Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. It is Friday, May first, and authorities
Speaker 1: in Florida have identified the remains found earlier this week,
Speaker 1: and yes, in fact, they are the remains of a
Speaker 1: second missing doctoral student been missing since the last month
Speaker 1: in Florida. With that, welcome to this episode of Amy
Speaker 1: and TJ. This is the story we kept an eye on.
Speaker 1: We were even hopeful for Robes. Two students from Bangladesh
Speaker 1: go missing. Couldn't make sense of it, had hopes that
Speaker 1: maybe they'd even run off together, quite frankly star crossed lovers.
Speaker 1: They have now found the remains of the second student, Robes,
Speaker 1: and it took them a little while to make a
Speaker 1: positive identification, and we'll get into some of the details
Speaker 1: of why, and they are pretty.
Speaker 2: Graphic they are.
Speaker 3: So we now know that the remains of twenty seven
Speaker 3: year old Nihita Bristi have been confirmed to have been found.
Speaker 2: She was one of two.
Speaker 3: Missing University of South Florida doctoral students. They had been
Speaker 3: missing since April sixteenth. They were reported missing the following day,
Speaker 3: and it took some time for authorities to piece together
Speaker 3: the puzzle of what potentially happened. Initially, they didn't even
Speaker 3: suspect foul play, but unfortunately Samil Lemon, who was also
Speaker 3: twenty seven years old, his body was found on a
Speaker 3: bridge overlooking Tampa Bay and then several days later they
Speaker 3: found his body exactly one week ago today on Friday.
Speaker 3: On Sunday, they found the remains of another body nearby
Speaker 3: in the water.
Speaker 2: But it took.
Speaker 3: Them five days today until they were able to positively
Speaker 3: id the body of Nihita Bristi. And look, the details
Speaker 3: of how they found her remains are now coming to
Speaker 3: light and how they were able to eventually confirm that
Speaker 3: in fact it was her.
Speaker 2: They were able to.
Speaker 3: Confirm through DNA and they had to actually go through
Speaker 3: some dental work that she had been done to finally
Speaker 3: confirm that, in fact, they did find the remains of
Speaker 3: Nihita Bristi. And this is just one of these mysterious,
Speaker 3: incredibly tragic stories coming out of Florida because it was
Speaker 3: Lemone's roommate. They believe Hisham Abugarbea who was twenty six
Speaker 3: years old, who police have now charged with two counts
Speaker 3: of first degree premeditated murder with the weapon in the
Speaker 3: deaths of these two doctoral students. The big glaring question
Speaker 3: is the why they don't have the why, but we
Speaker 3: are now able to piece together through what police and
Speaker 3: detectives are giving us the how. And it is incredibly disturbing, Babe,
Speaker 3: to just learn some of these details. And we are
Speaker 3: hearing now that Nahita Bristi was actually found. We had
Speaker 3: been talking about dive teams looking for her body, but
Speaker 3: it turns out it was two fishing kayakers who found
Speaker 3: her body instead, and.
Speaker 2: They were.
Speaker 3: Quick to call police when they actually snagged a bag
Speaker 3: in the water, so they were throwing their fishing lines
Speaker 3: and they ended up having to go further into a
Speaker 3: mangrove area of this fishing area where they had kayaks
Speaker 3: in and they actually described the smell and that is
Speaker 3: when they went in closer to remove the fishing line
Speaker 3: find the plastic bag. It had been slightly opened, and
Speaker 3: they said they could tell immediately it looked like a
Speaker 3: human body, and they did the right thing. They called
Speaker 3: law enforcement and for the past several days now, law
Speaker 3: enforcement have been looking for a way to try and
Speaker 3: connect the remains found in this bag to that of
Speaker 3: Nihita Bristi, and they were able to do so today
Speaker 3: And this is just look the family had been warned,
Speaker 3: but this is certainly incredibly sad information. Just to know
Speaker 3: for a fact that this was in fact this missing
Speaker 3: doctoral student.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that was I mean, we saw it going this direction.
Speaker 1: I guess nobody's a surprise. I don't know how much
Speaker 1: hope was being held out, but but yeah, that's I
Speaker 1: guess the family kind of knew this was the news
Speaker 1: that was.
Speaker 3: Coming, and so they have now officially contacted her family
Speaker 3: to release the bodies for religious reasons. Back to the
Speaker 3: families who both happened to live in Bangladesh. But we're
Speaker 3: also look, we had had some of the searches that
Speaker 3: police were able to uncover from the roommate Abu Garbea,
Speaker 3: but we're getting some new details. And look, these are
Speaker 3: we've talked so many times. We've covered a lot of
Speaker 3: unfortunately these types of cases, and yes, it often is
Speaker 3: the cover up, the active idea or the planning of
Speaker 3: the cover up that ends up undoing the suspect in
Speaker 3: terms of evidence that eventually comes out in court. But
Speaker 3: we're hearing some of this now in terms of some
Speaker 3: of the searches that were made before, during and after
Speaker 3: when police say he murdered his room mate and his friend.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we see this a lot. Well, criminals will catch
Speaker 1: on eventually, but don't google how do I get rid
Speaker 1: of a body right after you kill somebody? It's going
Speaker 1: to catch up with.
Speaker 3: You, yes, And so look, we know that Abergaebea has
Speaker 3: been charged with unlawfully moving a dead body, failure to
Speaker 3: report a death with intent to conceal, tampering with physical evidence,
Speaker 3: false imprisonment, and battery in connection to the desk, in
Speaker 3: addition to his premeditated murder charges.
Speaker 2: So this is difficult.
Speaker 3: And police have described the details of this investigation as
Speaker 3: nothing short of gruesome, and that is really the only
Speaker 3: way to describe this because we now know that this act,
Speaker 3: or at least police say this act, was carried out
Speaker 3: with a sharp object, most likely a knife, And we
Speaker 3: know that this was an elaborate attempt to conceal because
Speaker 3: we know some of these searches that were taking place
Speaker 3: while this crime was being committed, and that is really
Speaker 3: that has been some of the more damning, damning evidence
Speaker 3: that has come out in this case. And we now
Speaker 3: know also that Leman was bound in his hands and
Speaker 3: his feet. Like, just hearing some of these details, it's
Speaker 3: just hard to get your head around how this all unfolded,
Speaker 3: and how a twenty six year old student why he
Speaker 3: would feel the need to do this to his roommate
Speaker 3: and her friend and his friend.
Speaker 1: No, I mean, we don't have a motive. But apparently
Speaker 1: he had some troubles, He had some history of questionable
Speaker 1: behavior and people were concerned about him, and I guess
Speaker 1: we'll learn more about that. But yeah, there is no
Speaker 1: motive at this.
Speaker 2: Point, none at all.
Speaker 3: And so look, this has been a disturbing detail some
Speaker 3: of the searches that we know that the roommate made
Speaker 3: in addition to finding out how to dispose of a body,
Speaker 3: but he also searched topics like whether a knife can
Speaker 3: penetrate a skull. I don't know how any defendant gets
Speaker 3: around searching that. Have you ever, Like, when you look
Speaker 3: at what you have searched, why would anyone search that
Speaker 3: if not for a motive.
Speaker 2: In a murder.
Speaker 1: No, we've seen defense lawyers explain far worse than that. Actually,
Speaker 1: but they'll find a way, they'll have something. Oh maybe
Speaker 1: they won't. But yes, it always seems like that there's
Speaker 1: no reason, there's no that makes zero sense for that
Speaker 1: to for you to ever google that.
Speaker 3: Yes, and in addition to ober Gabea's cell phone having
Speaker 3: searches like whether or not a knife can penetrate a skull,
Speaker 3: or if a neighbor could hear a gunshot, and of
Speaker 3: course how to dispose of a body, or what happens
Speaker 3: to a body when you put it in a dumpster.
Speaker 3: All of these very specific searches. Some of these were
Speaker 3: done before days before the students disappeared, and so his
Speaker 3: cell phone, by the way, had been wiped clean. That's
Speaker 3: also an issue oftentimes. We've even seen searches about can
Speaker 3: the FBI can police find text messages I erase?
Speaker 2: What happens to a cell phone that's been white clean?
Speaker 3: I think we've all learned now, at least in covering
Speaker 3: these types of cases, if you search anything on your
Speaker 3: computer on your phone, there is no search cleansing operation
Speaker 3: that can be done that won't be retrieved or won't
Speaker 3: be able to be retrieved by detectives, period, end of story.
Speaker 3: How people don't know this yet is kind of beyond me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they keep doing it. We've the last several high
Speaker 1: profile trials we've covered all involved something along those lines
Speaker 1: where people are literally googling, how do I get away
Speaker 1: with murder, and yes, that's pretty damning evidence. So yes,
Speaker 1: they haven't learned yet, and.
Speaker 3: It looks like well, fortunately maybe perhaps for police and
Speaker 3: for detectives, maybe they'll never learn because somehow people always
Speaker 3: think they're going to get away with it. But look,
Speaker 3: as investigators continue to try and find the why, and look,
Speaker 3: oftentimes we don't get that answer. That is one of
Speaker 3: the elusive questions so many people ask in a situation
Speaker 3: like this where two incredibly brilliant lives were cut unnecessarily short.
Speaker 3: Their family, his family, her family, They want to know why.
Speaker 3: And there are also a lot of questions being asked
Speaker 3: by the family in terms of security. Where was the
Speaker 3: security some family members are asking, and they're saying, look,
Speaker 3: at this point, how could somebody who had a documented
Speaker 3: history of mental illness and clearly their roommate, his roommate,
Speaker 3: Lemon's roommate who is being charged in this case, Abrogae Beya,
Speaker 3: has absolutely had a long history of mental illness and
Speaker 3: certainly run ins with police and run into with his
Speaker 3: family violent history. And so it is fair that their
Speaker 3: families are now asking how could this young man have
Speaker 3: been allowed to be in an off campus apartment and
Speaker 3: be connected with a roommate who had problems with the law,
Speaker 3: whose family members didn't even want him visiting their home.
Speaker 3: How was he not on anyone's radar? And how were
Speaker 3: these two young lives cut short for no reason whatsoever,
Speaker 3: at least nothing that police can come up with at
Speaker 3: this point. So when we come back, we'll give you
Speaker 3: the latest on this investigation, where the case stands against
Speaker 3: this twenty six year old, and what the families of
Speaker 3: these two young doctoral students want from this community now,
Speaker 3: And welcome back to this episode of Amy and TJ,
Speaker 3: where we now just received word from Florida officials that
Speaker 3: they have in fact identified the remains that were found
Speaker 3: last Sunday of the second missing doctoral student at the
Speaker 3: University of South Florida. These two young, twenty seven year
Speaker 3: old promising doctoral students went missing. Initially we heard from
Speaker 3: the university from police that they didn't suspect foul play,
Speaker 3: but unfortunately that quickly changed when conversations and frankly interrogations
Speaker 3: of the roommate started to leave big questions with police.
Speaker 3: And unfortunately, when another roommate said, hey, you know what,
Speaker 3: I saw my other roommate taking some boxes out to
Speaker 3: a trash compactor right here on the property. When police
Speaker 3: went to go look at that trash compactor at the
Speaker 3: apartment complex where Lemon lived along with his roommate, and
Speaker 3: they found his student id, his wallet, his glasses, and
Speaker 3: clothing soaked in blood. That moment changed everything for investigators
Speaker 3: and they knew that foul play was possible and probably likely.
Speaker 3: In fact, we got a word that what was the
Speaker 3: change in the investigation midweek where they said, yes, we
Speaker 3: don't suspect foul plays.
Speaker 2: Suddenly it was endangered.
Speaker 3: The two students were listed as endangered, and then just
Speaker 3: days later they found the body of limon All on
Speaker 3: that bridge in plastic bags. Two days later they find
Speaker 3: remains in Tampa Bay, and yes, today unfortunately they have
Speaker 3: officially identified those remains as Nahdah's bristies, and certainly her
Speaker 3: family was expecting the worst. They were anticipating this. They
Speaker 3: were told by police that enough of her blood had
Speaker 3: been found in that apartment that they did not believe
Speaker 3: she was alive. They've known for a long time that
Speaker 3: their loved one was almost certainly dead, but still to
Speaker 3: get the confirmation today is still a significant step in closure,
Speaker 3: and now they're angry they want justice, and that is understandable.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I don't know where we'd be right
Speaker 1: now if this criminal, this alleged criminal, hadn't been such
Speaker 1: an idiot. I mean he he. The reason they found
Speaker 1: the boy's body is because they could trace exactly where
Speaker 1: the roommate drove. They saw the car go exactly to
Speaker 1: that bridge and stop and go back. So Robes, I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't know where we'd be even if they if
Speaker 1: he was. He's so awful at this and he left
Speaker 1: crumbs and traces everywhere to get to this point. The
Speaker 1: Robes now the family, they I don't know what role
Speaker 1: the school played in off campus housing. I don't know
Speaker 1: how all that works down there, if he had a
Speaker 1: choice in it at all, if he had made complaints,
Speaker 1: I don't know. Um, I'd be curious to know. But
Speaker 1: this just makes no sense right now.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they're asking for an I think this makes total sense.
Speaker 3: They were asking for an investigation into how the university
Speaker 3: places students, how they're placed with roommates.
Speaker 2: And you know, you think about this.
Speaker 3: I have a daughter who you know, goes to university
Speaker 3: and oftentimes you do take a lottery, so to speak,
Speaker 3: as to who your roommate's going to be. You're operating
Speaker 3: under the presumption and assumption that these students have been vetted.
Speaker 3: I know that there's no way of knowing what someone's
Speaker 3: mental health might be, or what their ulterial motives could be,
Speaker 3: or what they might.
Speaker 2: Do if pushed in a certain position.
Speaker 3: It's impossible to know, and so I guess it does
Speaker 3: beg the question what is the role of the university,
Speaker 3: What is the role of anyone, maybe even his own family.
Speaker 3: And his brother has said publicly now since this has
Speaker 3: happened that he deeply regrets not pursuing charges. He dropped
Speaker 3: charges after he saw his brother act violently and erratically
Speaker 3: multiple times. He had a restraining order against him. It
Speaker 3: wasn't renewed. But he looks back now and thinks, my god,
Speaker 3: the warning signs for everywhere. And it's very easy to
Speaker 3: Monday Morning quarterback a situation like this, but when lives
Speaker 3: that are at stake, this is one of those things
Speaker 3: where you know, yes, when you're a family member, you
Speaker 3: might feel guilty or obligated to cover for someone, but
Speaker 3: in these types of situations, you see what it can
Speaker 3: lead to if you don't speak up, if you don't
Speaker 3: say something if you don't call it to attention. And
Speaker 3: granted they did to an extent, but maybe they didn't
Speaker 3: go far enough. And unfortunately, now too young folks are
Speaker 3: dead for no apparent reason. You can't even come up
Speaker 3: with a reason why these two young people could have
Speaker 3: upset this young man enough where he would have planned
Speaker 3: and plotted their demise where he spent days making searches
Speaker 3: and planning and potentially luring them to take them to
Speaker 3: murder them. It's a it's an incredibly difficult situation that
Speaker 3: doesn't have a lot of good answers, and I know
Speaker 3: we want them because we want to prevent a crime
Speaker 3: like this, But it's possible to know what was inside
Speaker 3: this young man's head at this point, and he has
Speaker 3: not spoken, he has not said what his motive was,
Speaker 3: and he certainly hasn't offered any sort of defense yet.
Speaker 3: But we will continue to follow the story. Obviously, the
Speaker 3: legal process has to continue, but we just wanted to
Speaker 3: jump on and let you know that, in fact, we
Speaker 3: have been covering the story that yes, those remains that
Speaker 3: were found in Tampa Bay are in fact the remains
Speaker 3: of Nihita Risti, and we will continue to follow the story.
Speaker 3: We appreciate you as always for listening to us I
Speaker 3: ami Robach alongside TJ.
Speaker 2: Holmes. We will talk to you soon.