Strange Purchase: The suspect in the Florida case involving two PhD students reportedly bought two unusual items before everything happened

Zamil Limon and Nahida Bristy attended the University of South Florida.
Family of Zamil Limon/Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office

Prosecutors have revealed new evidence in the killing of a Florida doctoral student whose body was found last week on a Tampa Bay bridge, including a timeline of events surrounding the death of Zamil Limon and the disappearance of his close friend, postgraduate student Nahida Bristy.

Limon’s roommate, Hisham Abugharbieh, has been charged with two counts of first-degree premeditated murder with a weapon in the deaths of the students, both 27. Bristy is still missing as authorities work to identify additional human remains recovered Sunday south of the bridge, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office said.

Investigators are seeking dashcam video from anyone who drove on the Howard Frankland Bridge on April 17 between 1 and 5 a.m., according to a Facebook post from the sheriff’s office. The post includes a video of deputies on a boat near a bridge during an apparent search.

Abugharbieh, 26, is due in court Tuesday for a status hearing, according to court documents. He was initially expected in court for a pretrial detention hearing, but it has been postponed pending status hearing discussions, court documents show.

The Hillsborough County Public Defender’s Office said it had been appointed to the case but declined to share details, citing Abugharbieh’s right to a fair trial.

Limon, a student from Bangladesh at the University of South Florida in Tampa, was killed by “multiple sharp force injuries,” according to a document filed Saturday in Hillsborough County Court and released Sunday.

Prosecutors have asked for Abugharbieh to stay in jail pending trial because of the gruesome nature of the alleged crimes, according to a pretrial detention motion. Limon’s death was ruled a homicide, the motion states, citing a medical examiner’s report that noted a deep stab wound to his lower back that penetrated his liver, among other wounds.

“The brutal and violent nature of the offense where the victims were killed by the defendant establishes a probability of danger his release poses to the safety of the community,” the motion says. “No conditions of release will reasonably protect the community from risk of physical harm.”

Limon’s body was found Friday on the northbound side of the Howard Frankland Bridge, the motion says, adding Bristy is “believed to have been disposed of in a similar way to (Zamil) Limon.”

Investigators have told Bristy’s family in Bangladesh they believe she may be dead based on the amount of blood found in the Tampa-area apartment shared by Limon and the suspect, her brother told CNN affiliate WTSP.

Limon had lived at the apartment for only two months, his younger brother, Zubaer Ahmed, told CNN. Limon “often told us that (Abugharbieh) was awful, unpleasant, an unsocial person,” Ahmed said.

Ahmed said he had heard his brother filed a complaint against Abugharbieh with their apartment complex management about two weeks ago. CNN has reached out to the complex for comment.

Among other claims, prosecutors have alleged Abugharbieh asked ChatGPT a series of questions – including about putting a human body in a dumpster – in the days before Limon and Bristy vanished.

He also ordered duct tape, trash bags, lighter fuel, fire starter and charcoal from Amazon in the week before the killings, and a purchase confirmation showed a fake beard had been shipped from Amazon on April 15, according to a criminal report affidavit.

“What happens if a human has a put (sic) in a black garbage bag and thrown in a dumpster,” Abugharbieh asked the artificial intelligence chatbot on April 13, three days before the two were last seen, the motion says.

The chatbot responded it sounded dangerous, the motion states, before Abugharbieh sent another message: “How would they find out.”

On April 15, Abugharbieh asked ChatGPT whether he could legally keep a gun at home without a license and whether a car’s VIN number could be changed, the affidavit states.

In the days after the killings, the searches continued. On April 19, Abugharbieh asked ChatGPT, “Has there been someone who survived a sniper bullet to the head,” “Will my neighbors hear my gun” and “Is there a water temperature that burns immediately,” the affidavit states. On April 23, he searched, “What does missing endangered adult mean,” according to the filing.

Suspect’s story changes as investigators compile evidence

Both doctoral students from Bangladesh, Limon and Bristy, were last seen or heard from on April 16 and reported missing the next day, the motion shows.

Abugharbieh told Hillsborough County sheriff’s detectives he had not seen the pair that day, the affidavit states.

In a follow-up interview, Abugharbieh initially told detectives the pair had “never been in his vehicle nor did he go to Clearwater,” a city across Tampa Bay, the motion says. When confronted about his vehicle being in Clearwater, he said he went there to look for fishing spots and had deleted his location history, according to the affidavit.

When then confronted about Limon’s cellphone also pinging in Clearwater, Abugharbieh changed his story again, telling detectives Limon had asked to be driven with his girlfriend to Clearwater, the affidavit states.

During these interviews, Abugharbieh’s left pinky finger was wrapped in a bandage, a wound he later said he gave himself while cutting onions, the motion says. He said he initially wrapped the wound with duct tape and toilet paper. Detectives also observed a fresh laceration on his left upper tricep and additional cuts on both legs, according to the filing.

Investigators noted a DoorDash order placed from Abugharbieh’s phone at approximately 10:24 p.m. on April 16 for items from a CVS on East Fowler Avenue, including trash bags, Lysol wipes and Febreze, according to the affidavit. The order was delivered to the apartment door at approximately 10:57 p.m., the filing states.

Another roommate told investigators he saw Abugharbieh use a rolling cart late on April 16 into April 17 to move cardboard boxes from his room to a compactor dumpster at their apartment complex, according to the motion.

Abugharbieh’s phone data shows he made two separate trips to the Howard Frankland Bridge in the early morning hours of April 17, according to the affidavit.

Investigators later recovered from the dumpster items belonging to Limon, including a student ID, credit cards and eyeglasses like those he wore, according to the filing. A gray shirt and a black floor mat like those missing from the apartment’s common kitchen area were also found, the motion says.

Items recovered from the dumpster tested positive for blood, and later lab testing linked profiles developed from the gray shirt to Limon and the floor mat to Bristy, according to the motion.

An enhancement agent applied to the apartment revealed a broad pattern of blood from the entry foyer, through the kitchen, into the hallway and toward Abugharbieh’s bedroom, according to the affidavit.

In his bedroom, investigators found “two distinct patterns on the floor which appeared to have a relatively human-sized shape,” saturated into the carpet, with patterns consistent with smearing and dragging, the filing states.

Bristy’s sneakers and umbrella — consistent with what she was seen wearing and carrying on campus surveillance the day she vanished — were found in Limon’s bedroom, along with a coin purse containing her USF ID and credit cards, the affidavit states.

The affidavit concludes: “No evidence has been uncovered during the course of the investigation to support any probability Nahida Bristy remains alive.”

This still from a video released by Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office shows the suspect being arrested in connection to the disappearance of the two students.
Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office

What’s next for the suspect

In addition to the two counts of first-degree premeditated murder with a weapon, Abugharbieh faces charges of unlawfully moving a dead body, failure to report a death with intent to conceal, tampering with physical evidence, false imprisonment and battery, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office has said.

“This is a deeply disturbing case that has shaken our community and impacted many who were hoping for a safe resolution,” Sheriff Chad Chronister said in a statement Friday.

Abugharbieh was arrested the morning of April 24 at a home in Lutz, Florida, after law enforcement responded to a domestic violence incident involving a family member, the sheriff’s office said.

Abugharbieh was also charged in that case with misdemeanor battery and false imprisonment, a felony. The two counts of first-degree murder were added later that evening via arrest warrant, court records show.

The Hillsborough County Public Defender’s Office said in a statement, “We remain focused on representing our client through the legal process.”

Abugharbieh made an initial court appearance Saturday morning.