Press Release

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Rupchand Simboo was indicted on charges of murder and tampering with evidence for the homicide of his 33-year-old wife, Salisha Ali. The victim’s beheaded and dismembered torso, wrapped in plastic and a moving blanket, was initially discovered by sanitation workers near 149^th Avenue and Brookville Boulevard on September 22, 2025. Additional remains were discovered by detectives in the vicinity of the North Channel Bridge near Cross Bay Boulevard on March 5 and 6, 2026.

District Attorney Katz said: “The amazing cooperation between the NYPD and my office led to the identification and the arrest of Rupchand Simboo. The analysis and the investigation that led to his arrest were only possible using modern tools and data collection.  As alleged, the defendant ruthlessly murdered his 33-year-old wife and tried to conceal the crime, spreading dismembered body parts in the wilderness near Kennedy Airport and Broad Channel. Thanks to the diligent sanitation workers who found the first set of remains, my office and our partners in the NYPD were able to pinpoint the person allegedly responsible. A grand jury has now indicted the defendant on murder and evidence tampering charges as we seek justice for Salisha Ali and her loved ones who continue to grieve her loss.”

Simboo, 75, of South Ozone Park, was arraigned today on an indictment charging him with murder in the second degree and two counts of tampering with physical evidence. Queens Supreme Court Justice Ushir Pandit-Durant remanded the defendant and ordered him to return to court on June 5. If convicted, Simboo faces up to 25 years to life in prison.

District Attorney Katz said that, according to the charges and investigation, in the evening hours of July 13, 2025, Simboo and Ali were both present inside the defendant’s home. The next morning, the victim failed to show up for work at her job in Brooklyn and was never seen or heard from again.

On July 19, 2025, at the request of the victim’s mother, the defendant called 911 to report the victim missing.

On September 22, 2025, at approximately 7 a.m., two New York City Department of Sanitation workers on a route near a wooded area in the vicinity of 149^th Avenue and Brookville Boulevard observed a blue and black moving blanket wrapped with a yellow rope which appeared to contain a large object inside. They opened the blanket and discovered what appeared to be a decomposed female torso. It was later determined that the remains belonged to the victim.

A search warrant was later issued and executed on the defendant’s home, resulting in the recovery of plastic wrap and yellow rope, which the NYPD Laboratory determined was consistent with the yellow rope used to bind the victim’s torso.  The execution of a second search warrant for the defendant’s work garage resulted in the recovery of a moving blanket, identical to the moving blanket in which the torso was found.

On March 5 and March 6, 2026, additional remains – including a head, legs and an arm – were discovered in the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge off Cross Bay Boulevard, just south of the North Channel Bridge. The Office of Chief Medical Examiner’s forensic analysis determined that the additional remains also belonged to the victim.

Detectives searched the wooded area in the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge based upon the defendant’s GPS coordinates from the Life360 app on his phone. The data showed that the defendant was present at that location on July 14, 2025 – the day after the victim was last seen alive. Simboo’s Life360 data further showed that the following day, on July 15, 2025, the defendant was present at the location off Brookville Boulevard and 149^th Avenue where the victim’s torso was discovered by sanitation workers.

Assistant District Attorney Eric Weinstein of the District Attorney’s Homicide Bureau is prosecuting the case with the assistance of Assistant District Attorney Antonio Vittiglio and Alexa Ornelas under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys John Kosinski, Bureau Chief, Karen Ross and Jonathan Selkowe, Deputy Bureau Chiefs, and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Shawn Clark.