Florida sheriff identifies second missing USF doctoral student found in Tampa Bay

The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office has identified the second of two missing University of South Florida doctoral students from Bangladesh whose bodies were discovered in Tampa Bay, Sheriff Chad Chronister said at a news conference Friday. The identification of Nahida Bristy, a chemical engineering doctoral student, comes after days of investigation into what Chronister described as a calculating, premeditated double homicide.

Bristy’s remains were found Sunday when a kayaker’s fishing line snagged on a garbage bag in the bay, Chronister said. The body was badly decomposed, and positive identification required both DNA analysis and dental records. The body of her friend, Zamil Limon, a doctoral student in geography, environmental science, and policy, had been discovered two days earlier in another garbage bag on a bridge spanning the bay.

Investigation traced the disappearances to a shared apartment

The two students disappeared on April 16, each initially reported as a separate missing-person case — unusual for two individuals Chronister described as responsible and characteristically punctual. Campus police and the sheriff’s office soon determined the cases were connected, he said.

Detectives first visited the apartment Limon shared with Abugharbieh and a third roommate. While the third roommate cooperated, Abugharbieh gave “elusive and inconsistent answers,” Chronister said. He also had a bandaged finger and a cut on his arm that investigators noted should have required stitches. The injuries were enough to designate him a person of interest but fell short of justifying an arrest at that stage.

When investigators interviewed the third roommate alone, he told them Abugharbieh had used a large cart to move items from his room to a trash compactor during the overnight hours of April 16 and 17, Chronister said.

A search of the trash compactor yielded the first significant break: Limon’s glasses, student ID card, wallet, and blood-covered clothing. That evidence provided probable cause for a search warrant covering the apartment and Abugharbieh’s electronic devices.

Blood evidence and forensic searches built the case

Inside the apartment, investigators found large traces of blood in the kitchen, extending down the hallway and into Abugharbieh’s room, Chronister said. A blood-detecting spray revealed an outline of a human body curled in a fetal position next to Abugharbieh’s bed.

Blood traces matching Bristy were later found on the floorboards of Abugharbieh’s car, the sheriff said. Investigators believe the bodies were transported from the apartment to the vehicle using a cart under cover of darkness.

GPS data from the suspect’s car, combined with surveillance footage from a fire station, showed Abugharbieh driving over to Clearwater and across the Tampa Bay bridge, Chronister said. That route prompted an extensive search along the roadway that ultimately led to the discovery of both bodies.

A forensic examination of Abugharbieh’s phone — from which content had been erased — recovered search queries including “Can a knife penetrate a skull?” and “Can a neighbor hear a gunshot?” made in the days before the disappearances. The suspect had also purchased Lysol wipes, heavy-duty contractor-grade trash bags, and other equipment before April 16, Chronister said.

“This was calculating. That’s what makes this so premeditated,” the sheriff said.

When detectives presented Abugharbieh with the details of the killings, he showed no reaction, Chronister said: “He was nonreactive. He was callous and showed no emotion when we showed him the information we had.”

Motive remains unknown

Detectives have not yet established why the students were killed. “I hope we find that out,” Chronister said. The sheriff said the two students were murdered around the same time and in the same location, though additional investigation is needed to reach that conclusion definitively. Abugharbieh had dropped out of the university.

The victims’ relatives have been notified, the sheriff said Friday. Later that afternoon, hundreds of students, faculty, and staff gathered for a vigil on the USF campus. Enlarged photographs of Limon and Bristy were displayed beneath a tall oak tree with a standing spray of white roses placed between them.

Jennifer Spradley, an attorney in the public defender’s office in Tampa, said by email earlier in the week that her office would not comment on the case. Abugharbieh remains in jail on two counts of first-degree murder.