A Virginia man whose 28-year-old wife disappeared over the summer has been charged with her murder and is set to go on trial next September, a judge ruled Wednesday.
Naresh Bhatt, who previously pleaded for the safe return of his missing wife, Mamta Kafle Bhatt, was arrested in late August just weeks after her disappearance.
Bhatt had initially only been charged with concealing a dead body, even though law enforcement long suspected he killed his wife, a pediatric nurse and mother of their 1-year-old daughter.
The 37-year-old former Fairfax County police recruit has since been indicted on charges of first-degree murder and physically defiling a dead body.
While Kafle Bhatt’s body has still not been found, investigators said earlier this week that blood found in the couple’s bedroom and bathroom matched the victim’s DNA.
“From the beginning, we believed that she was murdered … based on the crime scene,” Manassas Park Police Chief Mario Lugo said Monday at a press conference, according to CNN.
Lugo told local station WUSA that police believe Kafle Bhatt was killed sometime between the night of July 29 and the morning of July 30. Investigators said they have reason to believe her body was dismembered, with Lugo noting it was “one of the worst crime scenes” they’d ever seen.
Bhatt, who has been in custody since his arrest in August, appeared in court Wednesday where he waived his right to a speedy trial.
His trial on the charge of concealing a dead body was scheduled to begin next week. A new trial, for which all the charges were combined, is now set to start Sept. 8 and is expected to last for four weeks.
“He shook his head, and finally, I think he realized that [this] is a homicide [charge],” Pravada Deuja, a supporter of the victim, told DC News Now of Bhatt’s court appearance. “I don’t know whether he had communicated with his attorney or not at that moment, but that is the vibe we got, all of us.”
With News Wire Services
