EDITOR’S NOTE: This story contains graphic details.
As the suspect accused of killing two doctoral students in Florida faces murder charges, authorities have laid out disturbing and grisly details surrounding the students’ disappearance.
Zamil Limon and Nahida Bristy, both 27 and originally from Bangladesh, were last seen nearly two weeks ago in Tampa. Limon’s body was found a week later. Two days after that, Bristy’s heavily decomposed remains were found.
Hisham Abugharbieh, Limon’s roommate, has been charged with two counts of first-degree premeditated murder with a weapon in the deaths of the students. A judge ruled Tuesday he will remain in detention as he awaits trial.
In a motion prosecutors filed last week to keep Abugharbieh, 26, in jail while he faces the charges, they laid out a detailed timeline of how investigators think the two University of South Florida students may have died as well as their and the suspect’s actions around the time they went missing.
Here’s a look at what they say unfolded.
April 7 & 11: Amazon purchases
Abugharbieh allegedly makes several purchases on Amazon, including duct tape, trash bags, lighter fuel and fire starter, according to the arrest warrant affidavit in the case.
A ChatGPT conversation cited in the motion for pretrial detention shows Abugharbieh asks: “What happens if a human has a put in a black garbage bag and thrown in a dumpster,” to which the chatbot responds that it sounds dangerous.
“How would they find out,” Abugharbieh replies, according to prosecutors.
Friends of Limon and Bristy are in touch with them during the day, but they can’t reach them later, according to the motion filed by prosecutors Saturday in Hillsborough County Court. Bristy and Limon speak briefly on the phone several times.
Around midday, Bristy is seen on surveillance video walking on the university’s campus, according to the motion. But she doesn’t show up to a planned meet-up that evening with a friend to get her eyeglasses and doesn’t answer the friend’s calls.
Limon’s phone location shows him in the vicinity of his home and campus before going to Clearwater – roughly 32 miles from his residence – around 7:43 p.m.
Abugharbieh’s white Hyundai Genesis G80 is seen traveling in the same area within about 10 minutes of that, according to prosecutors.
Phone and traffic data show consistencies between the suspect’s and Limon’s devices’ locations throughout the night.
About 10:30 p.m., a DoorDash order for trash bags, Lysol wipes, Febreze and other items from CVS is placed from Abugharbieh’s phone and delivered to the apartment door about half an hour later.
Limon and Abugharbieh’s other roommate sees Abugharbieh using a cart to move cardboard boxes from his room to a compactor dumpster at their apartment complex, according to the motion.
A ChatGPT search on Abugharbieh’s phone asked “are cars checked at the Hillsborough River state park,” the affidavit says.
The suspect goes to the Howard Frankland Bridge – a strip of I-275 spanning Tampa Bay – twice between 1 a.m. and 4:30 a.m., according to the affidavit, citing phone and traffic data.
Meanwhile, Limon and Bristy are officially reported missing.
The next day, police search Bristy’s campus workplace and find she left personal items including her lunchbox, a MacBook and her iPad.
Authorities speak with Abugharbieh’s mother, who says she last saw her son Saturday, April 18, the motion reads. She mentions Abugharbieh struggles with anger management and was violent with his family in the past, according to the document.
The suspect was arrested twice in 2023 on charges of battery, which were later dropped, according to court records. But after one of those incidents, his brother filed for an injunction that prohibited Abugharbieh from coming near him or his home. When the injunction expired last May, a request for extension was denied.
The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office elevates the status of the two missing students to “endangered.”
Authorities search a dumpster, in which they find a black cushion floor mat with blood, Limon’s wallet, Bristy’s phone case, Limon’s glasses and clothing all stained with blood. Around this time, Abugharbieh gives authorities permission to search his car, which prosecutors say appeared to have “recently been cleaned.”
Abugharbieh also lets investigators access the vehicle’s data, but there didn’t appear to be any, the affidavit said.
Abugharbieh gives inconsistent accounts of when he last saw Limon and Bristy, according to the affidavit. He first tells detectives the pair had “never been in his vehicle nor did he go to Clearwater.” When confronted about his vehicle being in Clearwater, he says he went there to look for fishing spots and later changed his story again, telling detectives Limon had asked to be driven with his girlfriend to Clearwater, the document says.
During these interviews, Abugharbieh’s left pinky finger is wrapped in a bandage, a wound he later says he got while cutting onions, the motion says. Detectives also observe a fresh laceration on his left upper tricep and additional cuts on both legs, according to the filing.
Prosecutors say Abugharbieh asked ChatGPT on April 23, “What does missing endangered adult mean.”
April 24: Limon’s body found, suspect arrested
Detectives searching the Howard Frankland Bridge find a black trash bag where phone data shows the suspect stopped early on April 17, according to the motion.
Prosecutors say the bag is similar to those found under Abugharbieh’s bed. A man’s remains are discovered inside and positively identified as Limon, they say in the filing.
Limon’s death is ruled a homicide, the motion states, citing “multiple sharp force injuries,” and a medical examiner’s report that noted a deep stab wound to his lower back that penetrated his liver, among other wounds.
That morning, Abugharbieh is arrested hours later at a home in Lutz, Florida, after law enforcement respond to a domestic violence incident involving a family member, the sheriff’s office says.
April 25: Suspect appears in court and detailed evidence is unveiled
The pretrial motion is filed, with prosecutors alleging Abugharbieh made the purchases on Amazon and citing his alleged ChatGPT conversations.
Abugharbieh makes an initial appearance in court Saturday morning.
In addition to two counts of first-degree murder, he 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 says.
The Hillsborough County Public Defender’s Office says it is appointed to the case but declines to share details, citing Abugharbieh’s right to a fair trial.
“We remain focused on representing our client through the legal process,” the office says in a statement.
April 26: Human remains found in waterway
A second black trash bag is spotted on the shoreline, just south of where Limon was found.
Inside, investigators discover another set of human remains in an “advanced stage of decomposition,” according to an arrest affidavit.
The bag is found tied in a knot, in the same manner as the one containing Limon’s remains, according to the affidavit. Investigators also note the body was wearing clothing consistent with the distinctive outfit Nahida Bristy was last seen wearing in surveillance video.
Like Limon, the victim has multiple stab wounds. But given the severe decomposition, officials could not immediately identify the remains.
The state of Florida expands its criminal investigation into OpenAI, the parent company and creator of ChatGPT, to include the killings of Limon and Bristy, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announces.
“This is a terrible crime, and our thoughts are with everyone affected,” OpenAI spokesperson Drew Pusateri says in a statement. “We’re looking into these reports and will do whatever we can to support law enforcement in their investigation.”
Uthmeier said last week his office is looking into whether ChatGPT helped the suspect in a deadly shooting at Florida State University carry out the crime and “whether OpenAI bears criminal responsibility for ChatGPT’s actions.”
A status conference is held to determine how the case against Abugharbieh will proceed.
Hillsborough County Judge J. Logan Murphy grants the prosecutors’ request to hold Abugharbieh without bond on the two first-degree murder charges as he awaits trial. Abugharbieh does not appear in court for the meeting, according to Erin Maloney, a spokesperson with the State Attorney’s Office.
An arraignment has yet to be scheduled.
May 1: Decomposed remains are announced as Bristy’s
Five days after a kayaker’s fishing line got caught on a trash bag containing severely decomposed remains, the Hillsborough County sheriff confirmed the body was Bristy’s.
“While this identification brings answers, it also brings immense sorrow. Nahida Bristy and Zamil Limon were not only students, they were driven, accomplished individuals destined and deserving of great futures,” Sheriff Chad Chronister said.
He also gave disturbing details about what happened to Limon. His hands and ankles were bound together, and his legs were “almost completely severed so he could be bent together … (making) it easier to place in a trash bag,” Chronister said. “As gruesome as this murder was, he was literally left on the side of the highway like a piece of trash.”
The motive for the killings remains unclear, and detectives are “anxiously searching for that,” the sheriff said.
