A Northern Virginia man accused of concealing his wife’s dead body as she remains missing will stay in jail for now. A judge refused his request for bond Friday.
Naresh Bhatt stands charged in connection to the disappearance of Mamta Kafle Bhatt almost two months ago.
Mamta Kafle Bhatt was last seen in Manassas Park in late July. The 28-year-old nurse’s disappearance sparked a major search and community outcry as the mother missed her daughter’s first birthday.
Prosecutors basically had to present all of their evidence to keep Bhatt in custody during Friday’s lengthy hearing.
They said they have video of the defendant disposing trash bags in various dumpsters around Northern Virginia, including at an apartment complex where he would take his daughter to a babysitter, as well as a trash compactor in Falls Church. They also have video of him buying rubberized gloves, knives, extra large storage bags and cleaning supplies after his wife disappeared.
Cadaver dogs hit in the Bhatts’ master bedroom and master bathroom, indicating there had been a body in the home, prosecutors said.
Naresh Bhatt searched the internet for a diagram of a brain and “chicken farm near me,” prosecutors said.
Packed suitcases and passports suggested the defendant is a flight risk, prosecutors said.
They also said body camera video from the first police interview with Naresh Bhatt — days before he reported his wife missing — showed him saying she had disappeared before and could be in New York or Texas.
“We heard horrific testimony,” said Holly Wirth, a spokesperson for friends and family of Mamta Kafle Bhatt.
Mamta Kafle Bhatt’s family and supporters urged the judge not to release her husband on bond.
“I don’t think any of us understood the weight of the crime,” Wirth said. “We’ve all wanted to know where Mamta was, when are we going to get her back, where are we going to find her where we’ve been searching, and the truth is, we’re not going to get her back.”
They asked prosecutors to pursue more serious charges against the suspect and praised the work of Manassas Park police.
“At the end of the day, we still stand here fighting for justice,” Wirth said. “We are going to be Mamta’s voice until the end of the trial.”
In a bond motion filed this week in Prince William County Circuit Court, Bhatt’s lawyer said a detective made what the lawyer argued was a “false statement” that prosecutors used to obtain an arrest warrant.
In the criminal complaint, a detective initially said investigators found evidence a body was dragged out of the Bhatt family’s home on Heather Court.
The detective later clarified investigators only found a body was dragged from one room to another inside the house.
In court records, a Manassas Park police captain said in a Sept. 4 statement to the commonwealth’s attorney the detective admitted “she may have used the wrong words.”
The captain said the detective cited working for more than 30 hours straight and had no malicious intent.
The defense says prosecutors improperly waited until Sept. 16 to tell them about the Manassas Park police captain’s statement.
Naresh Bhatt’s lawyer also sought in the bond motion to cast doubt on the blood detection system investigators used inside the Bhatts’ home and whether it was the defendant who allegedly used a computer in the home to conduct internet searches on remarrying after a spouse’s death.
Naresh Bhatt's trial is scheduled for December.
Stay with NBC Washington for more details on this developing story.
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