Two years since a Virginia mother and pediatric nurse was last seen, loved ones gathered for a remembrance Friday as her husband awaits trial in October.
Prosecutors allege Mamta Bhatt was killed by her husband, Naresh Bhatt. He maintains he’s innocent, but his wife’s friends don’t believe him.
Mamta Bhatt seemingly vanished in 2024. As the days went by without answer, the community gathered at the Manassas Park police station and demanded answers from the chief.
Eventually, police escorted Naresh Bhatt out of his Manassas Park home in handcuffs on a murder charge.
Mamta Bhatt’s loved ones returned to the Manassas Park police station to honor their friend.
“If it wasn’t for this place and us gathering here, I don’t know if we would be so close to knowing what actually happened,” Holly Wirth said.
Mamta Bhatt was last heard from July 29, 2024.
Prosecutors say over the next two days, Naresh Bhatt was captured on video going to multiple stores where he bought two pairs of rubberized gloves, heavy duty garbage bags, carpet cleaner, and a three-pack of knives — two of which have never been recovered by police.
According to court documents, several cameras throughout the area capture Naresh Bhatt dumping trash bag after trash bag into various dumpsters and trash compactors away from his home, including once at 1:30 a.m. in Falls Church.
The suspect’s internet searches included looking up a diagram of the brain and “chicken farm near me.” In the months leading up to his wife’s disappearance, Naresh Bhatt made several searches inquiring what happens to financial debt when someone disappears, what happens to a divorce proceeding if a spouse disappears and so on.
After he was walked out of the house in handcuffs, the couple’s 1-year-old daughter was carried out wrapped in a blanket. She turns 3 in August.
“Her daughter is doing well,” Wirth said. “She is a feisty 2-year-old, about to be 3, smart as a whip. And I think that she’s really in the best hands she can be with, Mamta’s family, and you know, the soul of Mamta, lives on through her daughter.”
Naresh Bhatt’s trial is scheduled to last seven weeks beginning in October.
