Police in New York have arrested and charged a 75-year-old man in connection with the killing of his wife, days after her severed head was discovered at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in Queens.
The victim has been identified as 34-year-old Guyanese national Salisha Ali. Authorities named her husband as Rupchand Simboo.
Ali was last seen alive on July 13, 2025—the same day her husband reported her missing. Months later, in September, sanitation workers uncovered a torso believed to be hers in another area of Queens. The case took a grim turn last weekend when her head was found in the wildlife refuge, allowing investigators to confirm her identity through distinctive tattoos.
Samboo was taken into custody and formally charged on Wednesday after a medical examiner concluded that Ali had been killed using a sharp instrument.
Investigators had reportedly been skeptical of Simboo’s account of her disappearance from early in the probe. However, the motive for the killing remains unclear.
Ali and Simboo met in Trinidad and Tobago in 2023. She relocated to New York in 2024 to join him, and the two married later that year. They had been living together in Queens at the time of her disappearance.
