The husband of a missing Virginia nurse has been formally charged with killing her and hiding her body, thanks to new DNA evidence.
Naresh Bhatt was indicted by a grand jury on Monday on charges of first-degree murder and physically defiling a dead body in connection to the disappearance of his wife, 28-year-old Mamta Kafle Bhatt, Manassas Park Police announced at a press conference on Monday. Her remains have still not been found.
Authorities say Mamta Bhatt was last seen at her job at UVA Health Prince William Medical Center in Manassas on July 27. Her coworkers became concerned when she didn’t show up for a scheduled shift. During a welfare check on the Bhatts’ home on Aug. 2, Naresh Bhatt told police he had last seen his wife on July 31, but said he didn’t want to report her missing, according to an earlier press release. He waited until Aug. 5, per police.
Naresh told officers that Mamta had destroyed her phone before leaving their home to see family in New York or Texas, ABC affiliate WJLA reported at the time.
However, detectives learned that she did not have relatives in those states, and on Monday, Manassas Police Chief Mario Lugo told reporters that evidence suggests that she was actually killed on July 29.
In an interview with WUSA9 in August, Naresh Bhatt claimed she had previously gone missing and returned. He pleaded for her to come back and described his sadness over her disappearance.
“She’s a special person for me because she’s caring and loving,” Naresh Bhatt told the outlet.
He was arrested days later, on Aug. 22. Initially, he was charged with concealing a dead body; he now faces charges of killing Mamta and defiling her corpse.
Authorities searched the couple’s home and found blood and other evidence suggesting a body had been dragged from the bedroom to the bathroom. The blood matched Mamta Bhatt’s DNA, Lugo said on Monday.
“The forensic unit of Prince William County said it was one of the worst crime scenes they’ve seen,” Lugo told reporters on Monday.
After his arrest, Naresh Bhatt was denied bond and has remained in jail since. He has not yet entered a plea, and the public defender’s office did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
Prosecutors who spoke at Naresh Bhatt’s earlier arraignment on the concealing a body charge told the court that he had made internet searches on his work laptop in April including “How long does it take to get married after spouse die,” and “What happen to debt died spouse,” WUSA9 reported. They also reportedly said he had sold his Tesla only a few days before his arrest, and was attempting to sell his home.
He was seen at a Walmart buying a pack of knives on July 30, then returned to a different Walmart location to buy cleaning supplies, prosecutors said, according to ABC affiliate WJLA.
Lugo declined on Monday to speculate about how exactly Mamta died. “I just know that whatever happened in that house, it was murder,” he said.
Gita Kafle, the Mamta Bhatt’s mother, told WUSA9 that her “heart is hurt.”
“She was a person who was very hardworking, very beautiful, very honest. She aspired to be somebody great, and she worked really hard,” Kafle said. “I don’t know what to say because I can never forget her, but whenever I think about it, I have my heartache.”
The case joins a relatively small but growing list of homicide cases that have gone to trial even before a body was found. Tad DiBiase, a former federal homicide prosecutor, previously told HuffPost that advances in forensics have made it easier to prosecute these kinds of crimes.
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Need help? In the U.S., call 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) for the National Domestic Violence Hotline.