Co-founder of Gokada found decapitated, dismembered inside New York condo | Hacker News Reader

Co-founder of Gokada found decapitated, dismembered inside New York condo

nydailynews.com

428 pointsryanmccullagh370 comments

Wow, I went to school with Fahim at Bentley University. Although we shared friends, I didn't know him personally. I did take computer science classes with him and it was clear he was one of the most talented students in the program. This is so unbelievably sad and shocking. My heart goes out to his friends and family.

> The condos in the building are full-floor and the keyed elevator opens right into the apartment.

Doesn't this mean that anybody with the [widely, publicly known] FDNY elevator override key can get right into the apartment? I've seen far too many physical pentesting talks (i.e. any at all) to trust a setup like that for my home in a city.

Doesn't seem to be the issue in this case:

> One of the law enforcement officials said a surveillance camera had captured video of Mr. Saleh in the building’s elevator with another person who was wearing a black suit and black mask. On the video, the elevator door opens and Mr. Saleh goes into the apartment, the official said. The masked person follows directly behind him, and the two immediately start to struggle, the official said.

And from a recent update: https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/ny-decapitate...

> The worried sister went to the apartment because she hadn’t seen her brother in a day, and arrived only to find his butchered body, cops said.

> The suspect bolted via a staircase as the sister rode the elevator upstairs to visit victim Fahim Saleh, with her impending arrival interrupting the killer’s efforts to scrub the bloody condo clean and dispose of the body, the source said.

> “He was dressed like a ninja, full out, so you can’t even see his face,” the source said. “He clearly knew what he was doing. We think his intent was to get rid of the body parts and go back and clean it up and make it look like nothing happened. He left before he finished the job.”

> The assassin stabbed him repeatedly in the chest to kill him, according to his autopsy results. He used a stun gun to incapacitate Saleh before murdering him, police sources said.

> A police source indicated investigators believed the grisly execution was prompted by a business deal gone lethally bad.

Is that quote from a different article? I'm either not seeing it in the article or my ctrl+F powers are failing me.

It's from the NYT article originally associated with this post: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/nyregion/dismembered-body...

yeah, dang mentions the link was changed a couple of times

Thanks. By the time I got here dang's comments were buried on pg 2.

Would you have a house with windows on the street? Do you walk outside without body armor and a bullet proof vest? Get in a cab... without knowing the driver or having bullet proof glass?

Society wouldn't be very fun or fruitful if we all lived in secure underground bunkers.

There's a qualitative difference between wanting to live in a bunker, and having the front door key to my house be on the Internet for anyone with a blank and a bastard file to copy in half an hour.

Not that penthouse problems will ever be my problems, granted. But let's not be too absurd here.

Almost every single family home on the planet can be broken into just by smashing a window. That's a far bigger vulnerability than the possibility of hacking someone's elevator. Most burglars are not very tech savvy but everyone knows how to swing a hammer.

I think there are a lot of people who wouldn’t break a window to steal from a house but who would steal from a house if they found the door key.

Twenty years ago we had a Boy Scout in the neighborhood that was kicking front doors in and doing snatch and run burglaries, purses, cameras (phones weren't a thing yet). Mid day. Do you know how loud that had to be?

Most people lost more from the door/door frame damage than they did from the theft.

We used to buy popcorn and snacks from him when the scouts were fundraising. Great opportunity to case places....

I really don't think so? It's an equally serious crime either way.

Utterly untrue. Clearly you've never lived anywhere dangerous - bars are a necessity.

What are you saying? That privileged suburb experiences growing up can't be extrapolated for all people?

Not sure that kind of talk is allowed here, HN feels very strongly about how all knowledge can be extrapolated from first principles if you grew up in a nice enough suburb.

The noise and evidence of a broken window acts as a strong deterrent - as well as a warning system to those inside. Using a stolen/copied/fabricated key is comparatively silent.

See my other post about the local kid kicking in front doors.

Also, other than "high security" locks, it is easier to bump a lock than it is to get a duplicate key. Most people have mid grade entry sets on their house. Anybody can learn to bump those, with some practice, and it only takes about twenty or thirty seconds, particularly on an older, worn, lock.

I taught myself, decades ago, and was surprised how easy it was. My father always said, locks just keep honest people honest.

If you have that kind of money you can build a concrete wall with a vault door in front of the elevator.

It seems the victim had a very comfortable situation, but the building itself don't seem to require "that kind of money".

Per the article:

> ...found inside a $2 million Lower East Side condo...

It may sound absurd for folks outside of NY (or Bay Area), but $2M barely gets you a 2/2 in Manhattan these days [1].

[1] https://newconstructionmanhattan.com/nyc-apartments-by-price...

>>It may sound absurd for folks outside of NY (or Bay Area), but $2M barely gets you a 2/2 in Manhattan these days

$2M USD can buy an older stock 3-bed 2-bath or "classic six"[1] co-op apartment in Manhattan.[2] Anything north of $2M for a 2-bed 2-bath is more likely to be in an expensive neighborhood, an explicitly expensive/luxury building or new (and likely luxury) condo unit building. This last category is pertinent to NYC real-estate because most apartment inventory is co-op compared to condo.[3]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_Six

[2] https://streeteasy.com/3-bedroom-apartments-for-sale/manhatt...

[3] https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/07/realestate/getting-starte...

Welcome to life outside of developed countries. This is life even for some countries considered 'developed'.

While there is some correlation of murder rates and GDP, it's rather noisy: https://wernerantweiler.ca/blog/2017-10-04-a.pdf

The GINI seems to be a somewhat better fit: https://i.imgur.com/vYSsLMw.png

I am not convinced by the gini fit. There must be something else. Apart from that: because of not keeping up with stats, i always thought that south africa has the most murder per capita (apart from war zones). What has happened: Jamaica is almost double. Did SA get better or did central america take a significant slide downwards?

Well the victim's business was in developing countries. Perhaps his killer or killers were based there too.

This sounds a bit extreme. Which ones are the “outside of developed countries” and how many of them require walking around in body armor everywhere?

This has been the norm growing up in the Philippines. We lived in a gilded fortress and we're not drug dealers. We learn about the dangers of being kidnapped before we enter grade school. I can go on, but it's not much different from life in many parts of South America, Africa, and South & South East Asia. You're not required to wear body armor, but seeing that there are armed guards posted outside of a KFC with body armor and either an assault rifle or shotgun; it's not a terrible idea either.

Yes, it's very different from the sheltered life of a developed country.

You can tell when someone's broken your window

So you’re afraid of coming home and there’s someone hiding in the house? How often does this actually happen compared to homes secured differently? It’s not like most houses have some impossible to pick locks...

Possibly. Though the apartments I’ve been in that have elevators that open directly into the unit here in NYC have had doormen at the front entrance. Generally if you’re rich enough for that sort of setup the building is rich enough for a doorman (I’m sure there are exceptions though).

> Generally if you’re rich enough for that sort of setup the building is rich enough for a doorman

That's true for newer buildings that are purposely built to be luxury apartment buildings. But if you're living in a building that used to be an office building or a factory then it's not necessarily going to have a doorman. This applies to a lot of the old industrial buildings in SoHo, Chelsea, the meatpacking district, Union Square, etc. It's basically impossible to change where the elevator shaft of a building is after it's been built, because it's part of the structural support system of the building, so you can't just move everything around to add a lobby and front desk to the ground floor after the fact.

For sure, there are exceptions. A friend of mine is in one of those old SoHo buildings that was converted to luxury apartments, and the doorman in the lobby is basically just at a desk someone threw into the corner of the entrance since there is no room for anything else.

That’s putting a lot of trust in the doorman. Having lived in doorman buildings in Manhattan for a long time, I definitely considered the building staff as much (or more) of a security risk as any outsiders.

There’s plenty of newer “boutique” buildings in Manhattan/Brooklyn with the elevator direct to apartment without a doorman. It’s not necessarily more expensive to do it this way if you think about it. You don’t need a lobby or halls on each floor for one.

Good point. It would make me super uncomfortable to have random people that haven’t gone through security ride with me essentially into my home. Not that I’m even the type of person that would want to live in these silly luxury buildings though.

Okay, but most people are murdered by someone they knew (well).

Very true. You're much more likely to be killed by someone out of rage or mental illness than being mugged and then shot as a random victim.

The big difference is for the first case you can influence it very strongly, the second one is indiscriminate. So the personal risk for you (and for me) might be much higher for the random mugging case.

And I have to wonder if that is what happened in this case.

You can always install your own door in your own apartment.

Probably not. There is most likely another door once the elevator opens, that also require some sort of key.

I have several friends who live in these types of apartments and all of them have apartments where the elevator opens directly into the unit. This is a common setup.

I've never been in such an apartment, but that is how Robin Colcord's private elevator worked on Cheers, so I believe you.

Do residents never get in the elevator with other tenants of the building? It would feel odd to open my door to complete strangers like that just because the elevator stopped on my floor before theirs.

In all the instances I have personal experience with the buildings are very small. No more than a dozen units and so there isn't usually a big risk of running into anyone. Also, I don't think you can actually ring multiple floors in those elevators. The elevator would need to take you to your unit then go back to the lobby to get the next person.

The building this attack happened in had a total of 7 units.

I'd get a lobby built around that elevator with an additional locked door.. or maybe I'm too paranoid.

This is actually how they are frequently built. Not always, obviously, but it is extremely common for full floor apartments to still have a “lobby” for the unit around the elevator.

I'd say you're spot on. Compromising an elevator can't be the hardest thing to do computing wise. It's all actuators in the end and they really don't care what gives the signal.

Not necessarily. I have not been in the building in question, but have looked at multiple other apartments in NYC where the elevator opened directly into the unit, no door. Typically older buildings, not newer construction.

How horrible. Why would someone do this? I'd never heard of Gokada, it looks like such a cool thing for a developing country.

I wonder what the motivation was. It doesn't seem like a market where there'd be the political pressure to assassinate someone. Maybe if there was someone trying to rethink the way pharmaceuticals or something, I could understand a CEO getting chopped into pieces by some shadowy figure, but ridesharing? It benefits everyone to carpool and use fewer cars to get people from place to place.

Ugh. God bless his family.

It's worth noting that there was a sudden & pretty draconian regulation passed early this year that gutted Gokada's primary business (ridesharing on motorbikes). He was very passionate in his disagreement with the government's decision. The company pivoted pretty neatly (in my opinion) to last-mile deliveries instead - the pandemic certainly helped drive demand - but currently there's morbid speculation that potential financial struggles on Gokada's part might have been a factor in his murder. There's also the possibility of someone in power being displeased at how vocal he was about the regulation.

Okay, to play devil's advocate for a moment.

What is there to gain financially from killing him, if his previous business was gutted by regulatory changes?

The killer was evidently belonging to a highly capable skillset, and I'm extrapolating that they very nearly got away with his body in tow, and nobody would've been the wiser.

Could they not have kidnapped him and ransomed the company? If there's financial qualms on the board, I just don't understand why they'd just kill him then. If they went to deliveries, does that mean other delivery couriers are to be scrutinized?

Maybe he was involved with something dirty?

If it was a state agent of Nigeria that is responsible, idk, that'd be geopolitical suicide, putting hits out on private entrepreneurs across national borders...

Of course, had they gotten away, it may have seemed as though he just vanished, which I suppose is the ideal scenario for a state-sanctioned killing.

Ugh. This is beyond horrible all the way around.

Well, the idea is less financial gain and more punishment/retribution. You don't disappear/kill people in such a manner unless you want to send a message of some sort.

It's possible that he might have taken an investment from someone that does not take failure/underdelivery as an answer. Or that Gokada's continued existence pissed off someone that intended the company to go under. It could also possibly be much more personal than that - there are many people who are wealthy enough to order such a hit with relative impunity (as long as they remain in Nigeria - our justice system and infrastructure is frankly not the greatest). It could also have nothing to do with Nigeria at all; he had business ventures and personal affairs elsewhere.

It's all speculation at this point and I just hope whatever it is doesn't crush the company. Gokada employs a thousand riders but beyond that it's helped so many small businesses grow and thrive especially during this period; there's a huge informal vendor culture in Lagos that's enabled by companies like this.

Please don't bad mouth Nigeria. This case is not yet fully understood and we can't make any conclusions yet.

My intention is not to bad mouth Nigeria - I did, quite literally, say that it's entirely speculation and that the case might very well have nothing whatsoever to do with the country (and even if it involves Gokada, the aggrieved party is not necessarily Nigerian).

Regarding infrastructure, my point is that it's far easier for someone to disappear from the eye of law enforcement here than in many other countries.

> if his previous business was gutted by regulatory changes?

There are some people you just don't want to owe money to. I'm not speculating on if that was the case here, just that in the US, that sort of thing is the realm of movies. Elsewhere in the world (and also parts of the US) that still the reality of borrowing large sums of money.

Given the local environment they operate in I wonder if someone was on the take for them to operate originally. Maybe the regulation changes cause Gokada to not want to pay but that wasn't copacetic with the demands of the "shaker"?

As you pointed out, business in these countries isn't clean and clear as it is in most countries HN'ers live in.

I saw crazy shakedowns in Northern Africa when I briefly lived there. I wouldn't doubt the same to be seen in other countries.

>that'd be geopolitical suicide

Saudi Arabia seems to be doing fine last I checked.

One interesting fact linked to this country is that he was born in Saudi Arabia as well.

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/nyregion/dismembered-body...

Operating mode sounds much like it happened with Jamal Khashoggi, could he be another victim of MBS or some other Saudi prince?

Saudi Arabia carried out an extrajudicial killing in a small, neighboring state. This was carried out in the US. And for all intents and purposes could be considered an act of war against a state that has an unlimited war chest.

Turkey isn’t small in any way. It’s a regional powerhouse.

Turkey has the second largest military in NATO (after US) and by quite a margin

A superpower doesn't go to war over an isolated assassination of (with all due respect to the victim and his family) some random rich kid. Casus belli is invoked only where there was a pre-existing ambition. I don't think the US have any ambition to take over Saudi Arabia, when they couldn't even run Iraq.

> small, neighboring state

That "small, neighboring state" is a №2 state in NATO

That was my thought: Us foreign policy is such a mess that its territory is now open to international hitmen.

I look at one possibility as he raised/borrowed money from the wrong people and then when things went pear shaped, he couldn't get them their promised profit, got chopped up to set an example.

Either that or sex

He was followed by a man he did not invite to his apartment, doesn’t look like he knew his killer

> What is there to gain financially from killing him, if his previous business was gutted by regulatory changes?

Devil's devil's advocate - the motivation for the killing doesn't need to be "rational" or make sense from our perspective. It could be pathological, it could be revenge, who knows?

> nobody would've been the wiser.

Except they would have footage of two people going into the apartment (one person apparently wearing a ninja outfit), and only one person leaving.

That could have been a tipoff that something was askew.

Are you inferring "ninja outfit" from the article description? Because it vaguely mentions a black suit and face mask. And I'm not entirely sure "face mask" doesn't just mean a now-standard-in-a-pandemic mask type.

In some parts of the world, for some people, it was enough to want to kill him to actually do it. And in such a brutal way.

It doesn't have to be that complicated.

"The killer was evidently belonging to a highly capable skillset," - no, it's not skill, it's just the diabolical will to actually do such a thing. Depending on circumstances, there can be a lack of evidence ... and that's that.

> What is there to gain financially from killing him, if his previous business was gutted by regulatory changes?

It may be as simple as being the member of the board another member is displeased with. Not suggesting that, just saying sometimes your very existence is a liability to others.

> If it was a state agent of Nigeria that is responsible, idk, that'd be geopolitical suicide, putting hits out on private entrepreneurs across national borders

When in Rome....

First thing that comes to mind: What was the financial or other motivation behind Mohammed bin Salman killing Khashoggi?

It's a power move. Putin does it too.

The degree to which the American president praises the dictators of this world makes you wonder if he wishes he could do it too.

I think he might if he thought he could get himself out of it someway. Look at how callous the administration has been about allowing covid to go wild without even blinking until lately. Tens of thousands of people dead for no reason, soon to be hundreds of thousands. It's a nightmare.

I know television and film popularize this kind of thing, but how often are people actually murdered and dismembered for financial reasons??? Same question around murder-for-hire generally, as well as specifically "someone in power" being so upset as to murder the man brutally?

Could have just as easily been a date, a hookup, a serial killer, someone perturbed at wealth inequality and better living standards.

Just as much as this financial or business hitman speculation.

Its all happened in NYC. Chopped up into bags sounds like cartel or organized, it happened to OneCoin promoters in Mexico this month too. But we dont know yet for this case.

The chance is part of the rush.

>Could have just as easily been a date, a hookup, a serial killer, someone perturbed at wealth inequality and better living standards.

The CCTV footage would seem to make those first two somewhat less likely:

"One of the law enforcement officials said a surveillance camera had captured video of Mr. Saleh in the building’s elevator with another person who was wearing a black suit and black mask."

"On the video, the elevator door opens and Mr. Saleh goes into the apartment, the official said. The masked person follows directly behind him, and the two immediately start to struggle, the official said."

Did the assailant come with a chainsaw? How did the saw get there? It's highly unlikely that a condo dweller would have a chainsaw sitting around.

It just says an "electric saw". Probably a reciprocating saw or something. You'd get even more attention from neighbors (who apparently heard a violent altercation, and didn't call police-- instead calling his sister??) using a chain saw.

Dismembering someone is something that most people do not have the fortitude for and goes way beyond a crime of passion. It is not just as likely to have been a "date, hookup or somone perturbed at inequality". Serial killer, maybe, however they are much rarer than some sort of cartel/organized outfit.

Could just be a mentally ill person who somehow latched onto this one guy in their paranoia. Also probably much rarer than organized crime hits.

He was facing an Uber-like regulatory situation in Lagos where his startup was facing a ban.

If this was related to his startup (and not some other personal dealing) then a clear motive would be for a legacy carrier being disrupted to want end his startup...

Oh!

Your comment made me realize I was making an assumption that it was related to his business. I guess I just figure for someone to be trying to make progress in a place where progress is sorely needed, that its unlikely for them to have relationships or dealings that would warrant such heavy-handed consequences.

If it was political, I wonder who benefits the most from this. Surely there will be scrutiny now, if there's more case details than are reported. I hope they don't get away with this. This will scare off entrepreneurs, maybe that's exactly what the killer wants. Maybe they want to discourage not only Gokada, but any company or product that might disrupt status quo.

Who knows. This is nasty stuff.

It could simply have been personal too. Have you ever watched Uncut Gems? I knew someone like the loan shark guy that if he didn't win, he would "win" anyways just to ease his inner cognitive dissonance. Just glad that he didn't have the money to pay for a hitman cause I could be dead too.

His start up?

Wasn't just his company - bike sharing was banned in the state without warning. Also, commercial bike operations were banned on major roads and completely in some cities.

Following Lagos state, neighboring states immediately announced bans, telling the ride sharing companies not to come over.

Bike ride sharing companies were forced to rebrand as dispatchers. The bikes however must have delivery boxes fitted on the bikes else - the bikes would be seized.

you'd be surprised. it seems he was getting death threats because of his business. disrupting established syndicates doing business transferring large amounts of cash everyday is risky. in France for example, taxi drivers burned Ubers in protest.

Did they burn them with the drivers inside? If not, how is that comparable to killing and dismembering a human being?

It's comparable because usually you don't get these kinds of violent reactions when you disrupt a market

>you don't get these kinds of violent reactions when you disrupt a market

Only in developed countries, in a lot of the world that's actually exactly what you get when you disrupt someone's market.

I worked at a small US defense contractor for a couple of years. I was not in that loop, but my impression from those that were was that this sort of thing was to be expected if you entered into competition against the wrong incumbent.

Referring to that happening in the US too or just abroad?

In the US. But here we are better at keeping it down low.

Very true.

Not specifically in France, but at least in Pretoria, South Africa an Uber driver's car was set on fire with him inside and he died. That's the only one where someone was burned to death in a car that I remember hearing about but there may have been other similar incidents.

Arson may not be murder, but comparing one violent felony to another doesn't seem too unreasonable to me.

It's definitely in the same direction if not the same league.

In Korea, taxi drivers burned themselves to protest ride-sharing: https://www.vice.com/en_au/article/qvyzn5/south-korea-uber-k...

"If not, how is that comparable to killing and dismembering a human being?" The power differential isn't there either, the comparison would be 'head of Uber' not an 'Uber Driver'. Also, France is not Nigeria.

> how is that comparable to killing and dismembering a human being

It's comparable because it happened in France? :)

Ask Jimmy Hoffa.

> Why would someone do this?

Robbery? Murder during attempt to get the victim to transfer money or bitcoins to an intruder? Lots of possibilities even without any context except the victim being somewhat wealthy.

I'm not well versed in these matters but I'd imagine it takes some effort to butcher a fully grown human body. Most likely the perpetrator went there with the intention to butcher the body for whatever reason. Possibly ease of transport. Seems like a lot of effort for robbery.

Organised crime sending message to others unwilling to "cooperate".

Clearly a message was being sent

Oh, hey, I got that scholarship.

business deal gone bad. one simply does not start a business in Nigeria without paying local gangs first.

I'll preface this by saying it is utter, pure, unmitigated speculation.

With that out of the way, as someone who's lived in NYC for decades, I would say that most stories you hear with these broad strokes involve cocaine.

> I wonder what the motivation was. Maybe if there was someone trying to rethink the way pharmaceuticals or something, I could understand a CEO getting chopped into pieces by some shadowy figure, but ridesharing? It benefits everyone to carpool and use fewer cars to get people from place to place.

If I were a betting man, my money would be on he owed someone money from his part of the world and decided that because the law said that the debt evaporated his creditors would let it go.

Uh wow, I never heard of this company or person, but this is horrible and tragic. However I just read "The Upstarts", the 2017 book about AirBNB and Uber.

It specifically mentions that 2 rideshare leaders felt their lives were threatened by local competition. I believe it was the original founder of Seamless in NYC, and an early executive at Uber, I believe when they were launching in NYC. Apparently it's not uncommon for taxis and limos to be have connections to local crime.

I have no idea if that happened here, but I've also never heard of a story like this in the tech startup world.

Escobar owned all taxis in Medellin

Our president's former attorney owned a taxi business:

https://www.npr.org/2018/05/13/610849891/michael-cohens-trou...

Spent some time in Budapest for work and the local taxis are so dialed in with mafia & local politicians that Uber and Lyft are both banned there.

Looks like Gokada had investors in America, South Africa, and Dubai[1], did most of their motorcycle ride-hailing business in Nigeria, but Nigeria recently banned passenger motorcycles which was obviously a huge blow to the business.

His investors probably weren't too thrilled seeing him live in a multi-million $ NYC condo shortly after their substantial investments tanked.

[1] https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/gokada#section-inves...

They could have abducted or blackmailed him but killing him like that makes no sense from an investors POV, they get nothing back and the risk of getting caught.

Hope he will get justice

They get him dead, which can enough for some particularly evil people with a grudge.

Look at e.g. (probably) the FSB poisoning Litvinenko, six years after he fled to the UK. After six years there wasn't much to gain for the FSB other than making an example out of him and retribution.

Yes but this is diferent though. Those were ex spies who “talked” and wanted to send a message to other spies as in “if you talk we’ll find you anywhere”.

The same could be said that if you don't make good on investments or "the take" if there was one, you are handled.

Not saying I agree, but I can see where the circumstances aren't different.

Gokada pivoted to deliveries after that regulation was passed; it's certainly possible that while that's a decent niche, it's not enough to meet investors' expectations for their capital. If that's the motivation here it would be a huge shame, because the company has done and is doing a lot of social good.

The terrible tragedy of the incident aside, graphic details hint at this being a very costly signal. The sender(s) of the signal must feel threatened, but generally consider themselves immune to American law enforcement.

Although many circumstances are unknown to me, at first approach this looks like a sad illustration of the intense frontier between new business models powered by emerging technology and entrenched business interests in many parts of the world.

Judging by Gokada’s business model, the signal is probably intended to deter any further attempts at competing with local taxi and limo businesses.

Fahim Saleh was born in Saudi Arabia and was killed in a manner that "appeared professional" and then dismembered.

This could easily be an atrocious crime by an individual or related to — for instance — organized crime in Nigeria, but it is sobering that one of the usual suspects when something like this happens is a state actor.

I'm not a defender of Saudi Arabia but besides him being born there how is it relevant? He does business in Africa and was educated in and lives in the US. Is there any indication he was a anti-Saudi activist? I don't see any so why should that be brought up at all?

I haven't found any indication that he said anything against the Saudi regime. I brought it up because he appears to have been executed according to a professional (if bungled) plan reminiscent of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi by the Saudi state. I think it merits contemplation any time anyone with Saudi connections is professionally murdered and dismembered.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/17/nyregion/fahim-saleh-susp...

What? You guys got hysterical and blamed the Saudis based on no facts and you were completely wrong? Who would of guessed? Oh wait, I did.

Sure but Khashoggi was a very high profile Journalist and Activist and that happened on Turkish soil. An assassination like that in the US would be a dramatic change in their behavior and politically very hazardous.

lol. dude, Turkish goons beat the shit out of American people in front of cameras and got way with it.

I would just like to add, on American soil.

Yeah assault and murder + dismemberment are clearly the same amirite

Probably too early to speculate on motives but it’s interesting to me that he was running a Nigerian tech company. Wonder if he stepped on the wrong person’s toes. It looks like authorities were trying to shut it down on some trumped up safety disputes (which likely means they were not giving out enough bribes)

Motorcycles kill thousands every year in Nigeria. It kills more than cars and buses combined. Such business has been banned virtually in all state capitals in Nigeria for about a decade ago. Lagos state was the only major state where such was functioning until lately.

This is false. The ban was more political than a safety issue.

Why would you say that? The state wants to modernise and they decided to do away with something that is not safe.

Could you explain the political side in it? We already had motorcycles in Lagos because Gokada arrived on the scene. A lot of other okadas owned by thousands of people were also knocked out. Even keke

Drove by the scene yesterday afternoon and there were reporters and camera crews extended into the street. A ton of commotion and now I know why.

I think this is getting more attention than it deserves because its ripe with "what ifs" that allow one's imagination to run wild. Politically motivated, absolutely brutal, and in an environment that is designed to shield one from any harm. My heart goes to his family and friends - no matter what someone has done in life they don't deserve this ending.

I knew Fahim, met him several times and hung out with him when he was investing in Pathao and HackHouse in Bangladesh. He was the type of person who would hang out with you having beers and you'd be shooting the shit about an idea for a startup and he'd end up going home, writing up the code all night and send you a link in the morning with a registered operating version of the site. He dealt with a lot of the same issues of shady regulators, broken ecosystem back then in Bangladesh but having his roots from there may have made things easier to navigate. Uggh I still can't believe how gruesome this is. I'm devastated for his family, the world is a horrible place a lot of times.

> The death was not immediately labeled a homicide, and a Police Department spokesman said that the medical examiner’s office would determine the cause of death.

Umm. I think it's safe to rule suicide out when the corpse was dismembered with a saw.

There have been cases where people have committed crimes (often on the books as "desecration of a human corpse") while trying to cover up accidents or suicides. Not saying it's the case here, but there's no point in jumping to conclusions.

You are correct. It was a poor (and in poor taste) attempt to be snarky.

"Police source say a business deal gone bad is being investigated as a motive for the killing. There’s no indication that NYPD detective are eyeing past controversies involving PrankDial."

Seems like some other moving pieces in play with his past startup.

"The tech bro found sliced into pieces in his $2.25 million Lower East Side condo made a name for himself by creating a prank phone call app that led to the downfall of a Hudson County, N.J. jail honcho."

https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-prankdial-app-hudson...

Describing him as a "tech bro" in the first line is needlessly derogatory. Implying he deserved it. Like calling a rape victim "scantily clad." Pretty gross journalism if you ask me: designed to create outrage and drive clicks.

They also refer to his startup as "Gorkada" multiple times. If they managed to screw that up, I don't have a lot if faith in the rest of the article.

It reminds me of the killing of Jamal Khashoggi (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamal_Khashoggi), and then this appears in the article. Coincidence?

> According to a 2016 blog profile, Mr. Saleh was born in Saudi Arabia, and moved with his family quite a bit before settling in Rochester, N.Y., and, later, in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

With Khashoggi we had a clear motive for the killing, though. It's not at all clear who wanted Saleh dead, and in particular why Saudi should be involved at all. It's merely where he was born, not the target of his opinion writing (note also that per the article he's Bangladeshi ethinically, not Saudi).

The Saudi government is corrupt AF and doesn't need much in the way for justification for killing people?

Also the US leadership is so incompetent at the moment, seems like a good time for other countries to do whatever TF they want.

Maybe they are trying make it look like a Saudi hit job.

Update: "..a personal assistant of a young tech entrepreneur ... was arrested early on Friday and is expected to be charged in the grisly killing."

Lots of prior speculation, but this early arrest will be some small comfort to his family and friends.

> Inside the man's living room, sources say it appeared the killer worked hard to cover their tracks, but was perhaps interrupted or got spooked before getting rid of the evidence.

Uh, those luxury apartments have cameras everywhere. Why would they think they could cover anything?

Everywhere? They certainly don't have them in the unit unless the owner put them there.

The camera probably doesn't matter too much if you have a mask. It's probably more important to remove physical evidence than to worry about additional video evidence.

And wearing a mask in public is perfectly normalized in New York right now, so it doesn't even draw any unwanted attention.

Why has nobody pointed out that we need ways to launch products anonymously. When one coder can upend a market that is controlled by mafia, that one coder needs a way to remain anonymous.

The problem is that to publish an App with Apple or Google you cannot be anonymous, correct?

Accepting payments is another problem, but the most important one is taking investment and hiring people.

This story broke in the early hours of the morning here. Deeply horrific stuff; my heart particularly hurts for his sister.

The manner of his death is ominous. For the sake of the people it employs and the businesses it enables, I hope Gokada weathers this.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/17/nyregion/fahim-saleh-susp...

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/17/us/fahim-saleh-killing/index....

There's a lot of speculation going on here, and I do not think it helps. I feel incredibly sorry for his family, especially his sister. I cannot even imagine what it would be like to walk in on a family member murdered in such a brutal fashion.

What a tragedy. If this has ties to any foreign business or government entity, I truly hope that the U.S government and military forces take swift and lethal action.

Sometimes I feel like this is the sort of thing where the justice system and public media just don't work... send some SEALS to knock out whoever did this. It reminds me of the type of thing that happens with central american drug lords.

I wish the article talked about such political issues instead of the weird sort of implied schadenfreude with regards to his material possessions and postings on instagram.

1. Are you advocating for committing an act of war in response to this?

2. Jamal Khashoggi was similarly butchered and there's little doubt about the perpetrator's identity, yet we still trade with them and accept their VC money for our tech startups. I wouldn't hold my breath for a serious response unless the perpetrator turns out to be a government we already don't like.

I think that the FBI and our government should use every tool at their disposal to find the killer(s) and their sponsor and bring them to justice. If the perpetrators are sheltered by an uncooperative country, then we should apply diplomatic pressure.

All murder is tragic and horrible. I think that assassination—of journalists, entrepreneurs, activists, and so on—to be an especially abhorrent category of murder, because it is intellectual terrorism and has an outsized impact. A single murder is a tragedy to a family, a community — but a single assassination is a tragedy to all of society. The plausible fear of being killed for challenging an industry incumbent, a corrupt politician, or an unscrupulous business places a sword of Damocles above any would-be upstart. It pre-emptively silences voices and minds and reduces a society's capacity for progress.

1. If needed. I think I over-reacted in saying send a SEAL team out there. But I think in such situations, if this is a sort "gangster" situation -- we should seek diplomatic action and recourse -- esp if it is a foreign entity. 2. This is a horrible travesty. We are too deep in bed with the Saudi's

I mean, Stanford didn't even dial back their dealings with Saudi Arabia after MBS did the same thing to Khashoggi (and Trump used veto to sell SA billions of $ in weaponry after the fact).

Like it or not, the US is not going to do anything.

Ouch.

The amount of speculation in the comments is surprising for HN. There are very few facts established so far.

What a tragedy. God bless his family.

Can you imagine the maladaptive psychology required to wield a knife to calmly dismember, decapitate and butcher another human being?

They're called pathologists and they usually do autopsies. [0]

[0]https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6288235/Saudi-autop...

I don't know if you've ever read a history book, but humans have been pretty viciously murdering each other for just about all of forever. Along with torturing, raping, pillaging... you get the idea.

Whatever bubble you live in, don't forget we're animals.

More and more I am coming to terms with just how f*#$d up humans actually are. I don't know if the internet highlights the bad but between this and the article about the Khmer Rouge the other day, it's hard to have a lot of faith in mankind.

Have you seen The Act of Killing[1]?

[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2375605/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

I'm sure it's only difficult the first time.

Your hypothesis assumes he did it calmly.

https://archive.is/ltGpQ

A stringer captured this video below of a similar incident that happened recently in New York. Could this be related/ him?

https://youtu.be/iJIImjO9lVw

Looking at the address on Street View, it definitely appears to be the same building.

What's up with the real estate byline?

I think it was like, "Oh my god rich people can die"

His company's wikipedia page is being edited to remove any mention of his death. Quite suspicious

More like one user made a single revert that will soon be reverted.

The focus on the cost of the victim’s dwelling is so weird. I hope when they find my body they don’t waste half the article projecting local housing policy onto me, as if it were my fault.

Poor people get murdered all the time, a rich person getting murdered is newsworthy.

If a poor person were murdered like this, it would be newsworthy.

The fact that this may be a politically charged murder makes it even more newsworthy.

>If a poor person were murdered like this, it would be newsworthy.

This is wrong, unless you insinuate "if poor people were wealthy and powerful as well" when you say "murdered like this".

It seems like make believe to think we value all life regardless of their economic worth in the news headlines that we click on. In my community alone, mundane and powerless children and adults get shot, executed, dismembered semi-regularly and yet it's more of a statistic than something interesting for most folks, citations below.

I'm not saying that wealth and power are the only thing that makes a headline clickable, but jeez can it make it seem relevant to people in a world where poor people are disproportionately exposed to violence.

https://news.sky.com/story/william-algar-man-charged-with-mu...

https://www.fox19.com/2020/07/07/coroner-identifies-woman-fo...

https://www.inquirer.com/news/philadelphia-transgender-woman...

> If a poor person were murdered like this, it would be newsworthy.

> The fact that this may be a politically charged murder makes it even more newsworthy.

No, it wouldn't be. And I can tell you why.

A suitcase stuffed with parts from two (recently) dismembered bodies was found on a Seattle beach two or three weeks ago. [1]

Neither of the deceased were tech entrepreneurs, and, unsurprisingly, this did not make Hacker News, nor more than a whisper on the national media circus. I presume you haven't heard about it, either.

Now, tell me, was that also a politically charged murder? [2] What makes you immediately ascribe the politically charged label to the tech entrepreneur case?

[1] https://www.google.com/search?q=akai+beach+suitcase&oq=alki+...

[2] Hell, Seattle stopped talking about it after a few days.

I largely agree with the gist of your comment, but you may be overgeneralizing a little. Depending on, not sure how the describe it, gruesomeness of the kill, it may make national news. If the poor person is a woman, it is a little more likely. If it is a pregnant woman, it is a little more likely. If there was a rape, incest, or some weird sexual story attached to it, media might pick it up. If it was a child, it is a lot more likely. If it was displayed in some public fashion, it may be hard not to cover it.

Short answer is it depends. Not that long ago, white guy got killed by a hispanic guy in what police determined to be a hate crime( https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/craigsilverman/wisconsi... ). There was no uproar on CNN. Oddly, I did not see stuff on Fox News either. For whatever reason, it simply did not feel the narrative.

I agree with your example that it is not a given that the killing was political in nature ( as in, we simply don't have enough information to know ). But today, non-white person dying draws a lot more scrutiny. Now serial killers will only be left with the homeless..

> Neither of the deceased were tech entrepreneurs, and, unsurprisingly, this did not make Hacker News,

Why did you expect? This is a community of programmers and tech entrepreneurs. We get articles all the time on the front page about deceased programmers, computer scientists, and tech entrepreneurs. This poor guy was a tech entrepreneur.

I guess that depends if you meant murdered inside a $2.4 million dollar condo or in a sewer. The latter happens all the time and is ignored.

But a poor person being murdered inside a $2.4 million dollar condo in the same fashion is certainly newsworthy.

Who is getting cut up into a million pieces and dumped into the sewers? How common is such an occurrence?

While true, I think the horrific nature of the murder is also what makes this newsworthy

This is NYC. A $2M condo is not that special.

Not even in a “where do you find them that cheap” way?

Ha. $2M is definitely well above the median. Most homes are under a $1M still. Bloomberg has these interesting charts comparing the citywide median, to Astoria and Tribeca.

https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/property-prices/nyc/

And yet this is the most debated thread of this post. Very telling. The news folks are sending the messages the HN crowd falls for (just like the rest).

News is not news. It is entertainment. Pick your flavor and let them tell you how to feel.

Housing is the #1 most contentious topic on HN. It almost always gets out of control.

I don't see anything at all about housing policy in the article.

EDIT: It appears the link has been changed from (IIRC) a Chicago Tribune article to a New York Times article. My comment is about the original article.

"Luxury Condo" is right there in the headline.

No value judgment is offered about whether a luxury condo is a good, bad, or neutral thing.

The fact that it's there to begin with implies it was noteworthy enough to include it, and the choice of including something versus not including is a value judgement. If instead the title read, "New York tech entrepreneur found decapitated wearing expensive suit", it would be more likely to strike people as odd, but isn't it essentially the same thing?

Media guy here. Lots of NYC readers/viewers either live in luxury condos or have a point of view about people who do. For people who do live in such places, the $$$ that they've paid to be there is meant to create a safe and elegant island from all the clatter and chaos of NYC street life.

Murders in such settings instantly trip the "fear alert." Now all of our LC residents need to know how the deed was done and if there's anything about their safe-island assumptions that must be revisited or repaired.

The result: a story that people can't stop talking about. It's fashionable to decry business pressures that force journalists to do this, but the truth is sheer desire for recognition is a sufficient driver, no matter what the business model.

Come on.

So, the answer to the 4th 'W' - where.

And 'where' matters, given this: The condos in the building are full-floor and the keyed elevator opens right into the apartment.

I understood those parts of the article as answering the question “how hard would it have been to get into the building?”

Well it’s often thought that if you buy expensive real estate that you will be safe in it — low crime areas, good security, etc. that’s why it’s news.

It's because building like that in New York have doormen, security cameras, etc.

The location is not a easy crime area, which makes this killing so bold. It looks like a hit, either government or organized crime, and if it's not and just the work of a serial killer....

Definitely weird, but it’s a local news site and New Yorkers eat up housing market gossip.

It's of note because it's uncommon.

According to whom? In this neighborhood in the last year 9 properties sold for over $2.5m and 8 sold for under, meaning $2.4m is below the median value of the area. Why didn't they just say "Dismembered man found in Greenwich Village apartment"?

Edit: The article keeps changing, it originally said 200 W Houston, now it says both 200 East Houston and 365 E. Houston.

Edit #2: In a standing proof that local journalism isn't worth the cost of the paper it would take to print it out and wipe your ass with it, the actual location, judging from the video that accompanies the article is 265 E. Houston.

The juxtaposition is what's noteworthy, not that the neighborhood is expensive.

Gruesome murders are salacious enough; it happening to a wealthy entrepreneur inside his expensive Manhattan home is especially rare.

For many reasons, people seem to be interested when tragedy strikes the rich or glamorous.

i live on the block, it's the building on the corner of suffolk st and east houston, left hand side facing north.

Yes, I think the article has the wrong address. That building is 265 not 365 (which I don't think exists?) I am also in the neighborhood (hi neighbor!) and saw police activity there this morning.

A 2.4m condo in Manhattan is hardly uncommon.

A person being found chopped up in such a condo is, however.

This article is re-reported – and badly written:

“His limbs and head were stuffed in bags in the living room.

“…

“It remains unclear how the victim died.”

Here’s a more informative, earlier article: https://www.pulse.ng/news/ceo-of-gokada-fahim-saleh-found-de...

Well, usually people are killed then dismembered.

This may be socio-politically related. Extremists from Bangladesh (his original country) are known to use hacking and dismemberment as a terror tactic.

> Condos in the building feature Italian marble kitchens and master baths, white oak floors and asking prices in the $2 million to $2.5 million range, according to the real estate website StreetEasy. The website Curbed noted in a 2017 article that access to the building’s units was via a private, keyed elevator.

This is such a strange paragraph to read in an article like this. I see the relevance of the last sentence, but the rest just feels jarring. Is that normal for pieces like this?

The whole article has this weird tone like it's part of a hard boiled detective novel: “You kind of forget New York City is New York City sometimes,” she said.

I like hard boiled detective novels, but it felt weird here when I reminded myself this isn't a short story, this is a real man who was just murdered with family and friends and neighbors.

The byline has three names. Including an editor, does that means four sets of eyes saw no problem or had no concern with how this piece was presented? It's such an unfortunate event and I can only imagine how many people will be directly impacted by it. The tone is just so jarring.

It feels like the start of a detective adventure game. It feels so out of left field otherwise.

I think the author is trying to set context that this is an upscale neighborhood and access to the building is difficult, so this is unlikely to be a random robbery or assault and more likely to a planned murder.

Wasn't that already explicit in the tagline of the piece?

> An electric saw was found near the man’s torso, law enforcement officials said. Units in the Lower East Side building have sold for more than $2 million.

The additional details about tiling and decor seem quite superfluous.

The extra details of the kitchen and bathroom is strange. As far as the price point, they may be trying to show he was not living in a run down neighborhood with higher crime?

Perhaps meant to give readers a sense of how wealthy he was? The fact that he was a young millionaire entrepreneur adds a layer of depth to the story.

Looks like that quote was in one of the earlier articles. We've changed the URL a couple times.

it's normal in the US media where there's a general desensitization to violence

We changed the url from https://abc7chicago.com/ny-tech-entrepreneur-found-decapitat... to one with more information and no autoplaying video.

If anyone can suggest a better URL, we can change it again.

As far as I'm aware, this is the article that broke the story: https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/ny-headless-t.... I first saw it around 5AM Lagos time. As a bonus there's no paywall.

I am not sure but I think the coverage might come across as a bit tabloid-y however.

Ok, we can change to that from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/nyregion/dismembered-body.... Thanks.

Maybe not a consideration, but nydailynews is not available from Europe.

https://archive.is/ltGpQ

https://archive.is/lcz7t

That snap was 18 hours old and was lacking new details (like it being the co-founder of Gokada).

Here is an updated link: http://archive.is/7LbxX

I can't read this article because "abc7chicago.com wants to install and run Widevine"

As to the newsworthy debate, yes, the death of a person that is of a greater relative value to society (such as for eg a tech entrepreneur) is more newsworthy than otherwise (such as for eg a homeless person).

We've since changed the URL. (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23848620)

As an immigrant founder of a small company, America no longer seems to me like a safe environment. The entire political culture has become nothing short of toxic, and crimes like this out in the open makes you question why would an immigrant come to US to start a business if they can get murdered like this? The fact that this happened in one of the safest areas in New York, makes you wonder if city life even worth it? May be he should have owned a gun? So many questions.

Hope his family finds some answers.

How is an immigrant status related to (presumably) business/political issues the victim had? Do you believe that it is safe anywhere when you make deals and conflicts with people whose values do not include lives? Remember terrorism acts in both US and EU in last two decades. I'm assuming you're honest in your anxiety, but this rhetoric sounds just alarmist. As if some cityname was equal to a bunker-like safety zone and not just street-crime protecting area. What did you expect from local authorities to do to prevent his sudden murder? Put a wall around the city and profile everyone for a week to allow an entrance? Nobody and nothing can protect you from a random professional hitman, neither a personal protection service nor a gun, but as a regular person who does a legal business in a first world you're damn safe everywhere.

I watched a documentary about this once, it really started Christian Bale's career.

Please don't do this here.

I suspect he owes money to criminals

RIP Saleh Fahim.

They have a CCTV video with the murderer but unfortunately he had a mask on. During the pandemic killers can operate with a cover, the mask, gloves, etc

Does anyone know if theres a lead to who the murderer is?

So police don't even know the cause of death, or anything else, but they do know they have video of the "killer"? I wish I were clairvoyant like this, but otherwise, may I never come under investigation from those people.

If you read the news coverage it's extremely clear why they think they have video of the suspect (and it's not clairvoyance). The first few moments of the attack were captured in surveillance footage.

They must have changed the linked article. I don't see that anywhere (nor in the video). Just that they were in the elevator together.

Hence why I said "news coverage", not "the linked article". In Lagos we've been following this story for over half a day now - here's the article that broke the story https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/ny-headless-t...

But this specific article makes no mention about it.

Personally I think it common sense that an out-of-state, local paper (the article is from ABC 7 Chicago) can hardly be taken as a primary source in a developing crime story - hence why I said "news coverage" and gave details.

Here on HN the articles that start conversations are often not the articles that later people read because the URLs get changed. There needs to be some obvious indication of that so that people are discussing the same thing.

"Suspect" is OK, but "killer"? Offering conclusions before a proper investigation has been conducted isn't police work, it's gossip.

The actual police haven't even ruled it a homicide yet. I'd suggest reading a range of news coverage and not taking the paraphrased words in an article that's itself a summary of coverage from elsewhere as literal quotes.

So, a guy goes into his apartment, dies in a violent altercation, and you have the video of the last person who entered and left. The video even includes some initial violence. It's a pretty reasonable assumption that this is video of the killer.

But, I guess, he could have just struggled a bit, left, and then Spiderman came in through the window and finished the job.

That's certainly what veteran news-editor J. Jonah Jameson would say!

As "His limbs and head were stuffed in bags in the living room" they do have some idea about the cause of death (e.g. that it's unlikely that he committed suicide or had a sudden heart attack). They don't know the exact mechanism of death yet, but even in the absence of anything else, cutting off the head is usually sufficient. For an investigation the video of the only person entering his apartment is perfectly good probable cause to say that they have a video of the suspected killer.

Convicting the killer requires much more evidence, but that's going to be many months later, currently all the listed claims of the police seem perfectly reasonable for this stage of investigation.

> Convicting the killer requires much more evidence, but that's going to be many months later, currently all the listed claims of the police seem perfectly reasonable for this stage of investigation.

Did they find who the suspect is?

if you read the article it says he was in the elevator with his killer, who had gloves, a mask, a suitcase. this was clearly a professional hit job...

I agree, however, as a side comment, nowadays gloves and mask are not any more as suspicious as they used to be...

the suitcase...

The terms "glove", "mask" and "suitcase" don't appear in the linked article.

this isn’t a good source. read the other ones from local nyc papers

I hope if I'm ever murdered, those investigating similarly don't just accept the obvious, and try to figure out what _actually_ happened vs what _appears_ to have happened.

The police wants to close cases.

If there is only one person who could have been there to dismember the victim in the interval, I'd say this is close enough to "killer"...

I wish I were clairvoyant like this, but otherwise, may I never come under investigation from those people.

This is off on a little bit of a tangent, but there is an interesting point to be made, I think.

I was on a jury once. Not a murder case, mind you, but the principle is the same. There was a detective from the local law enforcement agency that investigated the case, and he testified on the stand about the case and his investigation.

Now the defense attorney was a sharp guy, and he found (and seized on) every tiny little discrepancy or crack in this guy's testimony, which made this all the more glaring. The detective was a complete buffoon. I mean, calling this guy "Barney Fife" or "Officer Barbrady" would be paying him a compliment.

We sat in the jury room deliberating and were making jokes like "Man, if I ever murder anybody, I hope this guy is the one investigating me" and so on.

The point is just to say... detectives come in all grades of competence, just like anybody else. For every Sherlock Holmes there is a guy like the one I encountered. I'm not sure if a normal distribution applies, but I wouldn't be surprised. And I'm definitely not surprised when I see (apparently) silly statements come from law enforcement agencies. TV and movies glamorous the more "Sherlock Holmes'ian" type detectives, and maybe we subconsciously tend to assume that most detectives are like that as a result. But it's definitely not always the case.

Your anecdote reminds me of this fantastic image and caption from the UK: https://i0.wp.com/www.irdial.com/batleth_out.jpg

I guess Star Trek should be mandatory training material :)

D'oh. "glamorous" above was meant to be "glamorize". Too late to edit now, unfortunately.

I see your point...but I think the NYPD does not send their Barney Fife to this particular crime.

WTF!

That’s too damned grisly. I mean, sure maybe people snap in the heat of passion whatnot, manslaughter —it happens but this is just depraved. I hope they get the person and they get what they deserve. There is no chance for such a person to redeem themselves and join society ever again. Very sad for the victim's family. Tragic.

It was a professional hit job given the description here...the killer was wearing gloves, a mask, had an empty suitcase and rode the elevator with the victim to his apartment.

The hitman was likely doing a deed for someone who paid for his service...

Not sure why everybody is suggesting a professional hitman based on the fact the murderer used a mask, gloves and a suitcase. I suppose you get that idea after watching an arbitrary crime movie. All it proves is intention.

How could it not be professional? What would it be otherwise?

The other clue is from the articles I've read is that there was no blood. No average person with a bone saw is going to be able to pull that off. Sorry.

This is a professional hit. The hitman cut up the body in order to dispose of it. Presumably, he had to flee the scene early. This wasn't a crime of passion, this was an organized hit carried out on behalf of someone powerful. The hitman is probably a professional who was just carrying out a contract.

Deleted comment

Why, in the middle of a ban on international travel, would somebody smuggle a killer across the Atlantic when there are plenty of perfectly capable killers in the extremely violent United States?

I don't know what you responded to, it's deleted now, so I can only address your question directly:

Reputation. If you know a reliable killer across the Atlantic but don't know one in America, it makes sense to smuggle your known reliable killer in rather than risk talking to a police officer posing as a contract killer. Even in "extremely violent America", if you start asking around for contract killers most people will get weirded out and tell the cops to take a look at you.

Keep American jobs for Americans! ;)

However, perhaps they just couldn't get the right killer at the right price? Or maybe they're scarcer than you think? We keep hearing immigrants are taking American jobs, but in reality they're taking the jobs no American would take in the first place, so this may be more simple supply/demand...

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