Two University of South Florida doctoral students are missing, police say

Two doctoral students at the University of South Florida are missing, the school’s police department said in a statement Tuesday.

Zamil Limon and Nahida S. Bristy, both 27 and from Bangladesh, were last seen on Thursday, the USFPD said.

Limon, a doctoral student who is pursuing a degree in geography, environmental science & policy, was last seen at 9 a.m. Thursday in his Tampa residence, police said. There has been no contact with him since, and the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office processed a missing persons report for him.

Bristy was also last seen on Thursday, but at 10 a.m. in the Natural and Environmental Sciences (NES) Building on the USF Tampa campus, according to police. She is studying chemical engineering. The USFPD processed her missing persons report.

Limon’s residence is less than a 10-minute drive from the NES Building where Bristy was last seen.

Missing University of South Florida students Nahida S. Bristy and Zamil Limon.University of South Florida

On Friday, just before 5 p.m., a family friend reported that they were unable to contact both Limon and Bristy. That call triggered the missing persons reports and prompted police to enter both Limon and Bristy into missing persons databases.

Officials have said the two are friends and may be together.

Family members also told NBC News it’s out of character for Limon and Bristy, who both have family in Bangladesh, to go off the grid and not keep regular contact with their loved ones.

The pair previously dated

Limon’s younger brother, Zubaer Ahmed, 25, told NBC News Wednesday, that Limon and Bristy were “close friends” and appeared to be romantically linked.

Limon and Bristy were “thinking about having [a] future together,” but both were dedicated to their studies, Ahmed, speaking from Bangladesh, said.

Asked if the two were thinking of getting married, he said, “As far as I know or as far I have learned, they are thinking about or talking about it,” but he noted they weren’t thinking about it to the point where they’d “take some serious steps, kind of like disappearance or something like that.”

Image: Zamil Limon and his brother Zubaer Ahmed. — Zamil Limon and his brother Zubaer Ahmed.Courtesy Zubaer Ahmed

Ahmed described both as “very serious” people who would not “disappear without telling anyone.”

Zahaid Hasan Pranto, Bristy’s older brother, 29, told NBC News the pair had a romantic relationship in the past but weren’t actively dating.

“From my sister’s friends, I came to know like she was still emotionally engaged,” he said, speaking from Bangladesh.

Both had plans to travel to Bangladesh for a visit, and Limon had booked his roundtrip ticket, Ahmed added.

Belongings left behind

The day of the disappearance, Bristy had left her belongings including her laptop, iPad and lunchbox behind in a university lab, Pranto said.

“Only the purse and phone was missing from there,” he said.

Limon had left his apartment with his phone and wallet. Police found his passport in the apartment, Ahmed said.

Ahmed said his family last spoke to Limon last Monday, Bangladeshi time, and his brother was “very busy” with thesis submission deadlines.

“So we didn’t call him for two days, and after two days, we [were] informed that he is missing,” Ahmed said.

“It’s been five days, and we are in great pain,” he added.

He said police told his family that Limon’s phone was last traced around 11 a.m. Thursday to his apartment, and Bristy around 5 p.m. that day to the USF campus area.

“Concerning is that police haven’t just found anything suspicious in CCTV footage, or they didn’t provide, didn’t share anything,” he said.

Bristy’s family last spoke with her around noon Tampa time on Thursday, the day that she went missing, Pranto said.

Pranto said Bristy talks on the phone with her parents twice a day, and that last conversation was “normal” and she mentioned having plans to go grocery shopping with a friend. She did not mention Limon.

“We could not contact her on Friday. So at that point, we [were] already concerned,” he said.

Pranto said police also found Bristy’s passport.

Family say students would not willingly vanish

Both brothers stressed their siblings would never go offline or willingly disappear.

Asked if it is out of character for Limon to go offline temporarily, Ahmed said, “In my wildest dream, I don’t think he will do that.”

“It’s like a completely impossible thing, doing something like that for him,” he said.

Pranto said the situation was concerning and the family is devastated by Bristy’s disappearance.

“She would never do that, never do something like this. Never put our family through this pain and everything,” he said.

He issued a public plea to his sister: “Just be safe and contact us. Everyone is just worried, and we just want you to come back safe and sound.”

The brothers also expressed concern that the police started to publicize the case just this week.

“Police basically told us to not go to public because it can be an abduction case. That was their theory at the first moment,” Pranto said. “So after some time like yesterday, I think police went to public because they were not being able to find any solid clue.”

The Bangladeshi embassy told Ahmed’s family it requested that the FBI get involved in the missing person case, he said. The embassy also told both families that ICE confirmed that neither Limon nor Bristy are in its custody, the brothers said.

Police are asking that anyone who has seen Limon or Bristy, or has information regarding their whereabouts, contact USFPD at (813) 974-2628.

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