
Chronister said the contents of Abugharbieh’s phone were wiped, but a forensic examination revealed a disturbing search in the days before Bristy and Limon went missing.
Searches included phrases such as, “Can a knife go through a skull?” and “Can the neighbor hear a gun?”
The suspect also bought Lysol wipes, heavy-duty trash bags and other equipment before April 16, he said.
“This was calculated. That’s what makes this premeditated,” Chronister said.
The police said that the relatives of the victims have been informed.
Limon was studying geography, environmental science and policy, while Bristy was studying chemical engineering. Abugharbieh dropped out of university.
Reached by email earlier this week, Jennifer Spradley, an attorney with the public defender’s office in Tampa, said the office would not comment on Abugharbieh’s case.
