Photo: Collected
Staff Reporter: The body of a decapitated, dismembered tech CEO was found inside a Lower East Side apartment on Tuesday afternoon, sorted in plastic bags right next to a power saw, sources told New York Media.
Police came upon the grisly scene shortly after 3:30 p.m., after a cousin of the dead man requested a welfare check at the man’s E. Houston Street building and called police, the sources said.
An electric saw was found near the body, which was described as a 33-year-old man. The victim’s arms and legs below the knees were removed, and body parts were found in plastic bags found in the apartment, the sources said.
Police sources believe the victim to be Fahim Saleh, a venture capitalist and the CEO of the Nigeria-based motorbike startup Gokada. Saleh is listed as the owner of the apartment, which he purchased last year for $2.25 million, records show.
“This is ugly,” one cop at the scene said. Sources described the killing as an apparent targeted murder.
The victim was last seen on surveillance footage Monday afternoon around 1:40 p.m., when he entered his building’s elevator, which opens right out to his seventh-floor apartment, sources said.
The footage from the apartment building appears to show the suspected killer carrying a bag, waiting to enter the elevator with the victim, sources said.
Photo: Collected
The victim gives the suspect a puzzled look during an exchange as they ride up together. As soon as the victim steps out into his apartment, the suspect can be seen attacking him, according to sources.
One law enforcement source said the crime scene looked like a “professional” killing because almost no blood was left behind and the apartment was not looted.
While another source added that it appeared that the killer had been “interrupted.”
“It didn’t look like the perp was done,” the source said. Investigators believe the victim to be Saleh, but they’re waiting for the Medical Examiner to confirm his identity.
Police were later seen questioning a sobbing woman — who sources identified as the victim’s cousin — in the lobby of the building.
The victim’s cousin found his torso exposed in the living room alongside the construction bags and saw when she went to check on him Tuesday after not hearing from him, according to sources.
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