The human remains recovered from a waterway in Tampa Bay on Sunday have been identified as belonging to University of South Florida doctoral student Nahida Bristy, Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said during a press conference on Friday.
Bristy’s remains were found Sunday in a garbage bag discovered by a kayaker whose fishing line got snagged, Chronister said.
The positive identification on the badly decomposed body was eventually made using DNA and dental records, he added.
Bristy and her classmate Zamil Limon, both 27 from Bangladesh, were reported missing on April 16 after they failed to show up to school-related meetings.
Limon’s remains were found on a bridge over Tampa Bay in west-central Florida on April 24. Two days later, human remains were subsequently recovered in Tampa waterways close to a highway, now confirmed to be Bristy’s.
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Both bodies had similar stab wounds and were found in bags tied using the same type of knot, according to a report by CNN that cited an arrest affidavit.
Hisham Abugharbieh, 26, Limon’s roommate, was taken into custody on Friday and is facing two counts of first-degree murder with a weapon (premeditated) in the deaths of Limon and Bristy.
He is also charged with unlawfully moving a dead body, failure to report a death, tampering with evidence, false imprisonment and battery. He will remain in custody until he goes on trial, a judge ruled Tuesday.
Chronister said the suspect showed no emotion when investigators presented him with details of the killings.
“He was non-reactive,” Chronister said. “He was callous and showed no emotion when we showed him the information we had.”
Both students were killed around the same time and in the same place, though further investigation is required before police can confirm this, the sheriff said.
Police are still trying to establish a motive for the killings, Chronister added.
“I hope we find that out,” he said.
Chronister said everything on Abugharbieh’s phone had been wiped, but a forensic examination revealed searches from the days before the pair disappeared such as “Can a knife penetrate a skull?” and “Can a neighbor hear a gunshot?”
The suspect had also allegedly bought Lysol wipes, heavy-duty contractor-grade trash bags and other equipment, he said.
“This was calculating. That’s what makes this so premeditated,” Chronister alleged.
A search of the apartment Abugharbieh and Limon shared with a third roommate showed significant traces of blood in the kitchen, which led down the hall into the suspect’s bedroom, the sheriff said.
A luminol-based spray test revealed blood in the shape of a human body curled up in the fetal position next to Abugharbieh’s bed, he said.
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.
— with files from The Associated Press
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