Investigators tied the Jordan Lake scene to the couple’s last night together.
PITTSBORO, N.C. — Blood, shell casings and jewelry found on a bridge near Jordan Lake helped investigators build the case against a North Carolina man who later admitted killing his wife and hiding her body.
The evidence became central to the prosecution of Omar Matthew Ibrahim Drabick, 37, who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and concealment of death in the killing of his wife, Hadeel Ghadhanfer Hikmat, 34. A judge sentenced him in May 2026 to 25 to 31 years in prison for murder and six to nine more years for concealment. The sentences will run consecutively, ending a case that started with a boater’s call from Jordan Lake in August 2023.
Investigators first had a body, then a location, then a trail. A boater found Hikmat floating face-down in shallow water near the Farrington Point Boat Ramp on Aug. 29, 2023. The Chatham County Sheriff’s Office responded, and fingerprint analysis confirmed the victim’s identity. The first public statements said the death was neither accidental nor self-inflicted. At that point, authorities had not yet laid out the full path they believed Hikmat took during her final hours. A bridge near the lake soon became important because it held items that did not belong in a routine water recovery: blood, a gun shell casing and jewelry linked to the victim.
The autopsy later sharpened the picture. Hikmat had been shot in the middle of the upper back, and the medical examiner found that the injury was severe enough that she likely died before she was put in the water. The report said drowning could not be fully ruled out as a possible factor, but there were no clear signs of drowning at autopsy. It also noted bruising on Hikmat’s arm and ankle and a cut on her back. The medical findings moved the case from a suspicious death at a lake to a homicide tied to a shooting scene, and they supported the theory that Hikmat had been injured on a bridge before her body was dropped into Jordan Lake.
Deputies then focused on Drabick, who lived with Hikmat in Apex. The couple were both 34 when she died. Authorities searched their home and another Wake County property connected to places Hikmat was known to frequent. Those searches took place before Drabick’s arrest and helped investigators collect evidence beyond the bridge. Later accounts of the case said Hikmat’s blood was found on Drabick’s shoes and inside the trunk of his vehicle. Investigators also said he had recently bought the gun used in the killing. Those findings gave prosecutors a case that joined the public scene, the vehicle and the couple’s home life.
The timeline of the last night added another layer. Hikmat had worked a shift at Walmart, and Drabick picked her up afterward. The two went to a Denny’s restaurant before the early-morning trip toward Jordan Lake. Authorities said Drabick drove Hikmat to the bridge shortly after 2:30 a.m. on Aug. 29, where she was shot in the back. The lake was not where the violence began, prosecutors said. It was where Drabick tried to leave the evidence of the killing after throwing Hikmat’s body from the bridge into the water below.
Drabick also gave a friend a story that investigators later treated as false. He said he and Hikmat met a man from Iraq in a van at a park around 2 a.m. after dinner. In that account, the man kissed Hikmat and told her she deserved someone wealthier. Drabick claimed Hikmat left with him. The friend told authorities the story made no sense. Investigators said the claim did not match the physical evidence or the path of the case. Prosecutors later used that alleged lie to show an effort to explain Hikmat’s disappearance without reporting the shooting, the bridge scene or the body in the lake.
The relationship itself became part of the motive presented in court. Hikmat had moved to the United States from Iraq about a year before her death after Drabick’s mother helped arrange the marriage. Prosecutors said Drabick became unhappy and searched for ways to leave the relationship. A warrant in the case said he had wished Hikmat would run off with a wealthy man. Investigators also found searches on his phone about getting away with murder. Those searches, combined with the recent gun purchase and forensic evidence, gave prosecutors more than one route to argue that the killing was planned or at least carried out with knowledge of what would follow.
Hikmat’s family followed the case from abroad. Her brother, Firas Hikmat, who lived in Istanbul, Turkey, said after the arrest that the family was devastated and wanted justice. “We lost our sister; we want justice,” he said. He also said Hadeel had a large family in Iraq and many people who loved her. Sheriff Mike Roberson said after Drabick’s arrest that the case showed the tragedy of domestic violence and brought pain to many people. His office arrested Drabick on Sept. 19, 2023, on charges of first-degree murder and concealment of an unnatural death.
The plea agreement changed the legal path but not the finding that Hikmat was killed. Drabick pleaded guilty to second-degree murder instead of going to trial on the original first-degree murder charge. He also admitted to an aggravating factor, that he had a close personal relationship with the victim. Prosecutor Marci Trageser said at sentencing that the situation had spiraled out of control. Drabick apologized in court, saying he was sorry from the bottom of his heart. Defense attorneys said he had autism and lacked the social skills to end the marriage without violence. The judge still imposed consecutive terms.
With the sentence entered, the case has moved from investigation to punishment. The bridge evidence, autopsy findings, phone searches, vehicle evidence and witness statement now form the public record of how a missing wife case became a murder conviction.
Author note: Last updated June 18, 2026.