Two University of South Florida students

Hillsborough County prosecutors allege, based on an arrest affidavit and court records, that Hisham Saleh Abugharbieh, 26, consulted ChatGPT before and after the killings of University of South Florida doctoral students Zamil Ahamed Limon, 27, and Nahida Sultana Bristy, 27, both Bangladeshi nationals. Reported queries before the disappearance include "what would happen if a human body was put in a garbage bag and thrown in a dumpster," and, on 2026-04-15, "Can a VIN number on a car be changed?" and "Can you keep a gun at home with out a license." Queries after the disappearance include "Has there been someone who survived a sniper bullet to the head" and "will my neighbors hear my gun." Prosecutors also say he bought black trash bags before the students vanished. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced on 2026-04-27 that he was expanding his existing criminal investigation into OpenAI — opened over the Florida State University shooting — to include this case, saying "if it was a person on the other end of that screen, we would be charging them with murder."

The deaths are established by official findings. The Pinellas County Medical Examiner's Office determined Limon's cause of death to be multiple sharp force injuries and the manner to be homicide; the report described a deep stab wound to his lower back that penetrated his liver, among other wounds. Limon's remains were recovered near the Howard Frankland Bridge on 2026-04-24, the same day as the arrest. Bristy's remains were recovered days later in water near I-275 and Fourth Street North in St. Petersburg and identified on or about 2026-05-01; reporting describes evidence of multiple stab wounds. Both students were last seen 2026-04-16 in Tampa.

The criminal case is well documented. Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office deputies responded to a domestic-violence call at the 14000 block of Pine Glen Circle at 9:09 a.m. on 2026-04-24, where Abugharbieh barricaded himself; SWAT took him into custody at about 10:30 a.m. Charges were upgraded on 2026-04-25 to two counts of first-degree premeditated murder with a weapon. A Hillsborough County grand jury indicted him on seven counts on 2026-05-06/07. State Attorney Suzy Lopez's office filed a Notice of Intent to Seek the Death Penalty, citing aggravating factors of "cold, calculated, and premeditated" conduct and "especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel" circumstances, and said "we will ask the jury to sentence the defendant to death for his crimes." He was arraigned 2026-05-18 and pleaded not guilty.

The AI link exists in the official record as prosecution evidence of the defendant's conduct, not as an official finding about the model. The queries are drawn from the arrest affidavit and court records and are quoted in fragments by reporters; no full transcript, exhibit, or model output has been published. The content described is consistent with concealment planning and general legal/ballistic curiosity. No prosecutor, medical examiner, or court has stated that ChatGPT contributed to the deaths, and the Florida AG's investigation is an open inquiry, not a finding — as of the reporting, his office was still weighing whether to subpoena OpenAI directly in this case or to involve itself in the Hillsborough prosecution.

Official findings: Zamil Ahamed Limon — cause of death: multiple sharp force injuries; manner: homicide; determined by the Pinellas County Medical Examiner's Office. Nahida Sultana Bristy — remains identified on or about 2026-05-01; reporting describes evidence of multiple stab wounds; formal cause and manner determination not located in public sources. Investigating agencies: Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office (lead), with St. Petersburg-area recovery in Pinellas County. Prosecuting agency: State Attorney's Office, Thirteenth Judicial Circuit (State Attorney Suzy Lopez); grand jury indictment 2026-05-06/07 on seven counts; death penalty notice filed. Separate open criminal investigation into OpenAI by Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, expanded to this case 2026-04-27; no charges filed against OpenAI or its personnel. No official finding attributes either death to AI.

Model: ChatGPT, version not specified. The arrest affidavit and prosecutors' descriptions quoted in reporting name ChatGPT but no model version. OpenAI's response likewise does not name a version.

Research notes (2026-08-24): Searched 2026-08-24. Could not locate: the Hillsborough County circuit court case number (hillsclerk.com case search is not indexed for this defendant in web results, and the SAO and HCSO releases do not print it); the arrest affidavit or indictment as a PDF; any ChatGPT transcript or exhibit; the Pinellas County Medical Examiner report as a document (findings are cited via press reporting of the report); a formal cause-and-manner determination for Nahida Bristy; any subpoena document from the Florida AG to OpenAI in this case, and confirmation of whether one was ultimately issued. hillsboroughsao.gov, myfloridalegal.com, floridaphoenix.com, axios.com and cnn.com all returned HTTP 403/451 to automated fetch; those URLs are cited from search results and their content corroborated through WUSF, WTSP, MySuncoast and WLRN. Indictment date is reported as May 6 by WUSF and May 7 by other outlets; both are recorded. Deaths are dated to the 2026-04-16 disappearance, which is the last-seen date rather than a medical examiner time of death. Note the earlier, separate Florida State University shooting matter (accused shooter Phoenix Ikner; a victim's family has accused OpenAI of enabling the attack and the AG's investigation began there) is a distinct incident and was not researched as part of this case.

OpenAI said in response to this case that ChatGPT "provided factual responses to questions with information that could be found broadly across public sources" and "did not encourage or promote illegal or harmful activity." The company separately said it was "looking into the reports" and would "support law enforcement in any way with their investigation." No published excerpt contradicts the company's characterization: the reported queries seek general information (whether a VIN can be changed, whether a gun can be kept without a license, whether anyone has survived a head shot, whether neighbors would hear a gun) and none of the public excerpts show the model supplying a method, encouraging the acts, or optimizing a plan.

Significant gaps remain. The chat log is unpublished; what exists publicly is short quoted fragments in reporting drawn from an arrest affidavit, with no exhibit, no timestamps for most items, and no model responses shown at all. The cause of death was sharp force injury, which the reported queries do not touch. Several queries — the sniper-survival and gunshot-noise questions — were made after the students disappeared and so cannot bear on the planning of the deaths. Reporting is inconsistent about which victim was Abugharbieh's roommate (most sources say Limon; at least one says Bristy). The Florida AG's expansion is an announced investigation with a strongly worded quote, not a charging decision, and the first-in-the-nation theory of holding AI executives criminally liable has not been tested. All charges are allegations; the defendant has pleaded not guilty and no trial has occurred.