{"id":244853,"date":"2026-04-24T15:17:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T15:17:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/244853\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T15:17:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T15:17:13","slug":"missing-usf-students-howard-frankland-bridge-lane-closure-st-pete-crime-scene-tied-to-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/244853\/","title":{"rendered":"Missing USF students: Howard Frankland Bridge lane closure, St. Pete crime scene tied to investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"PREVIOUS <\/p>\n

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The two northbound lanes of the Howard Frankland Bridge were closed Friday morning<\/a> as the investigation into the disappearance of two USF students continues.<\/p>\n

FOX 13\u2019s Evan Axelbank confirmed that the law enforcement activity along the bridge is related to the search for 27-year-old Zamil Limon and 27-year-old Nahida Bristy, who have not been seen since April 16.<\/a><\/p>\n

Axelbank also confirmed that a crime scene on 28th Street North in St. Petersburg is also tied to the missing students’ investigation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

On Thursday evening, the Hillsborough County<\/a> Sheriff\u2019s Office listed the pair as “endangered”, but did not elaborate on why.<\/p>\n

Missing USF students <\/p>\n

The backstory:<\/p>\n

USFPD says Limon, a USF doctoral student pursuing a degree in geography, environmental science and policy, was last seen around 9 a.m. at his home on Avalon Heights Blvd. on April 16.<\/p>\n

Bristy, a USF<\/a> doctoral student studying chemical engineering, was last seen around 10 a.m. on April 16 at the NES Building, 121 USF Sweetgum Lane, on the USF Tampa <\/a>campus.<\/p>\n

Police said a family friend contacted USFPD shortly before 5 p.m. on April 17 after they were unable to contact Limon or Bristy.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

A public information officer with USFPD said the pair, who are both from Bangladesh, are friends and the pair are believed to be together.<\/p>\n

Police said they are not being held by ICE, which was a concern for family members.<\/p>\n

Dig deeper:<\/p>\n

According to investigators, both of their phones are off.<\/p>\n

Investigators also noted that this is not usual behavior for the pair, who are good students.<\/p>\n

FOX 13 asked about surveillance video, social media use, license plate readers, transportation and bank statements. Police say after several days of investigation not leading to the students\u2019 locations, they\u2019re now asking the public for help.<\/p>\n

Search for missing students expands <\/p>\n

The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office has taken over the missing persons investigations. Detectives are searching in Hillsborough and Pinellas Counties.<\/p>\n

The Pinellas County<\/a> Sheriff’s Office confirmed that its forensic unit was called to assist with a Hillsborough County missing persons case. It’s not clear if this case involves the two students.<\/p>\n

Early Thursday evening, investigators confirmed there was a search on Thursday for the two students at Sand Key in Clearwater<\/a>.<\/p>\n

HCSO has been passing out missing persons flyers at doors of homes around the county to aid in the search efforts.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

On Thursday, a spokesperson for the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office said the agency’s forensic unit was requested by the Clearwater Police Department to assist with the Hillsborough County missing persons case, but did not provide additional details.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What we don’t know:<\/p>\n

The circumstances surrounding their disappearance are unknown.<\/p>\n

It is unclear how the lane closures are related to the missing students’ investigation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What you can do:<\/p>\n

Anyone with information on Limon or Bristy\u2019s whereabouts is asked to contact the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office at 813-247-8200.<\/p>\n

The Source: This article was written with information gathered by FOX 13’s Evan Axelbank, the USF Police Department, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office and previous FOX 13 News reports.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pinellas County<\/a>Missing Persons<\/a>University of South Florida<\/a>Hillsborough County<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The two northbound lanes of the Howard Frankland Bridge were closed Friday morning as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[630,47,629,6888,115,1536,1157,202,204,203,199,201,200,628,1537],"class_list":{"0":"post-244853","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-crime-publicsafety","9":"tag-fl","10":"tag-hillsborough","11":"tag-missing-persons","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-organization","14":"tag-pinellas","15":"tag-st-pete","16":"tag-st-pete-headlines","17":"tag-st-pete-news","18":"tag-st-petersburg","19":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","20":"tag-st-petersburg-news","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usf"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}