Naresh Bhatt has been charged with concealing a body in connection with his wife’s disappearance. However, police have been unable to find any remains and say they are still searching for 28-year-old Mamta Kafle Bhatt, who has been missing for over three weeks.
Bhatt’s arrest came Thursday morning after police searched the couple’s Manassas Park home overnight. He is being held without bail at the Prince William-Manassas Regional Adult Detention Center, according to jail officials.
The arrest also followed the discovery of “additional evidence” during the search, according to a joint press release from District Attorney Amy Ashworth and Manassas Park Police Chief Mario Lugo on Thursday afternoon.
“The Manassas Park Police Department is still investigating the disappearance of Kafle Bhatt and hopes to locate her,” the press release said.
According to Manassas Park City Council member Yesi Amaya, the Manassas Park Police Department will hold a town hall meeting at 4 p.m. on Thursday, August 22, presumably to provide further details.
As of 4:05 p.m. on Thursday afternoon, the press was no longer allowed to attend the meeting.
Naresh Bhatt, the husband of a Manassas Park woman who has been missing since July 31, was …
The Bhatts’ 1-year-old daughter was removed from the couple’s home Thursday morning and placed into the care of social services. “The child is safe and is being cared for by an appropriate caregiver who has been approved by social services and the Manassas Park Police Department,” Ashworth and Lugo said in the news release.
Bhatt, 37, a U.S. Army veteran, was declared a “person of interest” in the investigation late Wednesday night and is said to no longer be cooperating with police, Lugo said during a brief news conference Wednesday evening.
Bhatt’s arrest followed a search of the house where he lived with his wife. The search began at around 5 p.m. on Wednesday, August 21.
Kafle Bhatt, a nurse at UVA Prince William Medical Center in Manassas, didn’t show up for work on August 1, prompting her friends and coworkers to call police and ask for a welfare check. Police first visited her home on August 2, but Bhatt didn’t officially report her missing until August 5.
Kafle is an immigrant from Nepal who came to the United States in recent years. In the weeks since she was reported missing, the local Nepali community has supported her, participating in search efforts near her home and raising more than $10,000 to find her.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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