Naresh Bhatt Found Guilty Of Killing Wife, Admits He Cut Up Her Body

The last days before Mamta disappeared

Mamta Kafle Bhatt was 28 years old, a nurse, and the mother of an infant daughter when she vanished from the home she shared with her husband, Naresh Bhatt, in Manassas Park, Virginia. Friends say they last saw her alive on July 27, 2024.

According to Bhatt's own testimony, he slept down the hall with the couple's baby on the night of July 29, 2024, woke a few times to tend to the child, and at 4 a.m. on July 30, 2024 walked into the primary bedroom to find Kafle on the floor. He said there was vomit near her containing pill capsules, along with an open container of an agricultural pesticide.

Bhatt testified he tried to revive her for 45 minutes to an hour before giving up. He said he then texted the couple's babysitter, dropped off his daughter, and drove to Home Depot, where he bought gloves.

Over the following day to a day and a half, Bhatt said, he used a power saw to cut up Kafle's body, starting by separating her legs from her torso, and disposed of the remains in trash bags at dumpsters around the area. Prosecutors said some of that trash ultimately reached a landfill in Luray, Virginia.

Mamta failed to show up for her nursing shift on August 1, 2024. Naresh initially told police he didn't believe she was missing, saying he had seen her on July 29, and later told friends and reporters she had likely gone to New York or Texas. He didn't file a missing-persons report until August 5, 2024 — six days after he says he found her dead.

He was arrested that August and has been held without bond since. Her body has never been found.

Who's at the center of this case

Mamta Kafle Bhatt was a 28-year-old nurse and mother. Her family lives in Nepal; her mother, Gita Kafle, testified she video-called her daughter two or three times a day. Friends called Kafle's daughter, who was not quite 1 year old when her mother disappeared and is now about 3, "mini-Mamta."

Naresh Bhatt is her husband, now convicted of killing her. He grew up in Nepal, enlisted in the U.S. Army, and told jurors he began experiencing symptoms he now attributes to PTSD during his military service.

The case was tried before Judge Kimberly Irving in Prince William County Circuit Court. Senior Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Sarah Sami and prosecutor Matthew Sweet led the prosecution; defense attorney Tracey Lenox represented Bhatt, who had changed attorneys multiple times over two years and tried unsuccessfully to remove his public defender as recently as September.

Friends Bina Khadkalama and Holly Wirth both spoke about Kafle during the trial, as did her brother, who testified he had long feared for his sister's safety in the marriage.

“She's in pieces, crushed in some landfill somewhere. That is what this family will have to live with,” — Sarah Sami, senior assistant Commonwealth's attorney, according to NBC4 Washington.

What the jury decided — and what it means

On Tuesday, after nearly six weeks of testimony across 19 trial days, a Prince William County jury found Naresh Bhatt guilty on all three counts: first-degree murder, concealing a dead body, and defiling a dead body. Jurors deliberated roughly four hours.

First-degree murder in Virginia carries a minimum of 20 years and a maximum of life in prison. The concealment and defiling convictions each carry up to five more years. Bhatt is scheduled to be sentenced March 12, 2027.

Bhatt had pleaded not guilty to all three charges and maintained throughout the trial that he did not kill his wife. He has been held without bond since his arrest in August 2024.

What prosecutors argued

Prosecutors built their case on forensic blood evidence, Bhatt's internet search history, and surveillance video. A forensic analyst testified about blood patterns found in the couple's bedroom and bathroom, and investigators said a power saw recovered from the home contained blood and hair fragments — the tool prosecutors called the murder weapon in opening statements.

Digital forensics investigator Katherine Zaimis told jurors that Bhatt had searched, months before Kafle's death, for terms including "what happens if a spouse disappears" and "can I divorce if wife lost" — searches dated to March 2024. Prosecutors also presented text messages in which Bhatt argued with his wife and told another person he wanted a "Colombian woman," which they argued established a motive.

Surveillance video shown to the jury captured Bhatt dumping bags into multiple dumpsters while wearing gloves; he testified those particular bags held only her belongings, not her remains.

In closing arguments, Sami told jurors not to believe Bhatt's "made up crazy story." "The defendant murdered Mamta Kafle, the defendant dismembered Mamta Kafle and the defendant got rid of her like garbage," she said, according to NBC4 Washington. "He gave her a final resting place of the landfill in Luray, Virginia," she continued. "Mamta will always be missing for that family there. Always be missing. We know she's dead, but she is missing because they will never be able to give her her last rights. She's in pieces, crushed in some landfill somewhere. That is what this family will have to live with."

What Bhatt said on the witness stand

In testimony last week, Bhatt took the stand and, for the first time, admitted he had cut up his wife's body. He said he panicked after failing to revive her and feared he would be blamed for her death. "I really at that point scared. I don't know why I did not. I tried to call. I really scared. I don't know why. Something take over me. I was really, really panic," he told jurors, according to NBC4 Washington.

He insisted Kafle died by suicide and said he destroyed her remains to protect her and their families from stigma. "Because I wasn't kind with her, it led her to suicide," he said. "That's why I feel like, one way or the other, I was one of the factors that led her to suicide." He also told jurors, "I wasn't treating her emotionally well. I wasn't helping her well the way I used to do."

He denied ever physically harming his wife and said he never stopped loving her. On cross-examination, prosecutor Matthew Sweet confronted him over his earlier statements that Kafle had simply left for New York or Texas. "You're a liar," Sweet said. "You lied," he continued, as applause broke out in the courtroom before the judge called for order.

A defense psychologist, Dr. Barry Rosenfeld of Fordham University, testified that Bhatt meets the criteria for PTSD and was not exaggerating his symptoms, though he drew a line between panic and Bhatt's subsequent actions. "It's certainly a plausible way of behaving. Not the cutting of a body," Rosenfeld testified. "I mean, panicking and not knowing what to do, that is not thinking clearly ... It is not at all surprising for somebody who has got Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and has been triggered by something upsetting."

How Kafle's family and friends reacted

Outside the Prince William County courthouse, dozens of Kafle's friends and members of the local Nepali community gathered after the verdict. "Today we got justice!" one man told reporters. "Justice has prevailed." Another said, "After 832 days … since Mamta has been missing, finally he has been convicted."

Kafle's friend Bina Khadkalama described the moment the verdict came down. "It was unexpected, unbelievable," she told 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."

Holly Wirth, Kafle's friend and former coworker, spoke about the daughter Kafle left behind. "She has the biggest smile, just like the videos that you ... saw of her in the courtroom," Wirth told NBC4 Washington. "She loves to dance, just like her mother. She's so smart. She's so loved. She's so adored."

The Prince William County Commonwealth's Attorney released a statement after the verdict: "This 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." In a separate statement, the office added, "This case was a powerful reminder that the absence of a victim's body does not mean the absence of justice."

What happens next

Naresh Bhatt is scheduled to be sentenced on March 12, 2027, in Prince William County Circuit Court. His first-degree murder conviction alone carries a minimum of 20 years and a maximum of life in prison; the concealing and defiling convictions each add up to five more years, leaving the judge to decide where within that range his sentence falls.