Tech entrepreneur’s dismembered body found in luxury Manhattan condo
The dismembered body of 33-year-old tech entrepreneur Fahim Saleh was found inside his luxury Manhattan condo where an electric saw was left behind, police in New York have said.
Saleh was found at about 3.30pm on Tuesday inside his seventh-floor apartment on the Lower East Side. There have not yet been any arrests in connection with his death.
A relative called police after going to check on Saleh. Responding officers discovered a clothed torso, bags containing a head and arms and the electric saw in the living room, police said.
Investigators also recovered security video showing Saleh exiting an elevator that leads directly into the fullfloor, two-bedroom apartment earlier on Tuesday afternoon, closely followed by someone dressed entirely in black, including a mask, according to a law enforcement official who was briefed on the case. It also shows a struggle between the two at the entrance to the apartment, said the official, who was not authorised to discuss the investigation and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Police believe the relative may have interrupted the intruder before they fled through a back exit.
The medical examiner ruled the death a homicide after an autopsy found the cause of death to be multiple stab wounds to the body.
Saleh was the chief executive of a ride-hailing motorcycle startup, Gokada, which began operating in Nigeria in 2018.
The company confirmed his death on Twitter on Wednesday and said: “Fahim was a great leader, inspiration and positive light for all of us.”
Investigators were exploring whether the killing could have been related to Saleh’s business dealings. They were checking security camera video from the neighbourhood to try to locate the suspect.
Saleh’s LinkedIn biography described him as a self-taught businessman who founded Gokada based on his experience of first “seeing an opportunity in his parent’s native country of Bangladesh” and starting that country’s largest ride-sharing company. It said he also was invested in a similar venture in Colombia.