As a Northern Virginia mother remains missing since July and is presumed dead, new video shows what happened when police visited her home and spoke with her husband after she didn't show up at work.
On body-worn camera footage, Naresh Bhatt told officers his wife, Mamta Kafle Bhatt left home, destroyed her phone and indicated she was heading to either New York or Texas.
The husband stands accused of concealing his wife’s dead body. Prosecutors say investigators found blood in their home, cadaver dogs gave signs of a body and video shows him dropping trash in various dumpsters.
Just after 3 p.m. on Aug. 2, two uniformed officers from Manassas Park walked up the front steps of the home Mamta Kafle Bhatt shared with her husband.
He answered the door with the couple’s young daughter in his arms.
Officers explained they received a call from his wife’s employer after she failed to show up to work.
Naresh Bhatt told officers she left home and damaged her phone.
“On Tues – uh, Wednesday, she left and then she says she gonna go either New York or Texas. And then, like, she had the phone and she destroy that phone and then she left,” he said.
He told officers the couple had plans to split.
“Did she say why she left?” an officer is heard saying.
“Yeah, because you know, like, we are about to separate, and then the home inspector come here because I’m about to sell the home, and so, like, ‘See you when I see you. OK, I’m gonna go with my sisters,’” Naresh Bhatt said.
He was cordial with officers and told them his wife had been living elsewhere.
“She used to live in Falls Church. I don’t know the exact address. I know the building because […] I saw her email, and then one place over there, and then, I don’t know, somewhere in Manassas,” he said.
Officers asked Naresh Bhatt for identification and again explained that they were asking about his wife because her employer was worried about her.
The husband asked for an officer’s card.
As police wrapped up their 14-minute-long visit, Naresh Bhatt again suggested his wife left the state.
“Either New York, either Texas,” he said.
Police believe Mamta Kafle Bhatt was killed inside their home and her body was disposed someplace investigators still have not found.
At a court hearing last week, prosecutors told a judge there’s evidence Naresh Bhatt was seen placing garbage bags in dumpsters. They said police found a bloody bathmat in a bag of items donated to charity.
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Naresh Bhatt appeared in court Tuesday for a hearing sealed by a judge, with only his defense allowed inside.
