Apex man pleads guilty in wife’s Jordan Lake murder case

An Apex man admitted in Chatham County court that he killed his wife and dumped her body in Jordan Lake, bringing a long-running murder case to a major turning point for Wake and Chatham counties. Omar Matthew Ibrahim Drabick pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and concealment of death and received a sentence of 25 years to 31 years on the murder count, plus 6 years and 8 months to 9 years for hiding the body.

The case began to unfold in late summer 2023 when a boater called Chatham County deputies at about 2:30 p.m. on Aug. 29 after finding a body near Farrington Point Boat Ramp on Farrington Point Road. Investigators later identified the victim through fingerprint analysis as Hadeel Ghadhanfer Hikmat, 34, of 736 Treviso Lane in Apex. The sheriff’s office said at the time that her death was neither accidental nor self-inflicted.

The N.C. Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined Hikmat died of a gunshot wound, and later reporting said the wound was a single shot to the back. Investigators also tied the killing to a bridge in Chatham County, saying they found a 9 mm casing, blood spatter and an earring that matched jewelry Hikmat was wearing. Those findings placed the attack about 700 yards from where she may have been injured or dumped, helping prosecutors connect the bridge to the homicide itself, not just the disposal of the body.

Authorities filed the original charges in September 2023, about a month after the body was discovered. Search warrants were also carried out on Sept. 8, 2023, at two Wake County locations frequented by Hikmat, widening the investigation beyond Chatham County and into the community where the couple lived. The plea now closes the criminal case without a trial, but it leaves unanswered the question of why Hikmat was killed.

Hikmat’s brother, Firas Hikmat, had previously said he worried about his sister before she disappeared and later called for justice. Under the sentence imposed Monday, Drabick could be eligible for release on the concealment-of-death charge after 3 years and 2 months if he meets certain conditions. North Carolina classifies second-degree murder as a Class B1 felony, and the plea locks in a punishment that will keep the case at the center of one of the Triangle’s most disturbing domestic-violence deaths.