Two weeks have passed since 28-year-old Mamta Kafle Bhatt went missing from Manassas Park, and her loved ones are so worried about her that they took the search upon themselves on Wednesday.
Friends and concerned community members walked the trails in Bloom’s Park, adjacent to a large wooded area and a half-mile from Bhatt's home.
Cellphone video shows the search for Bhatt, a pediatric nurse at UVA Health Prince William Medical Center, as it moved along those paved trails and into the nearby woods.
The pediatric nurse and mother of an 11-month-old baby from Manassas Park has been missing since July 31. Concern for her welfare grows as more time passes without any sign of her.
Some of the searchers later gathered outside the Manassas Park Police Station.
“We don’t have an answer, so we have been searching for the answer,” said community member Prabha Deuga. “So it’s been almost over two weeks now and we don't have anything concrete. So what we are asking police is to come forward, tell us what is going on."
News4 spoke to Bhatt's husband, Naresh Bhatt, at the door of their home. He said he was busy taking care of their baby daughter.
“The main message, I need my wife, my baby’s mom, back,” he said.
When asked if he was worried that his wife had been hurt, he replied, "I'm worried about a lot of stuff, yes."
Searchers chose Bloom's Park because Mamta Kafle Bhatt often went there with her baby daughter.
Community efforts continued Thursday, when Mamta's friends went to the Embassy of Nepal in D.C., asking for Nepali officials in the U.S. and abroad to find the mom and nurse.