PALMYRA, Pa. — A New York man has been charged with murdering his daughter in Lebanon County before dumping her body in a Staten Island park in 2019, investigators with the Office of the Pennsylvania Attorney General claim in charging documents.
Kabary Salem, 56, is charged with one count of criminal homicide in connection to the death of 26-year-old Ola Salem, whose body was discovered near a walking path in Staten Island's Bloomingdale Park on October 24, 2019.
An autopsy determined she died of strangulation and blunt force trauma to the head, investigators said in charging documents. Investigators believe Kabary Salem killed his daughter while the two were visiting Palmyra to work on a restaurant he had purchased, which is why he is being charged in Pennsylvania.
The case was referred to the Office of the Pennsylvania Attorney General by Lebanon County District Attorney Pier Hess Graf on June 19 of this year, according to Special Agent Nathan Nickel, who filed charges against Kabary Salem on June 24.
Salem allegedly fled from the United States to the Middle East about four days after being questioned by investigators in New York about the death of his daughter in October 2019. He remained there until he was arrested by NYPD detectives in December 2020.
In an interview with authorities in New York on Oct. 24, 2019, Kabary Salem admitted that he and his daughter traveled together from New York to Palmyra five days earlier to paint a restaurant he co-owned. He claimed that after arguing with his daughter earlier in the day, she began to behave erratically. Kabary claimed he saw her get into an unknown black sedan sometime after 9 p.m. and did not see her again.
Investigators used GPS data from the vehicle Salem rented to travel to Palmyra to determine the vehicle was at Salem's restaurant and at a nearby hotel on October 23. Video surveillance from the hotel showed there were two people in the vehicle that evening, according to investigators.
The GPS data then showed Salem's vehicle left the hotel and stopped at a Lowe's store, where surveillance footage showed Salem, now alone, purchasing a shovel.
At 10:45 p.m. on Oct. 23, GPS tracking data indicates Salem's vehicle returned to the hotel. Surveillance footage from the hotel at that time showed he is in the vehicle alone.
The GPS data indicates Salem's vehicle left Palmyra at about 2:20 a.m. on October 24. Investigators used GPS data to track the vehicle to Bloomingdale Park at 4:49 a.m., where it stopped "at the precise location" where Ola Salem's body was later discovered, the complaint states.
The GPS data showed that the vehicle left the park about 10 minutes after its arrival and returned to Palmyra, where it arrived at The Knights Inn at 7:33 a.m. Surveillance footage taken from a Wawa market along the route showed Kabary Salem was alone in the vehicle, investigators said.
Investigators determined Ola Salem had been dead about eight ours before her body was found, which is consistent with her murder occurring at a time when GPS records show Kabary Salem was in Palmyra, according to the complaint.
Investigators recovered a DNA sample from under the victim's fingernails, and later tested it with a DNA sample taken from a cup Kabary Salem had drank from during his interview with police on Oct. 24, 2019. The samples were later found to be a match, according to investigators.
