What Happened to Mamta Kafle Bhatt?

SPEAKER_1 (0:04)

Hello, sir, how are you? I'm on to the Manassas Park police.

Herman Weisberg (0:07)

We're looking for Ms. Mamta Kafle.

Naresh Bhatt (0:10)

Yeah, we see, like on Tuesday, Wednesday, she left and then she says she's going to go either New York or Texas, and then she left, like she had the phone, and then she destroyed that phone, and then she left.

Michelle Sigona (0:23)

That was Naresh Bhatt, the Manassas Park Virginia man charged with murdering his wife, Mamta Kafle Bhatt. Naresh was arrested and held without bond on August 22nd, 2024

Mamta's body still has not been found. I'm 48 Hours producer Michelle Sigona, and this is Case by Case. Now, I'm in the DC area, and this is a story that's been covered heavily, especially over the last couple of years by our local media.

Mamta Kafle Bhatt was just 28 years old when she went missing, and that was in 2024 She was last seen on July 27th that year by her coworkers, and that was at the UVA Prince William Medical Center. That's where she was a pediatric nurse.

Now, after not showing up for a few days, her coworkers requested a welfare check on August 2nd. It was then that officers spoke to Naresh, who initially said he didn't want to report her missing, and that's because she had allegedly left the home like this before. Three days later, on August 5th, he did file that missing report. And on the 7th, he even posted on Facebook that his wife went missing. He encouraged people to go to the nearest police department or to their friends or family with any information, ending his post with, quote, I appreciate your unconditional support and hope to get help down the road in future days.

Since she had not contacted her friends, family or even coworkers, Mamta's disappearance was declared involuntary. And that was on August 8th. The Nepali-American couple had an arranged marriage back in December of 2020, and they share a three-year-old daughter together. Mamta's mother and brother came from Nepal in October 2024 to care for the child right here in the United States. Again, the Bhatt trial is expected to start in early October, and this could last up to seven weeks. Now while Naresh initially faced charges of concealing a dead body, prosecutors later added charges of first-degree murder and physically defiling a dead body. In a bond motion hearing back in September 2024, senior assistant public defender requested that he be released. And this was citing his seven years of experience and service within the United States Army, and the fact that he worked in IT at the White House. Naresh was also hired as a police recruit for Fairfax County in 2020 But according to the Fairfax County Police Department, he was, quote, unsuccessful in fulfilling the requirements of the role. Now the bond motion was denied, and Naresh has been held at the Prince William and NASA's Adult Detention Center. Joining us today is 48 Hours consultant Herman Weisberg. Herman is a private investigator, former NYPD detective, and the managing director of Sage Intelligence Group. And this is where he oversees investigations. Thank you so much for being here, Herman. It's always great to see you.

Herman Weisberg (3:36)

Hi, Michelle. Happy to be working with you on this.

Michelle Sigona (3:38)

I first want to talk to you about Mamta's disappearance. I mean, she was last seen at work on July 27th, 2024

But from what we've been able to learn, she did speak to a friend on July 28th. And then the day after that, she had a video call with her mom. So I'm curious about how her phone activity leading up to her disappearance may come up in this trial and really play a role.

Herman Weisberg (4:04)

So I read that Mamta actually spoke to her mother twice a day. Her mom lived in Nepal at the time, and they kept an extremely close contact.

That call on the 29th was actually Mamta's last call to her mom. So this sudden cutting off of a very consistent, almost systematic communications between her mom, that's going to raise some red flags for the family. The defense could hint that Mamta just pulled away from her husband and child because she was unhappy, but prosecutors are going to point out that Mamta's probably not going to cut herself off completely from her whole community and family like that. Given the fact that Mamta's body still hasn't been found, prosecutors will have to get creative about the evidence in this case. So phone data, camera footage, GPS location, all of this very much comes into play.

Michelle Sigona (4:53)

Absolutely. So in a pre-trial hearing, this was in September 2024, the senior assistant Commonwealth's attorney laid out this timeline. Now early in the morning, this is on July 30th, Naresh dropped off their three-year-old daughter at their babysitter's apartment in Manassas Park.