Mystery deepens over gruesome murder of Fahim Saleh

America faces the twin threats of a pandemic that won’t die, and a brutal culture war over its very identity.

Yet this week only one question occupied New York’s chattering classes: who killed Fahim Saleh and why?

The 33-year old tech wunderkind was found decapitated and dismembered in his luxury Manhattan apartment on Tuesday.

The body was cut with a power saw, which cops found at the scene and was still plugged into an electrical outlet.

“This is ugly,” one police officer at the scene was quoted as saying. “We have a torso, a head that’s been removed, arms, and legs,” NYPD spokesman Sergeant Carlos later told reporters.

Saleh was the CEO and founder of Gokada, a motorcycle ridesharing app in Lagos, Nigeria. Gokada raised $5.3million in venture capital one year ago, according to Tech Crunch.

He was born in Saudi Arabia but spent much of his childhood in Rochester, New York and Poughkeepsie, according to his linked in profile. His parents were from Bangladesh.

Saleh’s remains were found by his sister who now believes she interrupted her brother’s killer. Police sources said that witnesses have described a figure dressed in black, like a “ninja”, fleeing from the businessman’s apartment.

Separately, surveillance footage shows Saleh in the building’s elevator with another person who was wearing a black suit and black mask.

Gokada confirmed Saleh’s “sudden and tragic” death on Twitter.

“Fahim was a great leader, inspiration and positive light for all of us,” the company wrote. “Our hearts go out to his friends, family and all those feeling the pain and heartbreak we are currently experiencing, here at Gokada. All updates and changes will be communicated with you, as it unfolds. Forever in our hearts.”

As a high schooler, Saleh founded PrankDial.com, a website for prerecorded prank phone calls that, he wrote in 2018, had generated over $10 million since its start. He continued to found and sell sites throughout his teens and his time at Bentley University.

However, some law enforcement sources already believe that it may have been PrankDial that got him into trouble.

His murder was “financially motivated”, according to the Daily Mail.

At the time of his death, he was being sued by a former prison guard turned criminal who was jailed for using his app PrankDial to secretly record and listen to employees’ phone calls.