A Virginia jury on Tuesday found Naresh Bhatt, 39, guilty of first-degree murder in the death of his wife, Mamta Kafle Bhatt, a 28-year-old Nepali nurse who disappeared from their home in Manassas Park in the last days of July 2024.
The jury also convicted him of concealing a dead body and of physically defiling a dead body. It deliberated for several hours after nearly six weeks of trial in Prince William County Circuit Court, and rejected his account that Mamta died by suicide and that he hid her death because he panicked.
Her remains have not been recovered. There was no autopsy, and no medical cause of death was established. The jury convicted on circumstantial evidence: DNA, surveillance footage, phone and vehicle records, financial records, witness testimony and the defendant’s own admission that he used a power saw and knives on her body.
Sentencing is scheduled for March 12, 2027. First-degree murder carries 20 years to life in prison. Each of the other two counts is a Class 6 felony, ordinarily carrying one to five years.
Mamta Kafle
Mamta was born and schooled in Nepal and went to Bengaluru, India, to study nursing. She moved to Northern Virginia in 2021 after her marriage to Naresh and worked at UVA Health Prince William Medical Center in Manassas. A former roommate, Nadia Navarro, testified that Mamta was close to her and reliable. Colleagues described her as cheerful and hardworking, and friends said she hoped to build her career in the United States.
Testimony showed she held a green card.
The couple’s daughter was born in August 2023. She was about 11 months old when Mamta disappeared. The girl is now three and is in the care of relatives.
Naresh served in the US Army Reserve as an automated logistics specialist from June 2017 to February 2024, with no deployments. Fairfax County police confirmed he was hired as a police recruit in 2020 and left after 22 days.
A marriage in trouble
Prosecutors argued that the months before the disappearance explained what followed. They showed the jury photographs from December 2023 that appeared to show injuries to Mamta’s face and blood on her hand, along with a video in which she says, “This is the second time.” In a text message, Naresh replied: “I will sign divorce papers. I don’t want this again.”
Naresh testified that he had been emotionally cruel to her but denied ever physically abusing her. The defence questioned whether the photographs and messages showed who caused the injuries.
On Feb 14, 2024, Mamta called police after an argument over her identification documents, which Naresh had taken. Bank records showed she opened an account in her own name the same day.
Her brother, Mahesh Kafle, testified through an interpreter that she sent him a photograph of what looked like a facial injury that month. He said she told him she had not eaten for two days and that “I am not safe”, and asked him to keep the picture because she might need it later. The judge limited what he could repeat because of hearsay rules.
A family friend said Mamta stayed at her home for a time after an argument. Another friend, Ashish Sangroula, said the couple had marital difficulties but acknowledged he never saw violence himself. Sunita Basnet Thapa, a former colleague, said Mamta told her Naresh had been abusive, and that Mamta never spoke of wanting to end her life.
At 1:31 am on Feb 19, 2024, Naresh sent Mamta a message: “The days are coming that you will regret a lot.” In closing arguments, prosecutor Sarah Sami noted it was sent 162 days before the morning he says he found his wife dead, and called it a threat he later acted on. The defence disputed that reading, and the jury was left to weigh it with the rest of the evidence.
The digital and financial trail
Prosecutors presented a series of searches and messages from Naresh’s phone and an account linked to his government work.
On Mar 21, a search asked what happens if a spouse disappears in Virginia.
In March, he exchanged messages about meeting a Colombian woman and starting a new life after a divorce.
On Apr 12, a search asked how long someone must wait to remarry after a spouse dies. Naresh testified that the messages about the Colombian woman were meant to make Mamta jealous.
The defence pointed out that many search records carried no timestamps, and that an account associated with a person does not prove who typed each entry.
On June 2, store footage showed Naresh buying a Ryobi power saw, a blade and a battery kit at a Home Depot. That was almost two months before the date prosecutors say Mamta was killed, and the purpose of the purchase was not independently established. A $710 payment to federal immigration authorities was made in June from Mamta’s personal savings account.
The last days of July
Mamta was last recorded at work on July 27, 2024, and surveillance footage later showed a vehicle picking her up. Her mother in Nepal had her last known video call with her on July 29. After that, her calls and social media went quiet.
Prosecutors say Naresh killed her on or about July 30.
They told jurors that at about 5:40 am that day he messaged the babysitter to arrange an early drop-off for their daughter, and that surveillance showed him putting bags in trash at the babysitter’s apartment complex.
They said he asked about gloves at a Home Depot and bought a large pack of trash bags at Lidl. Early on July 31, at about 1:30 am, footage showed him putting bags in a trash compactor in Falls Church.
A public works official testified that the house used about 160 gallons of water over two hours that day. Prosecutors said that was consistent with heavy cleaning, but the official acknowledged he had not checked the plumbing for a leak.
Naresh told police he last saw Mamta on July 31. At trial he testified that he found her dead on the morning of July 30.
On Aug 1, prosecutors said, he gave the saw to a landscaper, Jose Barajas Ayala, as payment for yard work. The landscaper turned it over to the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office on Sept 9.
Records showed Naresh’s Tesla near a gas station in Chantilly on Aug 1 while his phone was off the network. Mamta’s phone connected to a nearby tower at that point, which prosecutors described as its last known connection.
Police did a welfare check on Aug 2 after her employer raised concerns. Naresh told officers about marital problems and said she might have gone to New York or Texas. He formally reported her missing on Aug 5, and a flyer was released on Aug 8. On Aug 15, Manassas Park Police described her disappearance as involuntary and critical. He sold the Tesla on Aug 16 and received a bank draft for $3,771.09 after the loan was paid. Police searched the home on Aug 21 and arrested him on Aug 22 on a charge of concealing a dead body. A grand jury indicted him on first-degree murder and defiling a dead body on Dec 2, 2024.
What the forensic evidence showed
Virginia forensic scientists found blood on the saw consistent with Mamta’s DNA profile. The reference profile came from a hairbrush found in the home. Naresh and the couple’s daughter were excluded as contributors, and the reported random-match probability was less than one in eight billion. The defence challenged whether the hairbrush could be tied conclusively to Mamta.
A forensic scientist testified that DNA from a stained section of bedroom carpet very likely included Mamta’s blood, but said DNA could not explain how it got there. Investigators found a stained white bath mat in a donation bin near a gas station in Loudoun County, and testing identified blood. A chemical used to reveal possible blood reacted in the bedroom and bathroom. That test is presumptive, not a final identification.
A report dated Apr 29, 2026 identified three human hairs, 13 hair fragments and fibres on the saw. The three hairs were suitable for DNA testing, but no identification of their owner was reported at trial.
The defence
Naresh took the stand on Nov 4 and 5. He said he woke on July 30 and found Mamta unresponsive on the bedroom floor, with vomit containing pills and open pesticide containers nearby. He said he tried to revive her for 45 minutes to an hour, giving her water and CPR, and did not call emergency services because he was frightened and believed he would be blamed. He admitted using a saw and knives on her body, and said the bags he later discarded held her belongings, not her remains. He also admitted lying to relatives, friends, neighbours and police.
A defence psychologist, Dr Barry Rosenfeld, testified that Naresh met the criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder, while saying he could not know what Naresh was thinking at the time. In rebuttal, toxicologist Dr Abigail Kearns testified that aluminium phosphide, the active compound in the pesticide Naresh named, produces toxic gas when it contacts moisture, and that people giving CPR to someone who ingested it can be exposed. Her testimony did not establish that Mamta had swallowed it.
Another rebuttal witness, Akash Rachh, Naresh’s former tenant, testified that Naresh threatened him and his wife with a firearm during a dispute in February 2021. Both men called police and no one was arrested. Rachh acknowledged that Naresh never struck him.
The trial
Jury selection began Oct 5 and testimony on Oct 7. Naresh pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors Matthew Sweet and Sami called more than 80 witnesses before resting on Nov 2, ending with Mamta’s brother. Chief public defender Tracey Lenox and Laurel Rodewald argued that the case rested on circumstantial evidence and speculation, since there was no body and no cause of death. Judge Kimberly A. Irving refused a defence request to dismiss the charges, and allowed jurors to consider second-degree murder as an alternative. She did not give a manslaughter instruction.
Sami’s closing lasted about 47 minutes and urged jurors not to accept the suicide account. Lenox spoke for about 24 minutes and argued the evidence did not prove murder beyond a reasonable doubt.
Virginia law allows a murder conviction without a recovered body if prosecutors prove the victim is dead, that the defendant caused the death and that the elements of the offence are met. Circumstantial evidence can be used to prove each point.
A family waits
At a vigil on July 31 this year, marking two years since her disappearance, Mamta’s mother, Gita Kafle, said through an interpreter: “Whoever did this to my daughter, he has to get punished. I have been waiting for that day.” Friend and former colleague Holly Wirth said Mamta’s “light is shining bright”, and supporters wore red, her favourite colour.
After the verdict, dozens of friends and members of the Nepali community gathered outside the courthouse. Some described it as justice after 832 days. The verdict fell during Tihar.
Without her remains, the family cannot carry out final rites. Prosecutors suggested in closing that some bags may have reached a landfill in Luray, Page County. No remains have been publicly confirmed recovered there or anywhere else.
What is still to be decided
Judge Irving will sentence Naresh Bhatt on March 12, 2027.
