Police first went to Mamta Kafle Bhatt’s home after she missed work, days before her husband was arrested.
MANASSAS PARK, Va. — A missed shift, a stopped social media feed and a welfare check led police to a Manassas Park home where prosecutors now say Mamta Kafle Bhatt was killed by her husband.
The case against Naresh Bhatt began as a missing-person investigation in August 2024 and has grown into a first-degree murder case without a recovered body. The latest development is a forensic report saying three human hairs, 13 human hair fragments, fibers and debris were found on a handheld reciprocating saw seized from the couple’s home. Prosecutors say the findings fit a broader timeline of blood evidence, purchases and surveillance video.
Mamta, 28, was last seen July 27, 2024, at UVA Health Prince William Medical Center in Manassas. She was a nurse and the mother of a young daughter. A friend received two calls from her phone on July 28. The next day, Mamta’s regular social media activity stopped. Her silence stood out to friends and coworkers who knew her routines. By Aug. 2, after she had missed work, a supervisor asked Manassas Park police to check on her at the home she shared with Naresh Bhatt.
When officers arrived, Naresh Bhatt answered the door while holding the couple’s child. In body camera footage released later, he told police he had not seen his wife since July 31 and suggested she might have left voluntarily. “She’s going to go to either New York or Texas,” he told officers. He also said the couple was separating and said she had left before. “This is like, multiple times,” he said during the encounter. Police did not yet have a body, a confession or a clear account of where Mamta had gone.
Investigators later said the home told a different story. They reported finding blood evidence and signs that a dead body had been dragged from the master bedroom to a bathroom. Prosecutors have said testing on blood found on parts of a reciprocating saw could not exclude Mamta as a contributor when compared with a DNA profile from her hairbrush. Naresh Bhatt and the couple’s daughter were eliminated as contributors or major contributors to the stained swabs. The newer report says the saw also held three human hairs that may be suitable for nuclear DNA testing.
Prosecutors have built part of the timeline around July 30 and July 31, 2024. They have said surveillance video shows Naresh Bhatt dropping several plastic and trash bags into a dumpster after leaving the child with a babysitter. Later that evening, prosecutors said, he bought a 40-pack of extra strong black trash bags. They have also said he bought knives earlier that day after shopping at Home Depot and Walmart. The next morning, investigators said, video showed him taking bags from his Tesla and putting them into a trash compactor.
The investigation did not stop at the home. Police and community members searched across the area for Mamta and for possible evidence. Authorities have said they believe her remains were scattered across Northern Virginia, but no remains have been recovered. That gap has made the case both legally complex and painful for supporters, who have appeared at court hearings and organized around the search for answers. Prosecutors must prove not only who killed Mamta but also that she is dead, despite the missing body.
Naresh Bhatt was arrested Aug. 22, 2024, and first charged with concealing a dead body. In December 2024, prosecutors obtained an indictment adding murder and physically defiling a dead body. He has pleaded not guilty. Court proceedings have stretched on as attorneys review discovery, including digital records and forensic reports. A judge delayed the jury trial until October 2026 after defense attorneys said they needed more time to review the evidence.
The April 29 forensic report may become one of the key items argued before trial. A forensic science professor who reviewed the general significance of the finding said usable hairs can help investigators develop a DNA profile. The report does not say that the hairs have already been matched to Mamta. The test results remain unreleased, and the defense has not had a trial jury weigh the evidence. Any courtroom fight may focus on the limits of the testing, the handling of the saw and what conclusions jurors can draw.
For Mamta’s supporters, the case remains a timeline of ordinary events that turned troubling: a last shift at the hospital, phone calls to a friend, an abrupt end to online activity, a welfare check and a house later searched by police. For prosecutors, those events now sit beside blood testing, bag purchases, alleged disposal trips and the saw evidence. For the defense, the state still must prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt.
The case remains pending in Prince William County Circuit Court, with Naresh Bhatt held as lawyers prepare for a jury trial in October 2026. The next court rulings will shape which forensic and digital evidence jurors hear.
Author note: Last updated June 22, 2026.