Naresh Bhatt Admits Cutting Up Wife's Body To Fit It In A Trash Can

The last day anyone saw Mamta Kafle Bhatt

Mamta Kafle Bhatt, a 28-year-old nurse and mother in Manassas Park, Virginia, was last heard from on July 29, 2024. She didn't show up for her nursing shift, and when police first asked about her, Bhatt told them he didn't believe she was missing at all.

He changed that story more than two years later, under oath. Bhatt testified that in the early hours of July 30, 2024, he walked into the couple's bedroom and found Mamta on the floor, unconscious, surrounded by vomit that contained pill capsules and traces of an agricultural fumigant. He said he tried CPR for close to an hour. She never responded.

Instead of calling 911, Bhatt said he panicked. He texted the family's babysitter, dropped off the couple's young daughter, and drove to a Home Depot, where he bought gloves. Then, by his own account, he began cutting up his wife's body with a saw and knives, starting by separating her legs from her torso, so it would fit inside the household trash can for curbside collection. "I'm gonna hide somewhere or throw somewhere else to, so nobody know it," he testified, according to FOX 5 DC. He told jurors he worked on the body over the next day and a half, stopping the first night because he lacked the strength to continue.

Mamta Kafle Bhatt's body has never been found. Police arrested Bhatt on Aug. 22, 2024, after finding bloodstains in the bedroom and bathroom and a power saw with hair fragments — evidence prosecutors later called the murder weapon.

Who's at the center of this case

Naresh Bhatt, 39, grew up in Nepal and later enlisted in the U.S. Army, eventually working as an IT employee with top-secret military access. He and Mamta had a 3-year-old daughter together, Neema.

Mamta Kafle Bhatt was 28, a nurse working in Manassas Park, described by her mother on the stand as "very strong" and "educated." Her parents, Gita and Mahesh Kafle, and her brother all testified during the trial, alongside friends including Bina Khadkalama.

Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Matthew Sweet handled the cross-examination of Bhatt for the prosecution. Chief Public Defender Tracey Lenox and attorney Laurel Rodewald represented Bhatt. Judge Kimberly A. Irving of Prince William County Circuit Court presided over the six-week trial.

"I'm gonna hide somewhere or throw somewhere else to, so nobody know it," — Naresh Bhatt, testifying at trial, per FOX 5 DC.

The charges, the plea, the verdict

Bhatt faced three charges: first-degree murder, concealing a dead body and defiling a dead body. First-degree murder in Virginia requires proof of a willful, deliberate and premeditated killing — prosecutors had to show not just that Mamta died at his hands, but that he intended it. The other two charges track what he admitted on the stand: hiding her remains, and desecrating them by cutting the body apart.

Bhatt pleaded not guilty and had been held without bond since his August 2024 arrest. He testified in his own defense over two days, telling jurors his wife died by suicide and that he dismembered her body during a dissociative episode tied to post-traumatic stress disorder.

On Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026, after several hours of deliberation, the jury convicted Bhatt on all three counts. The Prince William County Commonwealth's Attorney's office said in a statement that the verdict "represents an important measure of justice for Mamta Kafle Bhatt, whose life was tragically taken and whose family has endured more than two years of unimaginable pain and uncertainty. We recognize that no verdict can bring Mamta back or erase the profound loss suffered by her family. We hope, however, that today's verdict provides them with some measure of justice and allows them to begin moving forward knowing that Mamta's life mattered, her story was heard, and the person responsible has been held accountable."

Bhatt's story versus the evidence Sweet put to him

Bhatt told jurors Mamta poisoned herself with an agricultural pesticide, and that finding her body triggered a PTSD-driven dissociative state. "My whole body was kind of shaking uncontrolled... I don't realize what I was thinking, what I was doing. Just kind of automatic movement," he testified, according to NBC4 Washington. He said he had logged "over 3,500 hours of meditation" in the two years since, without ever finding an answer for why he didn't call 911.

Sweet's cross-examination ran nearly four hours. He pressed Bhatt on more than two years of telling police, reporters and Mamta's family that she had simply left, possibly for New York or Texas. "You're a liar," Sweet told him at one point, drawing applause from the gallery that the judge had to quiet.

Sweet introduced photos of Mamta's bruised face from December 2023, with a bloody hand visible in the image, and a video in which Mamta told Bhatt, "This is the second time," while his mother spoke in the background. Bhatt had texted back at the time, "I will sign divorce papers. I don't want this again." Sweet also pointed to roughly 14,000 of Bhatt's Google searches, including ones about an ex-fiancée, a Colombian love interest, and the legal consequences of divorce and death in Virginia. Bhatt's phone listed Mamta's contact as "Bad memory." He denied ever physically assaulting his wife.

The defense's own expert complicated Bhatt's account. Forensic psychologist Dr. Barry Rosenfeld testified Bhatt genuinely has PTSD, but conceded to Sweet that premeditation remains possible in someone with the disorder, and said he had "no idea" whether Bhatt was exaggerating symptoms to avoid "further legal repercussions." Former NCIS agent Elizabeth Pierri testified the original crime scene was handled sloppily — investigators skipped gloves and shoe covers — but she also said she "can't pinpoint" how Mamta died and couldn't rule out homicide.

What friends and family said outside the courthouse

Mamta's friend Bina Khadkalama was outside the courthouse the day Bhatt described cutting up the body. "It was unexpected, unbelievable," she said, according to FOX 5 DC. "It was very hard to hold myself, and my job was to hold Gita, Mamta's mom, that was the hardest job today. She broke down very bad, and we had to walk her outside the bathroom. It's just unfair to the world. He lied to everyone."

Khadkalama put the image of what Bhatt admitted to more bluntly: "I'm imagining how did he cut her arms and legs, and then put her body in a trash bag and try to fit it in the trash can… he has no heart," she told FOX 5 DC.

Community member Melissa Barton said Bhatt's flat demeanor on the stand didn't surprise her, pointing to his absence from the search effort after Mamta disappeared. "It's not surprising he showed no emotion because when she went missing from day one, he did not help us look for her," she said. "He did not hang up a single sign. He didn't come with us. We all did the searches by ourselves without him and he never showed one ounce of care from day one."

On the stand, Mamta's mother Gita Kafle rejected the suicide theory, describing her daughter as capable of weathering hard times. "She will struggle, but she will survive," Gita Kafle testified, recalling how Mamta had spoken about her marriage and an early, considered divorce in 2023 or 2024.

What happens next

The jury's work is done — Bhatt was convicted Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026, of first-degree murder, concealing a dead body and defiling a dead body. What's left is sentencing, scheduled for March 12, 2027, when a judge will decide Bhatt's punishment weighing the PTSD testimony, the evidence of prior abuse, and the fact that Mamta Kafle Bhatt's body has never been recovered.