ChatGPT Was Reportedly Consulted on Body-Disposal and Concealment Questions Before and After University of South Florida Doctoral Students Were Killed

In April 2024, Hisham Abugharbieh, a 26-year-old former USF student, used ChatGPT to ask disturbing questions including what would happen if a human body was put in a garbage bag and thrown in a dumpster, whether vehicle identification numbers could be changed, and about keeping unlicensed guns at home. ChatGPT responded that Abugharbieh's questions sounded dangerous. Days later, two USF doctoral students from Bangladesh, Zamil Limon and Nahida Bristy, both 27, disappeared on April 16. Limon was studying geography, environmental science and policy, while Bristy was studying chemical engineering. After the disappearance, Abugharbieh continued asking ChatGPT questions including whether someone could survive a sniper bullet to the head, if neighbors would hear gunshots, and what 'missing endangered adult' meant. Police found evidence including blood in Abugharbieh's apartment, the victims' belongings in trash compactors, and used location data to find Limon's body in a trash bag on Howard Frankland bridge with multiple stab wounds. Bristy's body was later found in a nearby waterway. Abugharbieh was charged with two counts of premeditated murder in the first degree and is being held without bond. Florida's attorney general has launched an investigation into whether ChatGPT offered advice that facilitated these killings, expanding a similar investigation into another case where ChatGPT was consulted before a shooting at Florida State University.