A victim found dead inside a luxury New York condo with his head and various body parts chopped off has been identified as a tech entrepreneur who launched the popular app “Prank Dial” before starting up the motorcycle taxi business, Gokada.
The Daily Beast reports that 33-year-old Fahim Saleh was found lifeless inside his high-end Manhattan condo off of East Houston Street on Tuesday afternoon. Authorities answered a call about the incident a little after 3 p.m. and arrived to find someone had cut off the victim’s head, arms, and legs.
Several plastic bags were found inside the apartment and an electric saw was sitting by the victim’s torso. It was still plugged into an outlet when authorities arrived at the grisly scene.
The suspected killer was reportedly seen sitting in the condo lobby a day before Saleh’s death. Security footage captured the suspect wearing a black hood and mask while following Saleh as he got into an elevator inside the lobby.
“He looks like the grim reaper,” a police source told The Daily Beast.
When the elevator reached the seventh floor, where the victim’s apartment was located, an altercation broke out. However, the elevator door closed, stopping the camera’s from filming what happened next.
Saleh’s sister made the gruesome discovery the following day. Investigators said the killer may have fled after hearing the woman trying to get into the apartment, as large trash bags and the electric saw were left behind in the apartment, along with “some” of the body parts. Other body parts had already been removed from the apartment.
“It wasn’t a sloppy crime scene,” the law enforcement source told The Daily Beast. “It wasn’t from what I saw, a bloody crime scene.”
The New York Post reports that months before his death, Saleh posted a video defending Gokada after Nigerian officials banned the company’s motorcycle taxis in Lagos. Saleh apparently did business in both the U.S. and Nigeria.
Despite the ban, the company launched a package delivery service in Lagos less than a month after the official ban kicked into place.
“Lagos, if you want amazing things to happen, support your entrepreneurs,” Saleh said during the YouTube video.
So far, no suspects have been named. Check back for updates.
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[Feature Photo: Fahim Saleh/YouTube Screenshot]