DNA identifies remains of missing USF doctoral student Nahida Bristy

The remains found Sunday south of the Howard Frankland Bridge were confirmed Friday as those of Nahida Bristy, closing one chapter in the search for the missing University of South Florida doctoral student and leaving key questions unanswered about how she disappeared and was found.

Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister said the identification was made through DNA and dental records. Bristy’s remains were recovered in a garbage bag after a kayaker’s fishing line snagged on the bag near Tampa Bay, south of the bridge. The discovery came two days after investigators found the body of Bristy’s friend and fellow USF doctoral student, Zamil Limon, in another garbage bag in the same bridge area.

Bristy and Limon were both 27 and from Bangladesh. Investigators said the pair were last seen alive on April 16 at USF’s Tampa campus. Bristy was studying chemical engineering. Limon was studying geography, environmental science and policy. The timeline has sharpened scrutiny of the hours between their last confirmed sightings and the discovery of their remains, including how authorities tracked the case from campus to the shoreline recovery sites.

Hisham Saleh Abugharbeih, Limon’s roommate, was taken into custody the day Limon’s remains were found and has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder. Chronister said detectives still did not know a motive. He also said Abugharbeih showed no emotion when investigators presented him with evidence. Court documents described the body found April 26 as being inside a black trash bag, and investigators said the victim appeared to have suffered multiple stab wounds.

USF President Moez Limayem said the incidents occurred off campus and that Abugharbeih acted alone, adding that there was no ongoing threat to the university community. Still, the case has raised hard questions for students, families and campus officials about safety, the pace of the search response and what police can now say publicly about the sequence of events that led from a spring day at USF to two bodies found in garbage bags near Tampa Bay.