Student from the University of South Florida found dead, girlfriend remains missing

The authorities of Hillsborough County confirmed this Friday the discovery of the body of Zamil Limon, a 27-year-old doctoral student from the University of South Florida (USF), under the Howard Frankland Bridge, while his girlfriend Nahida Bristy, also 27 years old and a student at the same institution, remains missing.

According to a report by Telemundo 51, both students, originally from Bangladesh, were last seen on April 16 in the Tampa area: Limon around 9:00 a.m. at their residence on Avalon Heights Boulevard, and Bristy near 10:00 a.m. at the Natural and Environmental Sciences building on the USF campus.

However, the disappearance was not made public until April 21, when family members and close friends formally alerted the authorities after several days without being able to contact them, something they described as completely unusual for both graduate students.

From the very first day, both phones were showing as turned off, with no activity on social media or bank transactions.

On April 23, the Sheriff of Hillsborough County escalated the case to the missing persons category, which intensified the search operation between Hillsborough and Pinellas counties.

Within the scope of the investigation, authorities arrested Hisham Saleh Abugharbieh, 26, Limon's roommate and not a student at USF, following a domestic violence call at a residence in the 14000 block of Pine Glen Circle, in the Lake Forest community near the campus.

Abugharbieh barricaded himself in the house before peacefully surrendering to SWAT teams, crisis negotiators, and a bomb squad unit around noon.

The charges against him include illegal handling of a human body, failure to report a death with intent to conceal, tampering with physical evidence, false imprisonment, and assault in the context of domestic violence.

The investigation led to a partial closure of the Howard Frankland Bridge, the infrastructure that connects Tampa with St. Petersburg over Tampa Bay, where key evidence was collected.

The evidence was processed at a facility of the Pinellas County Sheriff in St. Petersburg.

Bristy, a doctoral student in chemical engineering, left her laptop, tablet, bag, and lunchbox in the lab on the day of her disappearance, although her wallet and phone are missing.

He also missed a class scheduled for 3:00 p.m. and a planned trip to the supermarket that same day.

Zubaer Ahmed, younger brother of Limon, described the situation with distress: We are suffering greatly and going through a devastating situation. Ahmed had characterized the disappearance as very suspicious and unusual.