Left: Kabary Salem (Lebanon County Jail). Right: Ola Salem (GoFundMe).
A Pennsylvania man has received a life sentence for the horrific murder of his daughter, whose body he abandoned in a park on Staten Island, New York City.
In October, 57-year-old Kabary Salem was convicted by a jury of first-degree murder for the brutal strangulation and beating of his 25-year-old daughter, Ola Salem. This tragic event took place in Palmyra, a small town approximately 92 miles northwest of Philadelphia, back in October 2019.
This past Wednesday, Judge Bradford Charles of the Lebanon County Court of Common Pleas handed down the life sentence without the possibility of parole.
“A father’s role is to love and protect, yet this defendant committed an unimaginable act by killing his daughter in cold blood,” remarked Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday in a statement. “While this life sentence cannot bring Ola back, it serves as a form of justice and accountability for this terrible crime.”
Ola Salem’s body was discovered on October 24, 2019, partially obscured by branches and leaves at Bloomingdale Park. The medical examiner’s report concluded she died from asphyxiation, with additional evidence of blunt force trauma visible as bruises on her face, neck, and legs.
In his earlier years, Kabary Salem was an Olympic boxer for Egypt. His son followed in his athletic footsteps, and Ola herself once considered a boxing career. Ultimately, she chose to dedicate her life to supporting victims of domestic violence.
“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.”
