Saudi-born tech entrepreneur found dismembered in his Manhattan apartment
A Saudi-born tech entrepreneur has been found dead inside his luxury Manhattan apartment, his body having been dismembered with an electric saw.
Fahim Saleh, the 33-year-old founder of the ride-hailing motorcycle start-up Gokada, was found dead by his sister on Tuesday, in the Lower East Side.
Detectives found his decapitated torso, with an electric saw nearby.
Detectives then found the head and limbs.
There were several large plastic bags in the apartment, and it appeared that some effort had been made to clean up any evidence of what had happened, police said.
The saw was still plugged into an electrical outlet when police arrived, leading detectives to investigate whether the arrival of his sister at the $2 million apartment, around 3pm on Tuesday, might have interrupted the killer and prompted the killer to flee through another exit.
CCTV footage from the smart building showed Mr Saleh entering the lobby on Monday afternoon with a person who was wearing a black suit and black mask.
The two got into the lift, and when the door opened Mr Saleh went into the apartment. The masked person followed directly behind him, and the two immediately started to struggle, an official told The New York Times.
Friends of Mr Saleh described him as an ambitious man who ran every morning, kept a busy schedule of meetings and often travelled to Nigeria on business, having founded Gokada there in 2018.
Describing himself on LinkedIn as “an investor that finds things”, a friend told The New York Post he was “the Elon Musk of the developing world”.
“He was like the Energizer Bunny,” the friend said. “He played ukelele, he was so full of ideas.”
He collected tech gadgets and lived alone with a small dog, Laila, which was found alive in the apartment.
As a young man, Mr Saleh moved with his family before settling in Rochester, New York, and, later, in Poughkeepsie.
The son of Bangladeshi immigrants, he learned to code and began to develop apps as a teenager, his friends said.
After graduating from Bentley University in Massachusetts, he had early success with PrankDial, an app he invented for making prank telephone calls.
Gokada issued a statement, praising his "inspiration and positive light".
“We are deeply saddened to inform you about the sudden and tragic loss of our founder and CEO, Fahim Saleh," the company said.
"Fahim was a great leader, inspiration and positive light for all of us.
“Fahim’s vision and belief in us will be with us forever, and we will miss him dearly. Thank you for understanding as we get through this.”
