Human remains discovered Sunday near the shoreline in an area of north St. Petersburg are those of missing University of South Florida student Nahida Bristy, Hillsborough Sheriff Chad Chronister confirmed Friday.
A kayaker who was fishing on the shoreline near Interstate 275 and Fourth Street North, just south of the Howard Frankland Bridge, got his line snagged on a black trash bag that contained Bristy’s body, Chronister said at a news conference. She’d been stabbed multiple times.
Investigators used DNA testing and dental records to identify the body, Chronister said.
“Our community has been left heartbroken and the victims’ families shattered after this tragic loss,” the sheriff said.
Bristy and her friend Zamil Limon, both 27, went missing on April 16. Limon’s body was found April 24 on the Howard Frankland Bridge, also in a large black trash bag and with stab injuries, records state.
“As gruesome as this murder was, he was literally left on the side of the highway like a piece of trash,” Chronister said.
The same day, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office arrested Hisham Abugharbieh, 26, in connection to the case. By Saturday, detectives presumed Bristy was also dead and announced that Abugharbieh would be charged with two counts of first-degree murder.
Hillsborough County sheriff’s divers searched the waters near the bridge, and on Sunday night the agency confirmed that they’d located a second body in the waters near Interstate 275 and Fourth Street North. The remains were taken to the Pinellas County Medical Examiner’s Office for identification.
According to an arrest affidavit, Bristy’s body, like Limon’s, had multiple stab injuries and was found in a large black trash bag tied off with a knot. The body was also clad in clothing similar to what Bristy was wearing when she was last seen.
During a status hearing Tuesday morning, Abugharbieh’s public defender waived a pretrial detention hearing, and Judge J. Logan Murphy agreed to have him be held in jail without bail.
Abugharbieh and Limon had lived together in an apartment north of the USF campus, where Limon was last seen.
Sheriff’s deputies arrested Abugharbieh on April 24 after a brief standoff at his family’s home in the Lake Forest neighborhood, off Bruce B. Downs Boulevard in North Tampa. Investigators had questioned him the day before about the disappearances of Limon and Bristy, officials said.
He was later booked in jail on charges that included battery, false imprisonment, tampering with evidence, failure to report a death and unlawfully holding or moving a dead body. Two counts of first-degree murder were later added, along with additional counts of evidence tampering, failing to report a death and unlawfully moving a body in connection to Bristy’s remains.
Hillsborough sheriff’s investigators found what tested positive for blood in the apartment Limon and Abugharbieh shared with a third roommate in the Avalon Heights apartments, an off-campus complex where USF students live.
A search warrant for Abugharbieh’s phone revealed several inquiries to ChatGPT starting about three days before the pair disappeared, according to court records. To the first inquiry sent on April 13 about placing a “human” in a dumpster, the popular artificial intelligence program responded that “it sounds dangerous,” according to court records. A follow-up message asked, “How would they find out?”
Hillsborough State Attorney Suzy Lopez and Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced in a news release Wednesday that their respective offices would work together to examine Abugharbieh’s interactions with ChatGPT and “assess whether those interactions contributed to the commission of crimes, and evaluate any potential legal responsibility of ChatGPT and its developer, OpenAI.”
Chronister said investigators are still working to determine a motive in the killings.
Abugharbieh pursued a Bachelor of Science degree in management from spring 2021 to 2023, but he is no longer enrolled as a student, according to USF.
This is a developing story. Check tampabay.com for updates.
