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Detectives with the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office join an investigation inside the Lake Forest subdivision of Tampa, Fla., on Friday, April 24, 2026, where authorities said a man was taken into custody after barricading himself inside a home, in connection to the search for two missing University of South Florida graduate students. (Douglas R. Clifford\/Tampa Bay Times via AP)<\/p>\n
Douglas R. Clifford\/AP<\/p>\n
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) \u2014 A body found in Tampa Bay has been identified as the second missing University of South Florida doctoral student from Bangladesh, a sheriff said Friday.<\/p>\n
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Nahida Bristy\u2019s remains were found Sunday in a garbage bag discovered by a kayaker whose fishing line got snagged, said Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister. The positive identification on the badly decomposed body was eventually made using DNA and dental records, he said.<\/p>\n
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The body of her friend, fellow USF doctoral student Zamil Limon, was in another garbage bag that was found two days before that on a bridge over the bay. Limon\u2019s roommate, Hisham Saleh Abugharbeih, 26, was taken into custody the same day and faces two charges of first-degree murder. He’s been held in jail since then on no bond.<\/p>\n
Chronister said the suspect showed no emotion when investigators presented him with details of the killings.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was nonreactive,\u201d Chronister said. \u201cHe was callous and showed no emotion when we showed him the information we had.\u201d<\/p>\n
The two students were murdered around the same time and place, though detectives need to investigate further before they can decide that conclusively, the sheriff said.<\/p>\n
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The sheriff said detectives didn\u2019t yet know a motive for the killings.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope we find that out,\u201d Chronister said.<\/p>\n
Chronister said content on Abugharbieh\u2019s phone had been erased, but a forensic examination revealed disturbing searches in the days before April 16, when Bristy and Limon went missing. The searches included phrases like, \u201cCan a knife penetrate a skull?” and \u201cCan a neighbor hear a gunshot?\u201d<\/p>\n
The suspect had also purchased Lysol wipes and heavy duty contractor-grade trash bags and other equipment, he said.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThis was calculating. That\u2019s what makes this so premeditated,\u201d Chronister said.<\/p>\n
A search of the apartment that Abugharbieh and Limon shared with a third roommate showed large traces of blood in the kitchen, leading down the hall to Abugharbieh\u2019s room and inside his room, the sheriff said.<\/p>\n
The luminol-based spray even revealed blood in the shape of a human body curled up in the fetal position, next to Abugharbieh\u2019s bed, he said.<\/p>\n
Limon was last seen at the off-campus apartment complex where he lived with Abugharbieh, and Bristy at a campus science building on that same day. Limon was studying geography, environmental science and policy, and Bristy was studying chemical engineering. Abugharbieh had dropped out of the university.<\/p>\n
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Reached by email earlier this week, Jennifer Spradley, an attorney in the public defender\u2019s office in Tampa, said the office wouldn\u2019t comment on Abugharbieh\u2019s case.<\/p>\n
Rebecca Boone in Boise, Idaho contributed to this report.<\/p>\n
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