Video above: Human remains recovered near Howard Frankland as search continues for missing USF student

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — The search for missing University of South Florida Zamil Limon and Nahida Bristy led investigators to several locations across Tampa Bay.

Limon and Bristy, Bangladeshi nationals, were friends and were both doctoral students at the university. They were last seen alive on April 16.
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USF police asked for the public’s help in locating the missing students on April 21. Using cellphone data, security camera footage and other investigative means, law enforcement identified a suspect and pieced together his alleged activities in the days following the students’ disappearance.

The following locations are key places investigators looked at to piece together what happened to the two students and who was responsible.

University of South Florida

Zamil Limon, left, and Nahida Bristy, right (Photos courtesy of USFPD)
On April 16, Bristy was last seen alive on security camera footage leaving her office in the Kopp Engineering Building at 12:09 p.m. A friend told investigators she spoke to her on the phone at 11:30 a.m. and again at 2:14 p.m.

Bristy called Limon at 12:41 p.m. and then sent him a message at 2:39 p.m. She called him again at 2:42 p.m. and 2:52 p.m.

Bristy agreed to meet a friend at 5 p.m., but never showed up. Multiple people attempted to contact her and could only reach her voicemail.

On April 18, USF police searched Bristy’s office and found that she left several personal items behind, including her lunchbox, a MacBook, a larger purse, and an iPad.

Avalon Heights Apartments

Avalon Heights apartments on April 24 (WFLA)
Avalon Heights is a student apartment complex located across the street from the USF campus. Its three and four-bedroom units are rented out by the room.

Limon lived in an apartment with Hisham Abugharbieh, who is suspected of his murder, and one other roommate. Limon’s brother said the roommates previously filed a complaint about Abugharbieh’s behavior with apartment management.

The other roommate told police he last saw Limon while cooking on April 15. Two days later, a friend went to Limon’s apartment to look for him. His roommate said he did not know where Limon was, and that his scooter was still at the apartment on April 16.

When interviewed by police, both Abugharbieh and the other roommate claimed to not know where Limon was. Investigators found Bristy’s purse, as well as her shoes and umbrella, which were spotted on her person as she was leaving her office, in Limon’s room.

Police searched a trash can in front of the unit and found a CVS receipt listing trash bags, Lysol wipes, Febreze, Funyuns, and Irish Body Wash. The receipt was dated April 16 at 10:47 p.m.

The roommate told police that he saw Abugharbieh use a cart to move cardboard boxes from Limon’s room to the complex’s compactor dumpster that same night. A search of the apartment’s trash compactor produced Limon’s wallet, Bristy’s phone case, bloody clothing and items that were believed to be missing from the apartment.

Detectives said they found evidence of blood throughout the apartment, including two human-shaped areas on the floor of Abugharbieh’s bedroom. Trash bags and duct tape were also found in his room.

Sand Key (Clearwater Beach)

Sand Key Beach on April 23 (WFLA)
Sand Key Park is a beach park in the Clearwater area.

Court documents state that, based on location data, Limon’s cellphone began moving toward the Courtney Campbell Causeway on April 16 at 7:43 p.m. and remained in Clearwater after 8:25 p.m. A license plate reader recorded Abugharbieh’s Hyundai Genesis G80 on the bridge at 7:53 p.m., and prosecutors said the vehicle and Limon’s cellphone were found to be in the same area of Sand Key at the same time.

Court documents reveal timeline leading up to arrest of missing USF student’s roommate
Surveillance camera footage showed Abugharbieh’s vehicle in the Sand Key, as well as a person wearing dark clothing walking from the Sand Key marina to the Sand Key Bridge, according to investigators.

Detectives said Abugharbieh initially claimed that he did not go to Clearwater that day, but then said he was in the area to scout fishing locations. Abugharbieh said Limon asked him to drive him and his girlfriend, Bristy, to Clearwater. He told them that he dropped the pair off and then left the area, according to police.

Law enforcement searched the park on April 22. They found a weathered Glock handgun with rounds in the magazine, but none in the chamber. The gun was traced back to a person in Marathon Key, but units did not find “items of obvious evidentiary value,” court documents said.

Howard Frankland Bridge

Law enforcement on the Howard Frankland Bridge on April 24 (WFLA)
Interstate 275 connects Hillsborough and Pinellas counties via the Howard Frankland Bridge.

On April 17, Abugharbieh’s cellphone location data showed that he left Avalon Heights just after 1 a.m. Investigators said he stopped in the southbound lanes of the Howard Frankland Bridge at 1:30 a.m. before continuing into Pinellas County.

Abugharbieh’s cellphone headed back across the bridge in the northbound lanes, stopped on the bridge again at 1:46 a.m., and then continued toward Tampa three minutes later, court documents state. The phone was back at the apartment complex at 2:09 a.m.

On April 24, detectives found a large black trash bag on the bridge, similar to those found in Abugharbieh’s room and the apartment complex trash compactor, that smelled like decomposition. The bag contained human remains that were later identified as Limon.

The Pinellas County Medical Examiner determined Limon’s matter of death was a homicide due to “multiple sharp force injuries.”

Law enforcement returned to the Howard Frankland Bridge on April 26 after additional human remains were discovered in the area. As of this report, the remains have not been identified, but she “was believed to have been disposed of in a similar way to Zamial Limon,” court documents said.

Lake Forest neighborhood

Lake Forest community on April 24 (WFLA)
Lake Forest is a neighborhood on Bruce B. Downs Boulevard near the USF campus.
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On April 24, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office responded to a home on Pine Glen Circle just after 9 a.m. for a reported domestic violence incident involving Abugharbieh and a female family member.

She told deputies that Abugharbieh grabbed her and attempted to kiss her before leaving the room and locking her inside a bedroom, an arrest report said. She managed to escape and called her father for help.

Abugharbieh barricaded himself inside of the home once HCSO arrived, prompting an hours-long standoff. He surrendered while wearing only a bath towel after SWAT officers responded to the home.

Abugharbieh was charged with felony false imprisonment and misdemeanor battery in connection to the incident. He is also charged with two counts of first-degree murder, failure to report death, unlawfully holding or removing a dead body, and tampering with physical evidence.