A grand jury indicted the husband of a Northern Virginia mother missing since July on a first-degree murder charge Monday.
Previously, Naresh Bhatt only was charged with concealing Mamta Kafle Bhatt’s body. He also faces a felony count of physically defiling a dead body.
Investigators found blood in their home, cadaver dogs gave signs of a body and video shows him dropping trash in various dumpsters, prosecutors say.
Chief Mario Lugo said DNA evidence shows the blood was Mamta Kafle Bhatt’s. Police believe she was killed in the home and dismembered in the home, Lugo said.
Her body has not been found.
Just after 3 p.m. Aug. 2, two police officers from Manassas Park went to the Bhatts’ home after receiving a call her employer after she failed to show up to work.
On body-worn camera footage, Bhatt told officers his wife left home, destroyed her phone, and indicated she was heading to either New York or Texas. He told officers the couple had plans to split.
He was cordial with officers and told them his wife had been living elsewhere.
Police believe Mamta Kafle Bhatt was killed inside their home and her body was disposed somewhere.
At a court hearing in September, prosecutors told a judge there’s evidence Naresh Bhatt was seen placing garbage bags in dumpsters. They said police found a bloody bathmat in a bag of items donated to charity.
The Mamta Kafle Bhatt’s disappearance sparked a major search and community outcry as the mother missed her daughter’s first birthday.
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