Roommate charged with murder in deaths of two University of South Florida doctoral students

The discovery of Zamil Limon’s remains on the Howard Frankland Bridge turned a missing-persons case into a murder investigation and left another University of South Florida doctoral student, Nahida Bristy, still unaccounted for. Hisham Abugharbieh, 26, Limon’s roommate, was later charged with two counts of first-degree murder with a weapon in the deaths of Limon and Bristy.

The case has sharpened attention on how universities support graduate students whose housing and daily routines often sit outside direct campus oversight. Abugharbieh was not a current USF student or employee, yet detectives identified him as a person of interest because of his connection to the missing students. He lived with Limon in an apartment about a mile from campus, and officials said both victims were 27-year-old Bangladeshi nationals studying in the United States on student visas.

Investigators said Limon and Bristy were last seen April 16, and police had already searched for them for days before the case escalated on Friday morning. Around 9 a.m., deputies responded to an unrelated domestic-violence call at a home on Pine Glen Circle, where Abugharbieh barricaded himself inside. SWAT, the bomb disposal team, the crisis negotiations team and drone units were brought in before he surrendered about 10:30 a.m. A bridge search was underway at the same time, and authorities said Limon’s remains were found in the area of the Howard Frankland Bridge.

The sequence raises harder questions for USF and for colleges that host large populations of international and doctoral students who rely on roommates, off-campus apartments and informal support networks. Police said Abugharbieh had been interviewed during the disappearance investigation before his arrest, and the sheriff’s office later said evidence led to the new murder charges. USF President Moez Limayem said there was no ongoing threat to the university community, but the search for Bristy continued as detectives followed leads across Hillsborough and Pinellas counties. In a case that began with two students going missing, the remaining question is how much warning anyone around them had, and whether any intervention came too late.