Left: Kabary Salem (Lebanon County Jail). Right: Ola Salem (GoFundMe).
A Pennsylvania man will spend the rest of his life behind bars for brutally killing his daughter and then dumping her body at a park in the New York City borough of Staten Island.
In October, Kabary Salem, 57, was found guilty by a jury of his peers on one count of murder in the first degree for fatally strangling and beating Ola Salem, 25, in Palmyra — a small town located roughly 92 miles northwest of Philadelphia — in October 2019.
On Wednesday, the defendant was sentenced by Lebanon County Court of Common Pleas Judge Bradford Charles to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
"A father is supposed to love and protect his child, but, this defendant committed one of the cruelest acts imaginable — he murdered his daughter in cold blood," Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday said in a statement. "There is but one acceptable punishment for such a heinous crime. This life sentence will not bring Ola back, but it offers a measure of justice and accountability against the defendant."
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On Oct. 24, 2019, Ola Salem's body was found partially covered in branches and leaves at Bloomingdale Park. The medical examiner determined she died from asphyxiation and suffered blunt force trauma evidenced by bruises on her face, neck, and legs.
Kabary Salem, earlier in his life, was an Olympic boxer who represented his home country of Egypt in international competition. His son followed in his footsteps and Ola Salem, for a time, considered boxing, too. Instead, she devoted her life to advocating for domestic violence victims.
"She was very, very strong," one of her friends told The New York Times after her death. "It beats me how — if this was a murder — how any one could have killed her, because she was stronger than some men."
In December 2020, the woman's father was indicted for her murder.
During Kabary Salem's trial last month, prosecutors relied heavily on surveillance footage and GPS data, according to a courtroom report by York-based Fox affiliate WPMT. On the night in question, the since-condemned man was driving a rental car.
First, the defendant traveled to his own restaurant and then a nearby hotel. Surveillance footage showed two people in the car at the hotel when it arrived. Then, Kabary Salem drove to a Lowe's home improvement store, this time seemingly alone, to buy a blue Kobalt shovel.
At 10:45 p.m. that night, the defendant returned to the hotel, still alone. By 2:15 a.m. the next morning, the vehicle was on the move, arriving at the park around 4:40 a.m., according to a courtroom report by the Lebanon Daily News. At 4:59 a.m. that day, Kabary Salem was out of Staten Island and on his way back to Palmyra — after stopping at a Wawa outside of New York City, surveillance footage showed.
The killer returned the vehicle back to New Jersey Avis Car Rental at around 3:52 p.m. that day. Hours later, he sat down with the NYPD for a voluntary interview. Days later, he left the country and did not return. A year later, he was found in Kuwait and extradited back stateside.
There was some physical evidence as well.
Prosecutors said Ola Salem fought for her life until her dying moments — and the horrible realization that her father was killing her. That struggle, however, resulted in Kabary Salem's DNA being found underneath his daughter's fingernails.
Then, on the same day of the grim discovery, a Staten Islander found a blue Kobalt shovel in a cul-de-sac roughly 100 yards away from where Ola Salem's body had been found.
During the sentencing hearing this week, Kabary Salem maintained his innocence, according to the Daily News. Through tears, the convicted killer insisted police had lied about his case.
"I say the truth," he told the judge.
The judge was not interested in that sort of allocution.
"The circumstantial evidence in this case was overwhelming, and the truth that you now have to confront is that a jury found that you committed first-degree murder," Charles said. "That's the truth. That's what the jury found, and there was more than enough evidence to support that finding."
