Mama Kafle Bhatt case: What we know about the missing Virginia woman and her husband

CNN
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The search for Mamta Kafle Bhatt, a nurse and devoted mother of a young daughter, has been going on for several weeks – but no one has been able to locate the popular member of the Nepalese community.

Kafle Bhatt's husband, Naresh Bhatt, is accused of killing her in their home and then dragging her body outside, according to a criminal complaint. Bhatt, 37, is charged with concealing a body, according to court records. He was taken away in handcuffs on Aug. 22 after authorities obtained a search warrant for the couple's home.

Bhatt waived his right to a preliminary hearing during a brief appearance in a Virginia court Thursday morning. Court records show the court has referred the case to a grand jury, which will decide whether there is sufficient probable cause to file charges.

CNN has reached out to Shalev Ben-Avraham, the public defender representing Bhatt, for comment. Prince William County District Attorney Amy Ashworth declined to comment pending the outcome of the case.

Manassas Park Police Chief Mario Lugo told reporters Tuesday that he was reluctant to give up hope that the missing woman was still alive, but did not currently believe that was the case.

Here is what we know so far about the case and the investigation:

According to police, Kafle Bhatt was last seen on July 27 at UVA Health Prince William Medical Center in Manassas. She worked there as a registered nurse in the medical surgical department, the center told CNN. According to CNN affiliate WUSA, she last spoke with a friend on July 28. According to CNN affiliate WJLA, she posted a video on her TikTok account that same day showing herself and her young daughter.

Police visited the couple's home in Manassas on August 2 after their colleagues at the medical center stopped by for a wellness check on August 1. Kafle Bhatt worked two days a week at the hospital and was scheduled to work on August 1 and 2. Officers said they became concerned after she neither showed up for work nor called.

When police spoke to Bhatt, he “provided additional information” and told investigators he did not want to report her missing at that time, police said.

Three days after the investigation, Bhatt, a former Fairfax County police recruit and former U.S. Army Reserve automated logistics specialist, reported her missing, telling investigators he last saw his wife at dinner on July 31 and had not seen her since.

Detectives conducted extensive investigations from August 5 to 8 and found that there had been a significant lack of contact between Kafle Bhatt and her family, friends, employer and on social media recently, so they upgraded her missing person status to involuntary/critical missing person status.

At first, Bhatt cooperated with investigators and answered their questions. He also spoke to WUSA to describe the difficulty of the situation and left a message for his wife in case she saw the interview: “Hey, just come back. I'm myself and my baby, we're waiting every second, every minute. If you're listening, we're here waiting for you. We need you,” he said.

Bhatt told WUSA that his wife of three years was “a special person” who was “caring and loving.” She had disappeared three times before, he said, but never for such a long time.

Manassas Park Police issued four press releases reminding the public about the search for Kafle Bhatt, and community members set up Facebook groups and GoFundMe accounts to raise awareness and donations for the search effort.

On August 21, the couple's home was searched by detectives, but details of the reason for the search were not disclosed at the time.

Prior to this search, investigators executed ten search warrants and conducted “hundreds of interviews related to this case,” Lugo said during a press conference the same day.

Asked if there was a “person of interest” in connection with Kafle Bhatt's disappearance, Lugo said her husband was “the center of interest and everyone knows that,” adding that Bhatt had stopped cooperating with police – a departure from the police press release on August 15, which said “her husband, her friends and her colleagues have cooperated throughout the investigation.”

Police were called to the couple's home in February on allegations of disorderly conduct, but authorities have not released any details about the operation at this time, Lugo told CNN on Wednesday.

The morning after the couple's home was searched on August 21, Bhatt was taken away in handcuffs, a video obtained by WJLA shows. A toddler, the couple's child, was also taken away under a yellow blanket.

The toddler has been reunited with his maternal grandparents, who are from Nepal, Bandita Sharma Dahal, an immigration attorney working with the family, told CNN.

Bhatt has not been formally charged with murder, but the preliminary criminal complaint states that “on or about July 30, 2024, the accused Naresh Bhatt murdered his wife Mamta Bhatt.”

Bhatt was hired as a police recruit in 2020 but was “unable to meet the requirements” of his role and was fired in November of that year, according to a statement from the Fairfax County Police Department.

Details of the findings made by investigators during the search of the couple's home were announced by the public prosecutor's office at the indictment on Friday.

Bhatt gave conflicting information about his wife's whereabouts, WJLA reported, and investigators said he claimed she destroyed her own cellphone before she disappeared.

On July 30, Bhatt was seen at a Walmart buying a package containing three knives, according to investigators. Two of them were missing after the couple's home was searched, according to WJLA. A day later, he was seen at another Walmart store buying cleaning supplies.

Investigators found what appeared to be pools of blood and blood splatters in the home's master bedroom. The bed appeared to have been moved and was blocking a closet. Light pink stains were found on the bedroom carpet after the bed was moved. Pools of blood were found in the bathroom, “as if something had been dragged across the floor.” There was also a pool of blood on the shower floor, WJLA reported Friday's arraignment.

When investigators removed the bathtub, they saw what they believed to be blood in the caulk, WJLA reported.

It is still unclear who the blood found in the couple's house belongs to.

Numerous cleaning supplies purchased by Bhatt were also found in the house, which police said appeared to be in a neglected state at the time of the indictment, according to the WJLA.

In addition, Bhatt sold his Tesla on August 19 and the house appeared to be packed, with a suitcase waiting, items missing from hangers and passports on display, WJLA reported.

“We are all in shock,” Holly Wirth, a former colleague of Kafle Bhatt, told reporters after the arraignment on Friday. “The details that have come to light are even more horrific than I could have expected.”

As WUSA reported, during a hearing on Monday morning, Bhatt was ordered remanded in custody without bail.

On Tuesday – the same day another search warrant was executed on the couple's home – Lugo told reporters that more evidence had been uncovered, but did not go into detail.

Authorities are waiting for a search warrant for Bhatt's Tesla, which he sold to a dealer, Lugo said.

Community supports mother and daughter

Sunita Basnet Thapa was more than a former colleague and mentor to Kafle Bhatt – she was her “didi” or “di,” her “sister” in South Asian culture. The two met last June and quickly became close, Basnet Thapa told CNN on Monday.

Although the two women had opposite work schedules, Kafle Bhatt made sure Basnet Thapa had something to eat – often bringing her breakfast or lunch.

Last February, Kafle Bhatt mentioned that she and her husband had been involved in domestic violence, Basnet Thapa told CNN.

“I gave her all the resources, I told her to leave the house immediately, I offered her to stay at my house or go to a homeless shelter, I offered all the help,” said Basnet Thapa.

But later, “she sent me a message saying, 'Di, I'm going to family counseling and I want to give him a chance. And I realized how much I love him and I want to give him a chance in the hope that he can be a better father and a better person. I just didn't want to cause him any problems.' That's what she told me.”

Bhatt's public defender argued in court Friday that his client should be released on bail because there is “no evidence” that Bhatt has done anything wrong, according to the news website Inside NoVa. “They have actually not presented a shred of evidence that he has done anything wrong,” said the attorney, whose name was not used by the publication. “He has no violent past … there are no allegations of abuse.”

Basnet Thapa described Kafle Bhatt as a humble, hard-working, independent and innocent person who is excited about the future, loves cooking, loves music and is a devoted mother who loves her daughter more than anything in the world.

Some community members said they were not surprised Bhatt was charged in connection with his wife's disappearance. “The mother didn't want to leave her baby. She definitely didn't want to miss her first birthday,” neighbor Ivy Freedman told WUSA.

And community members are making sure that Kafle Bhatt's young daughter is not forgotten in the tragedy.

“We are Mamta's voice,” Wirth said on Monday. “We are here for Mamta, but more importantly, we want to make sure her daughter is OK.”