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Tom Jackman

The husband of a missing Manassas Park woman whose disappearance this summer galvanized community search efforts and captivated international attention was indicted Monday on upgraded charges of murder and physically defiling a dead body.

Naresh Bhatt, 37, was set for trial next week on a single count of concealing a dead body, a charge levied this summer nearly a month after his wife, Mamta Kafle Bhatt, 28, was last seen in public.

A lawyer for Bhatt has argued in court that she is still alive — angering the friends and supporters of the young mother and pediatric nurse, who point to the dozens of police and community searches since she last reported for work at UVA Health Prince William Medical Center on July 27.

Manassas Park Police Chief Mario Lugo on Monday confirmed that a Prince William County grand jury had indicted Bhatt on the new charges. But at a news conference, he said that Kafle Bhatt’s body has not been found. Instead, he said the new counts result from DNA evidence police received last month confirming that the blood in the home was Kafle Bhatt’s.

“From the beginning,” Lugo said, “we believe she was murdered, based on the crime scene. This certifies what we thought occurred.”

He said Prince William  forensics investigators told him it was “one of the worst crime scenes they’ve seen.”

Kyle Swenson

Police think that Kafle Bhatt was slain on the night of July 29 and  dismembered inside the house. Lugo said police have searched 20 locations throughout Northern Virginia, as well as Page County, looking for Kafle Bhatt’s body. Police still do not know how she died.

“Whatever happened in that house, it was murder,” Lugo said.

The developments Monday come after months of legal wrangling centered on Kafle Bhatt’s whereabouts, with prosecutors arguing that the amount of blood found in the couple’s main bedroom and bathroom indicates Bhatt killed his wife. Shalev Ben-Avraham, Bhatt’s lawyer, repeatedly fired back that police had yet to find her.

Calls and emails to Ben-Avraham and the Prince William County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office were not returned late Monday.

Many of Kafle Bhatt’s friends and co-workers attended the  news conference and thanked police afterward for their diligence. Also present were her mother, Gita Kafle, and brother, Mahesh Kafle, who came from Nepal to take care of the baby, who turned a year old in August. They declined to speak Monday night.

“This is not a celebration,” Holly Wirth, a former co-worker and friend of Mamta’s, said during the news conference. “There is a sense of relief, but there’s no amount of jail time that brings back what they really want, which is their daughter.”

The first sign of trouble before she vanished came July 30, when Kafle Bhatt missed a call to her mother in Nepal, which she made faithfully every morning and evening.

Two days later, she missed work. Concerned, her co-workers called the Manassas Park police and, on Aug. 2, officers went to her house. They left after her husband said she’d gone missing for days at a time in the past, but always returned, body-camera footage played in court from the welfare check shows. Family still had not heard from her, said Kafle Bhatt’s brother, who in an interview described pleading with his brother-in-law on Aug. 4 to call authorities.

Naresh Bhatt reported her missing on Aug. 5. Within days, friends and supporters began hosting daily rallies outside the Manassas Park Police station and organizing searches of parks. As public pressure increased, police conducted the first of roughly 40 searches, Lugo said, combing the couple’s house for evidence and arresting Bhatt on Aug. 22 on a charge of concealing a dead body.

In a hearing days later, Ben-Avraham said Bhatt “was arrested because there is a huge media frenzy. The chief of the Manassas Park police is under pressure to do something.”

Her disappearance and Bhatt’s charge prompted friends and co-workers to revisit moments of tension in the couple’s marriage. In interviews, some have discussed Kafle Bhatt’s decision to move out for brief periods, questioning what was happening in the shadows of happy moments with her daughter that she would post nearly daily to social media.

In an August interview, Sarita Neupane recalled hosting Kafle Bhatt and her baby for a week in February after the couple had a disagreement. The following month, Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Matthew Sweet said in court that Kafle Bhatt’s brother had produced a photograph of his sister from that month showing blood on her face and swollen eyes.

On Monday, Lugo said Kafle Bhatt had not made any prior domestic violence reports.

“We heard about it after she disappeared,” Lugo said. “That is alarming to us.”

Her supporters have packed the courtroom at each appearance, sporting “Justice for Mamta” pins and often wearing her favorite colors, green and red.

In the months leading to his wife’s disappearance, prosecutors say Bhatt’s online searches included: “How long does it take to get married after spouse dies” and “What happens if spouse disappears in Virginia.”

In the days after she was last seen alive, they allege that Bhatt bought cleaning supplies, dumped a bloodstained bath mat in a donation bin outside a Loudoun County gas station, and threw bags into a trash compactor in the early morning hours while wearing white gloves.

Indiana University, BA in journalism and international studies

Emma Uber covers crime and criminal justice in Northern Virginia.

Emma Uber

Pulitzer Prize for The Washington Post's breaking news coverage of Virginia Tech shooting, 2008

Pulitzer Prize for The Washington Post's investigation of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, 2022

Rites of Burial

University of Notre Dame, BA in English and American Studies

Tom Jackman has been covering criminal justice for The Washington Post since 1998 and anchors the True Crime blog. He previously covered crime and courts for the Kansas City Star.

Naresh Bhatt charged with murder in death of missing wife, Mamta Bhatt

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