Remains of 1 missing University of South Florida student found, suspect arrested

TAMPA, Fla. - The remains of one of two missing University of South Florida graduate students were found on the Howard Frankland Bridge on Friday, and hours later, a suspect was arrested in connection to the case, authorities said.

The remains of Zamil Limon, 27, were discovered on the bridge Friday morning, and 26-year-old Hisham Abugharbieh was arrested at a home in North Tampa, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office announced at a news conference.

Nahida Bristy, 27, was still missing as of Friday afternoon.

"We are still actively searching for Nahida," Chief Deputy Michael Maurer said.

Abugharbieh was at some point Limon's roommate and was taken into custody after deputies responded to a domestic violence call at Abugharbieh's family's home in the Lake Forest subdivision off Bruce B. Downs Boulevard, Maurer said.

He was arrested on charges of domestic violence, simple battery, false imprisonment, tampering with evidence, failure to report a death to officials and unlawfully holding or moving a dead body in unapproved conditions, Maurer said.

Investigators were still working Friday to determine the cause and manner of Limon's death.

Bristy and Zamil, both international doctoral students from Bangladesh, each vanished April 16.

Law enforcement officials had previously described the pair as "missing," but changed that description to "endangered" late Thursday without releasing more details. By then, the search that began with missing persons reports to the sheriff's office and the University of South Florida Police Department spanned at least two counties, Pinellas and Hillsborough, with assistance from several other law enforcement agencies.

The Florida Highway Patrol closed two northbound lanes of the Howard Frankland about 7:30 Friday morning. Maurer said investigators were able to link Abugharbieh to the body but did not say how.

At about 9 a.m., the sheriff's office received a call for service at the home of Abugharbieh's family, Maurer said. Abugharbieh was already a suspect in the missing student case, according to Maurer.

Abugharbieh's family members were able to leave the home unharmed. Deputies ordered Abugharbieh to come out, and he refused, Maurer said. The sheriff's office's SWAT team arrived and told him to come out, and he complied at about 10:30 a.m.

Bristy and Limon, both 27, went missing separately within hours of each other. The locations where they each vanished are a little less than a mile apart.

Limon was last seen about 9 a.m. at his apartment in the Avalon Heights student housing complex off East Fletcher Avenue, north of USF's Tampa campus.

His brother, Zubaer Ahmed, described him as "very responsible and punctual" in a message to a Tampa Bay Times reporter. Limon had previously earned a degree in urban and rural planning from a university in Bangladesh.

He came to USF in 2024 and was pursuing a doctorate in geography, environmental science and policy.

"He was scheduled to submit his thesis paper the day after he went missing, which makes this situation extremely unusual for us," his brother said.

Bristy was last seen about 10 a.m. the same day in USF's Natural and Environmental Sciences building, near the center of campus, according to USF police.

She spoke by phone with her parents in Bangladesh shortly after noon April 16, her brother, Zahid Hasan Pranto, told the Times. She was in her office, a campus laboratory, and spoke of how busy her days were.

"Nothing unusual or out of the ordinary," Pranto said.

That was the last time anyone heard from her. She missed a 3 p.m. class that day. She was supposed to go grocery shopping with a friend at 5 p.m., her brother said.

Bristy left her laptop, iPad, bag and lunchbox in the lab, her brother said. Her purse and phone went missing with her.

A person described by authorities as a family friend reported the pair missing the next day.

The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office took the initial report about Limon's disappearance. The USF Police Department handled the initial search for Bristy.

Limon's brother told the Times that by Sunday, investigators had traced the pair off campus.

On Wednesday, the Hillsborough sheriff's office took the lead in the investigation in an effort to "streamline" and "expedite" efforts to find the students, the office said.

Sheriff's deputies this week went door to door in the USF area handing out flyers about the disappearance.

Pranto described his sister as "a very jolly person." She got along with people.

Bristy earned a bachelor's degree in applied chemistry at a school in Bangladesh. She applied to USF's doctoral program in chemical engineering last year and was accepted with full funding, her brother said.

She is a talented singer, her brother said, and had professional musical training as a teen, her brother said. She was supposed to perform in a Bengali cultural program in Orlando, her brother said.

Her family did not know Limon, Pranto said. She'd shared that she liked someone, but he didn't want to take the relationship further, her brother said. They learned after her disappearance that she and Limon had been in a relationship for a while but had drifted apart. They remained friends.

"She was emotionally attached, but was trying to move on," Pranto said.

Her family remains in Bangladesh, their lives on hold as they anxiously await news from half a world away.

"We can't just go there and be physically present there," Pranto said. "So we are helpless and relying on others to get the updates. My parents are devastated and we are going through a very difficult time."

A spokesperson for USF told the Times that Abugharbieh pursued a Bachelor of Science degree in management from spring 2021 to spring 2023, but that he is no longer enrolled as a student.

USF police Chief Chris Daniel, speaking at Friday's news conference, said campus officials "do everything we can to make the campus safe."

"This is the last thing that we want to happen," Daniel said. "Our hearts go out to the families, to the students at USF that knew these other students."

Anyone with information regarding Bristy's whereabouts is asked to call the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office as 813-247-8200.

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-Times staff writer Divya Kumar contributed to this report.

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