The Naresh Bhatt Verdict Turned on the Witnesses His Lawyers Called
His own psychologist, his own bloodstain expert, and his own testimony supplied the proof the prosecution could not find in the body.
A Prince William County jury found Naresh Bhatt guilty of first-degree murder Tuesday evening in the death of his wife, Mamta Kafle Bhatt, whose body has never been found. The jury also convicted him of concealing and defiling a dead body.
The prosecution had no autopsy, no cause of death, and no witness to the killing. What it had was the evidence Bhatt left behind: blood in the bedroom carpet, a reciprocating saw handed to a landscaper, and a trail of bags caught on surveillance. The defense answered with three witnesses: a psychologist, a bloodstain expert, and Bhatt himself.
The defense called Dr. David Rosenfeld first, a psychologist who had treated Bhatt. He testified that his patient’s panic after finding his wife was consistent with post-traumatic stress. Then he drew the line the defense had not asked for: the planning and disposal that followed were not consistent with it, and Bhatt was not dissociating while he dismembered her, because cutting up a body takes a long period of time. On cross-examination, Rosenfeld said Bhatt had told him before trial he found pills near her body, possibly Flexon, an ibuprofen and paracetamol combination, and had never mentioned the pesticide Celphos or any open packet. On the stand, Bhatt said he found Celphos near her body.
Elizabeth Lu Pierri, a former deputy director of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, testified for the defense as a bloodstain expert. She told the jury the blood evidence could not establish the sequence of events, intent, or a manner of death, and that she could not rule out homicide or suicide. The blood she was called to explain came from the bedroom, where the jury had seen an eight-by-ten-foot section of carpet rolled out in court, with a stain beneath it that had reacted to Bluestar.
Bhatt testified for three days. He said he found his wife on the bedroom floor around 4 a.m. on July 30, 2024, performed CPR for 45 minutes to an hour, and never called 911. He considered hanging himself, then drove to Home Depot for gloves, telling the court he had gone “to find anything to hide a body,” and considered the Potomac River. Over a day to a day and a half, he cut the body apart to fit household trash cans, bags surveillance later showed him carrying to dumpsters in Manassas and a trash compactor in Falls Church.
Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Matthew Sweet opened his cross-examination with an accusation. “You’re a liar!” he said, and the courtroom applauded before Judge Kimberly Irving called for order. Sweet then walked Bhatt through the searches on his phone: “anatomy of a human brain” and “chicken farm near me” at midnight, and, from March 2024, months before his wife disappeared, “what happens if a spouse disappears,” “can I divorce if wife lost,” and for meat cutters, knife sharpeners, and hand saws. He also pressed the story Bhatt told police, that his wife was last seen in blue scrubs on a Wednesday, against the fact that she did not work Wednesdays. And he raised a 2023 message in which she sent him photographs of a swollen black eye and a bloody nose with the words “This is second time.”
Judge Irving instructed the jury on first-degree and second-degree murder; manslaughter was not among the options. The jury chose first-degree, a finding of premeditation built entirely on circumstantial evidence.
In 1982, the Supreme Court of Virginia affirmed a first-degree murder conviction with no body. Gina Hall, an 18-year-old Radford University freshman, disappeared in 1980, and Stephen Epperly was convicted on blood droplets, bloodstained clothing, a broken ankle bracelet, and a large bloodstain on a carpet. Her remains were found about 40 years later. The Bhatt jury reached the same place by the same route. The difference was the defendant’s own psychologist, who had already testified that the planning and disposal were not consistent with panic.
Senior Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Sarah Sami told the jury in closing that Bhatt had given his wife “a final resting place of the landfill in Luray, Virginia.” John Poague, a manager for Patriot Disposal, testified that the facility takes up to 2,000 tons of garbage a day and does not sort it.
That night, readers wrote under NBC Washington’s post about the Naresh Bhatt verdict. Robin Willard wrote: “Justice for Manta [sic], a beautiful loving young mother. May her soul rest in peace. And may her family find some comfort in the verdict.” Pushpa Malla wrote that she felt “so bad for Mamta and her family especially her poor child (daughter).” Hina Mehta wrote: “Justice served! Thank you Jury members.”
Bina Khadkalama made the same charge outside the courtroom. A friend of Mamta Kafle Bhatt, she had spent the days Bhatt testified holding her mother, Gita. “He lied to everyone,” she told reporters. The comments written that night thanked the jury, named the child, and asked for comfort for the family.
Bhatt faces up to life in prison for the murder, plus up to five years for each of the other two charges. Judge Irving set sentencing for March 12 and revoked his bond as the verdict was read.
He has been in custody since his arrest in August 2024. As the verdict was read, he was expressionless, and spoke briefly with his attorney afterward.
