Student Who Feared Stalker Allegedly Shot And Killed By Regular From Former Job

A Texas man was arrested on Thursday and accused of killing a 21-year-old nursing student in Houston, after he was identified via footage from a security camera the student had set up in her apartment.

Bobby Singh Shah, 51, was charged with capital murder days after police found Muna Pandey, 21, dead inside her apartment on Monday with multiple gunshot wounds, police announced.

Several of Pandey’s friends told detectives that she lived alone and had installed a motion-activated camera outside her front door a year ago after having an issue with a stalker, according to a warrant obtained by HuffPost.

One friend told police he last heard from the victim on Saturday, Aug. 24, when she sent him a video over Instagram, according to the warrant. He said the two made plans to go out with some friends for a birthday party, but she never showed up.

Pandey’s friend called her phone at around 9:17 p.m. that night, but there was no answer and her phone was set to “do not disturb,” police said in the warrant.

Shah’s neighbor told police that he heard a loud thumping coming from Pandey’s apartment at around 8:30 p.m. Saturday, according to the warrant. He had not seen the victim since then.

Surveillance footage taken from Pandey’s camera showed Pandey in front of her apartment on Saturday at around 8:40 p.m. holding a Nike shoe box, a shopping bag and a black purse. Shah was allegedly standing next to her, holding a black pistol in his right hand.

Shah told Pandey to open the door, the warrant said. Pandey then asked, “What are you going to do?”

The suspect responded by racking the slide of his pistol and telling Pandey to open the door again, before pushing her inside the apartment and locking the door behind him, according to the warrant.

Police said Shah could be seen leaving the apartment about an hour later holding Pandey’s purse.

The apartment’s leasing manager told police that she received a call the following Monday from an anonymous man who told her about Pandey’s body before hanging up the phone, according to the warrant.

Responding officers found Pandey lying on her bed with multiple gunshot wounds to her torso and a single gunshot to her head. Her cellphone was missing from the scene.

A still image from Pandey’s security camera depicting her alleged killer was released to the public on Wednesday. After the image was released, police spoke with a man who recognized Shah as a regular at a Houston restaurant where Pandey worked over a year ago.

Another person also called police and identified Shah as a person she met in 2012 through a “Sugar Daddy” website, police said in the warrant. She told police that she “instantly recognized him” once she saw the picture.

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Need help? In the U.S., call 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) for the National Domestic Violence Hotline.