VA MAMTA KAFLE BHATT: Missing from Manassas Park, VA - 31 July 2024 - Age 28 *ARREST*

Manassas Park mom disappears under 'involuntary circumstance' police say

Mamta Kafle Bhatt, 28, has been missing since July 31.

www.wusa9.com

Manassas Park mom disappears under 'involuntary circumstance' police say​

Manassas Park Police say a mother is considered to be missing under "involuntary circumstance" after not being seen since July 31.

Investigators released information about the missing person's case on Aug. 8.

Friends tell us Mamta Kafle Bhatt, 28, never showed up to her Aug. 1 shift at Inova Fairfax Hospital where she worked as a pediatric nurse. Bhatt's former roommate Nadia Navarro says she does not understand why it took so long for police to notify the community that her close friend was missing.

"I last heard from her personally on July 28th. She called me a couple times, but I was asleep. And I got a call from someone I met at Mamta's baby shower and she asked me if I knew where Mamta was," Navarro told WUSA9 in a Manassas parking lot as she organized a search party for her friend.

Over the weekend Navarro launched a Facebook group dedicated to sharing information about Bhatt's case. The group went from social media to actually conducting searches in Prince William County.

Navarro says she met Bhatt when she first came to the United States and they both bonded over their experience being immigrants. She says Bhatt is originally from Nepal and the two grew so close they considered each other family.

"Mamta is not an impulsive person, she's a very responsible person, she's a very calm person. So to hear, that she might be missing, I really doubt she would run away," Navarro added.

Navarro says she has a very difficult time believing that the first-time mother would leave her 10-month-old daughter.

After being at the Manassas Park Police Department for hours, we found Bhatt's husband, Naresh Bhatt.

"I am suffering through a lot," Bhatt told WUSA9.

Bhatt did not want to go into detail about the case but told WUSA9 that he was calling on the community to help him bring his wife home.



In a statement, Manassas Park Police wrote:

"This case is active and ongoing. What we can share at this time is the following: the investigators have conducted several follow-ups with neighbors, friends, co-workers and the husband. The investigators are also utilizing several investigative tools to help in an attempt to locate Mamta Kafle."
Media - MAMTA KAFLE BHATT: Missing from Manassas Park, VA - 31 July 2024 - Age 28

 

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

Trial for Manassas Park man accused of killing wife delayed to October 2026

Naresh Bhatt, the Manassas Park, Virginia, man accused of murdering his wife Mamta Kafle Bhatt and hiding her body, is in court Monday for a hearing.Prince Will

wjla.com

Trial for Manassas Park man accused of killing wife delayed to October 2026
The trial for Naresh Bhatt, the Manassas Park man accused of killing his wife and hiding her body, has been delayed another year, a judge decided Friday morning.

According to court documents, Naresh's defense team requested to postpone his upcoming jury trial, initially set to begin Sept. 8, 2025.

On Friday, the judge decided to continue the trial to Oct. 5, 2026, through Nov. 13, 2026. Naresh will remain in jail between court appearances.

Mamta's supporters have regularly attended Naresh's court hearings and were once again outside the Prince William County Judicial Center Friday.

"It's an understatement to say this is a tremendous disappointment for the family -- and by the family, I mean not only Mamta's family, but the family of Mamta's supporters. This, while I think we expected there to be a continuance, we did not expect the continuance to be this far out," said Mamta's friend and former co-worker, Holly Wirth. "We're talking 14 months, and that is way significant, more significant than we thought we would get."

The defense's motion for continuance argues that they have not had enough time to review more than 1.5 TB of digital evidence provided by the Prince William County Commonwealth Attorney's Office with their client - and that more discovery was just added this month.

"The Commonwealth is ready. Defense is not," a supporter of Mamta's said after the hearing.

The court docs state that the discovery order in this case includes:

• 1,626 individual items labeled in PD case #240030282 that included Video footage/recordings/photographs/documents.
• 2,561 individual items in PD case #2024-001004) that includes video footage/recordings/photographs/documents.
• 2 more items in PD case #2024-001021
• 2 more items in PD case #2024-001190
• 3 more items in PD case #2024-001121

The documents claim that the prosecution refused to provide the discovery on a hard drive as requested by the defense, requiring Naresh's legal team to download and sort thousands of files through a limited-access online system.

"It took a total of 10 days of labor to download the over 1.5 TBs of discovery. This is due to evidence.com only allowing an account to be open on a single computer at a single time. This limited counsel to having to use a single laptop to download all items," Naresh's legal team wrote. "This could have been avoided if the Commonwealth had not refused to put the information on an external hard drive, as counsel asked them to do, but was told no."

The defense said Naresh needs more time to prepare for the trial.

 

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

'365 days ... no answers': Friends, supporters of Mamta Bhatt reflect on a 'heartbreaking' year

During a peaceful gathering early Sunday in front of the Prince William County judicial center in Manassas, Sunita Basnet paused for a moment to reflect, reminiscing on the hardship of the past 365 days.

www.insidenova.com

'365 days ... no answers': Friends, supporters of Mamta Bhatt reflect on a 'heartbreaking' year​

During a peaceful gathering early Sunday in front of the Prince William County judicial center in Manassas, Sunita Basnet paused for a moment to reflect, reminiscing on the hardship of the past 365 days.

July 27 will mark the one-year anniversary of the day Mamta Kafle Bhatt, a Manassas Park nurse and mother, was last seen at UVA Prince William Medical Center, where she worked.

She was last heard from on July 29, 2024, when she talked to her mother, Gita Kafle, on their final video call. The pair habitually spoke twice a day while Kafle was still living in Nepal.

Basnet, Mamta’s former nursing mentor, told InsideNoVa she was “emotionally traumatized” by her mentee’s disappearance. Bhatt’s husband, Naresh Bhatt, was eventually arrested in the case and has been charged with first-degree murder, concealment of a dead body and physical defilement of a dead body.

Wearing red alongside fellow supporters Sunday to honor Mamta’s favorite color, Basnet said she arranged a transfer to a new hospital shortly after Mamta’s disappearance.


Sunday’s gathering doubled as a protest of Circuit Court Judge Kimberly A. Irving’s reluctant decision on July 18 to delay Naresh Bhatt’s trial until October 2026 at the request of Bhatt’s attorney, Shalev Ben-Avraham, a senior assistant public defender, with agreement of prosecutors Matthew Sweet, a deputy commonwealth’s attorney, and Sarah Sami, a senior assistant commonwealth’s attorney.

While Ben-Avraham initially said he was amenable to a July 2026 trial date, Sweet and Sami favored three months later due to packed schedules in the interim.

Bina Khadkalama, a Nepali community member and spokesperson who keeps the community apprised of the Mamta case through TikTok videos, made her dismay known Sunday.

“We’re disappointed, we’re sad, we’re very mad, we’re furious,” Khadkalama told InsideNoVa. “We’re in limbo, like – what can we do? Because culturally and religiously, the family wanted to have closure and do some rituals that we’re supposed to do … we want that official something declared that she’s no longer, so they can do some rituals. That’s a huge part of their life.”

Basnet echoed Khadkalama’s emphasis on rituals, stressing the need for closure.

“We are not able to do the rituals, say final goodbye to her,” Basnet said. “In this religion, we have to give her some kind of closure and say goodbye for her divine life. So it is very painful, and it is very painful for her mother. I see a lot of pain in her mother’s eyes and her brother.”

Holly Wirth, a former coworker of and advocate for Mamta Kafle Bhatt, said she “understands the rationale” for why the defense and prosecution wanted to avoid any legal vulnerabilities in the trial, but added she disagrees with it emotionally.

“I have to trust the justice system,” Wirth said. “But at the end of the day, I think watching Judge Irving’s reaction and her reluctance to grant this long of a continuance really speaks volumes to the fact that even the judge didn’t want to do this – I think that’s all the validation I needed.”


On July 18, Irving appeared baffled by the defense’s request for the lengthy delay. Addressing Ben-Avraham from the bench, Irving said it was “mind-blowing” that a trial could take place over two years after the filing of the initial charges against Naresh Bhatt.

Wirth added that Mamta Kafle Bhatt’s supporters will stand alongside her family “however long it takes,” despite a visible reduction of their numbers at the July 18 court hearing compared with last fall.

“The best way we can honor Mamta is, if somebody is at risk, if somebody’s suffering intimate partner violence, please get out and call for help,” Wirth said. “There’s resources – if you don't know what the resources are, you can ask me, you can ask any of the Mamta supporters, but at the end of the day we don’t want there to be any more Mamtas.”

 

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

A year later, the investigation into Mamta Bhatt’s disappearance continues

Last Labor Day weekend, area police were still actively looking for Mamta Kafle Bhatt, the 28-year-old Manassas Park mother and nurse who went missing in late July 2024 and who police say was slain by her husband in their home.

www.princewilliamtimes.com

A year later, the investigation into Mamta Bhatt’s disappearance continues​

Last Labor Day weekend, area police were still actively looking for Mamta Kafle Bhatt, the 28-year-old Manassas Park mother and nurse who went missing in late July 2024 and who police say was slain by her husband in their home.

One year later, Mamta Kafle Bhatt’s body has not been found. Her husband, Naresh Bhatt, remains in Prince William County jail, where he is awaiting a jury trial on first-degree murder and other charges, which has now been set to begin on Oct. 5, 2026, and last for seven weeks.

 

[SheWhoMustNotBeNamed]

Former home of Manassas Park mother Mamta Kafle Bhatt going up for auction - WTOP News

The Manassas Park home in which police believe Mamta Kafle Bhatt, the missing Nepali nurse and mother, was killed by her husband in late July 2024 is going to auction.

wtop.com

Former home of Manassas Park mother Mamta Kafle Bhatt going up for auction​

The Manassas Park home in which police believe Mamta Kafle Bhatt, the missing Nepali nurse and mother, was killed by her husband in late July 2024 is going to auction.

The house will be subject to a foreclosure auction Oct. 16 at 4:15 p.m. inside Prince William County Circuit Court at 9311 Lee Ave. in Manassas, with an estimated resale value of $844,000.

With Virginia being a so-called “buyer beware state,” the commonwealth does not require a seller or listing agent to disclose a prior homicide or suicide in a home if potential buyers do not initially ask the question.