In a chilling turn of events, a 51-year-old Texas man was arrested on Thursday, accused of brutally killing a 21-year-old nursing student in Houston. The suspect, Bobby Singh Shah, was identified through security footage captured by a camera the victim, Muna Pandey, had installed outside her apartment.
Pandey, a dedicated nursing student, was found dead in her apartment on Monday, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. The horrifying discovery came just days after friends reported her missing. According to the police, the young woman had taken steps to protect herself, installing a motion-activated camera outside her door after dealing with a stalker. Tragically, it was this very camera that recorded her final moments.
The last communication from Pandey came on Saturday, August 24, when she sent a video to a friend via Instagram. They had planned to attend a birthday party together, but she never showed up. Concerned, her friend tried calling her at 9:17 p.m., only to find her phone set to “do not disturb”, according to HuffPost.
According to a neighbor, loud thumping noises were heard from Pandey’s apartment around 8:30 p.m. that evening, but the neighbor hadn’t seen her since. Disturbingly, the footage from Pandey’s security camera captured what would be her last moments alive.
In the video, Pandey is seen standing in front of her apartment at around 8:40 p.m., holding a Nike shoe box, a shopping bag, and a black purse. Shah is allegedly seen standing next to her, ominously holding a black pistol in his right hand. As tension mounted, Shah demanded that Pandey open the door. Fearfully, she asked, “What are you going to do?” Shah chillingly racked the slide of his pistol, repeating his demand before pushing her inside the apartment and locking the door behind them.
An hour later, the camera showed Shah leaving the apartment, carrying Pandey’s purse. On Monday, the apartment’s leasing manager received a disturbing anonymous call, informing her of Pandey’s body before abruptly hanging up. Police responding to the scene found Pandey lying on her bed, shot multiple times in the torso and once in the head. Her cellphone was missing.
In an effort to identify the killer, police released a still image from Pandey’s security footage on Wednesday. The image led to crucial leads: one person recognized Shah as a regular at a restaurant where Pandey had worked over a year ago, and another identified him from a past encounter on a “Sugar Daddy” website, saying she “instantly recognized him” from the picture.
As the investigation continues, the community is left grappling with the shocking loss of a young woman whose life was senselessly cut short.