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Roommate of Slain USF Student Charged With Two Counts of First-Degree Murder

Detectives press the search for missing doctoral student Nahida Bristy following prosecutors’ decision to file upgraded charges.

Overview

  • The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office said Saturday that Hisham Abugharbieh faces two counts of first-degree premeditated murder with a weapon in the deaths of Zamil Limon and Nahida S. Bristy.
  • The upgrade followed Friday’s discovery of Limon’s remains on the Howard Frankland Bridge, which spans Old Tampa Bay between Tampa and St. Petersburg.
  • Deputies took Abugharbieh into custody after a domestic-incident call at a North Tampa home where he briefly barricaded himself before surrendering to a SWAT team.
  • Before the murder counts, he was booked on charges including battery, false imprisonment, tampering with evidence, failure to report a death, and unlawfully moving a body.
  • Bristy remains unlocated as marine and dive teams search the waters near the bridge, and an autopsy will determine Limon’s cause of death with no public motive disclosed.