What Happened to Mamta Kafle Bhatt?

That was Naresh Bhatt, the Manassas Park, Virginia man charged with murdering his wife, Mumta Khafle Bhatt. Naresh was arrested and held without bond on August 22nd, 2024. Mumta's body still has not been found. I'm 48 Hours producer Michelle Segona, and this is Case by Case. Now, I'm in the D.C. area, and this is a story that's been covered heavily, especially over the last couple of years, by our local media. Mumta Khafle Bhatt was just 28 years old when she went missing, and that was in 2024. She was last seen on July 27th that year by her co-workers, and that was at the UVA Prince William Medical Center. That's where she was a pediatric nurse. Now, after not showing up for a few days, her co-workers requested a welfare check on August 2nd. It was then that officers spoke to Naresh, who initially said he didn't want to report her missing, and that's because she had allegedly left the home like this before. Three days later, on August 5th, he did file that missing report. And on the 7th, he even posted on Facebook that his wife went missing. He encouraged people to go to the nearest police department or to their friends or family with any information, ending his post with, quote, I appreciate your unconditional support and hope to get help down the road in future days. Since she had not contacted her friends, family, or even co-workers, Mumta's disappearance was declared involuntary, and that was on August the 8th. The Nepali-American couple had an arranged marriage back in December of 2020, and they share a three-year-old daughter together. Mumta's mother and brother came from Nepal in October 2024 to care for the child right here in the United States, and the bought trial is expected to start in early October, and this could last up to seven weeks. Now, while Naresh initially faced charges of concealing a dead body, prosecutors later added charges of first-degree murder and physically defiling a dead body. In a bond motion hearing back in September 2024, senior assistant public defender requested that he be released, and this was citing his seven years of experience and service within the United States Army and the fact that he worked in IT at the White House. Naresh was also, was also hired as a police recruit for Fairfax County in 2020. But according to the Fairfax County Police Department, he was, quote, unsuccessful in fulfilling the requirements of the role. Now, the bond motion was denied, and Naresh has since been held at the Prince William Manassas Adult Detention Center. Joining us today is 48 Hours consultant Herman Weisberg. Herman is a private investigator, former NYPD detective, and the managing director of SAGE Intelligence Group, and this is his first time This is where he oversees investigations. Thank you so much for being here, Herman. It's always great to see you. Hi, Michelle. Happy to be working with you on this. I first want to talk to you about Mumta's disappearance. I mean, she was last seen at work on July 27th, 2024. But from what we've been able to learn, she did speak to a friend on July 28th. And then the day after that, she had a video call with her mom. So I'm curious about how her phone activity leading up to her death and leading up to her disappearance may come up in this trial and really play a role. Yeah, so I read that Mumta actually spoke to her mother twice a day. Her mom lived in Nepal at the time, and they kept an extremely close contact. That call on the 29th was actually Mumta's last call to her mom. So this sudden, you know, cutting off of very consistent, you know, almost systematic communications between her and her mom, that's going to raise some red flags for the family. The defense could hint that Mumta had just pulled away from her mom or her husband and child because she was unhappy. But prosecutors are going to point out that Mumta's probably not going to cut herself off completely from her whole community and family like that. Given the fact that Mumta's body still hasn't been found, prosecutors will have to get creative about the evidence in this case. So phone data, camera footage, GPS location, all of this very much comes into play. Absolutely. So in a pre-trial hearing, this was in September 2024, the senior assistant, a Commonwealth's attorney, laid out this timeline. Now, early in the morning, this is on July 30th, Naresh dropped off their three-year-old daughter at their babysitter's apartment in Manassas Park. At the sitter's apartment complex, he was captured on camera throwing away several bags of garbage inside one of the local dumpsters there. Now, that same day, according to authorities, he Googled, quote, diagram of a brain and chicken farm, near me. Now, all of this was before going to a local Home Depot and a Walmart to buy a set of knives and a 40-pack of extra-strong black trash bags. Now, I can see the knives and the bags raising eyebrows. You know, we've seen this before. But chicken farms? Why do you think he could have been researching that? Well, the diagram of a brain you got me, anyone's guess is as good as mine. I don't, I can't figure that out. And remember, we're just getting bits and pieces of this. The prosecution's going to have this laid out and this will, you know, be a very, an important part of the case. I think anyone looking to mask the odor of a decomposing body, you would think to yourself, what's the smelliest places that I remember, even from your childhood or anything, or just from reputation? And one of those places is this chicken farm. If you've ever been anywhere near one, you know that that's an extremely strong smell. I have been near a chicken farm. I own chickens and we keep the coop far away from the house. So, yes. It's a very strong, that ammonia smell is, it's distinct. And it, I would think it would mask anything, you know. Now, Herman, the day after, this is on July 31st, Naresh did return to Manassas Park. And this was to pick up their daughter, but not before he was captured on video, taking bags out of that Tesla, putting them into a trash, compactor about 20 miles away. And that was in Falls Church, Virginia. Now, when he returned to the babysitter's apartment, this is what we've learned in Manassas Park, he threw away more trash bags there. Investigators spoke to the babysitter, who said he was nervous and kept looking around. And Herman, the purchases, dropping off trash bags in multiple locations, and now hearing from the babysitter, what do you think is going to stick out here to the prosecution team? So, the police pulled Naresh's Tesla's GPS data, and the prosecution noted that he was spotted at a gas station with a noticeable limp. He's dropping off a bag at a donation bin. Luckily, because it was a donation bin and not just a dumpster, the police were able to retrieve that bag, and they found a bath mat testing positive for blood. So that's really fortunate for the police, because when you're just dropping off bags in different various locations, dumpsters, and garbage pails, the police are never going to find any of that. It's never going to be recovered. But a donation, that's a slip-up, because that stuff sits there for a while. I think, you know, based on the evidence, he was concerned with the disposal and the concealment of a body or body parts. And based on the purchases and visiting multiple locations, to me, it's conceivable that he was dealing with an extremely messy crime scene that produced a lot of evidence that he needed to get rid of. So, that's going to be something for them to just go through with the jury step by step and create as much of a timeline as they can based on that information. Absolutely. Yeah. Let's talk about the phone for a moment. So, according to the Commonwealth's timeline, on August 1st, Naresh's phone was turned off with no activity. But Mumta's phone sent a signal from Loudoun County, Virginia, and that's about 30 miles away from Manassas Park. So, what do you make of this? I would think he was trying to mislead the detectives or anybody that might be looking at this stuff. As you said in the introduction, he had a IT background and a military background. I think this could be an attempt at somewhat of a false flag operation. That's a military term, basically describing an action meant to be pinned on someone else or to throw off investigators. And that kind of goes back to what he had mentioned early on in the body cam footage that we played for you at the beginning of the show. Maybe she went, to New York. Maybe she went to another state, you know, something along those lines. So, we've heard from the babysitter. From a witness perspective, who else would you want to hear from regarding this case? I think it's interesting that Naresh was dismissed as a police recruit. I'd love to speak to his instructors, see what happened there, because that's kind of a broad statement, you know, he didn't fulfill the needs. That could be for so many different reasons. You know, you just never know what you're going to find. And you've got really good, credible witnesses there, that are all current. or police officers. I'd pull his military records, anything that could show if he had any kind of, you know, anger issues, temper issues, behavioral issues. They might even go back and interview some of his past girlfriends or relationships, neighbors, anybody that he might've interacted with that he might've blown a fuse. You know, I think if I was ringing doorbells out there, that would be like my aim to try to get a behavioral analysis or behavioral information on him. And I think with the military portion, I would imagine, again, I probably have more experience with the police side portion. You do as well. My husband went through a police academy while in the fire department and they go through, you know, everything. They talk to so many people and do such a large investigation. So there's really a lot there to pull from, as you mentioned. I do think it's interesting. that Mumta's phone was still active in the area because around this time is when her co-workers started noticing that she wasn't coming into work. And that's when the welfare check was requested. And so just to let everyone know, a welfare check is an official request to check on an individual. It's due to concern for their safety or well-being under reasonable suspicion. And police officers conducted this check on Mumta Bhatt on August 2nd. Now, in all of your years of service, you've been a member of the police force. You've been a member of the police force. As an NYPD detective, have you done welfare checks like this? And if so, what would you look for? Oh, yeah. Welfare checks. When you're on patrol, when you're in uniform, you get calls for this a lot. You know, maybe not daily, but definitely weekly. They vary a lot. You know, sometimes you get a call from an out-of-town relative that wants to check up on their relative that hasn't answered their phone in a day or so. And you ring the phone, you know, they forgot to charge it, or they did an update and they left the ringer off. As a police officer, after going on these calls over and over and over again, and it gets kind of mundane, you get jaded from doing these, like a lot of things. This one's a little different because it's somebody that hasn't reported to work and the husband hasn't reported them missing. But, you know, as a young cop, you'd probably suspect that, you know, that they had a bad marriage and they broke up. I can't really blame the police officers that received these calls. I can't really blame the police officers that responded and did this welfare check, but I can tell you, I'm sure they wish that they had a second chance at this. They were invited into the house, Michelle, and they didn't take that offer. If he was bluffing and he invited them in and they went to take a step in and he said, well, let's talk out here, that's a tell. So maybe it would escalate, you know, you're kind of like that spidey sense that you use as a police officer. It's what they don't do that's also telling. You know, if you ask Naresh to show them around or, you know, can I take a look around and, you know, I have to check this box on this form and say that I searched the house. Is that cool with you, sir? And right away, you know, it's a bluff and you really don't have a search warrant or anything like that. But if somebody invites you in, you get a better feeling for this welfare check that maybe it is what I suspected when I was rolling up here. But you really, you got to push these things as an investigator and you'll learn that. If I look back on things, I always wish I had a second shot at a bunch of different things. Scenarios that I had early on in my career, everybody does, but you'll learn from it. It's just one of those things. So I was surprised that Naresh actually answered the door for this check and spoke freely for over 10 minutes, seemed open, forthcoming, again, has his daughter in his arms. He seems relaxed. He has answers, even offering to put officials in contact with Mumta's family and suggesting where she could have allegedly gone. So how significant would it be to the officers that the husband answered and that Mumta was not there? I look back and I say, how would somebody act if they're taking care of their child and their wife just left them? It kind of could go with the way that he appeared at this on the camera. I know people second guess this and Monday morning quarterback it, but sometimes that's what a person looks like whose wife just left them. So we have to keep an open mind on that. But the fact that she wasn't there when the people from her work called in this welfare check, that's big. And I probably would have pushed this, like I said, if you and I were partners, Michelle, and we went there, I think we would have at least tried to talk our way into their dining room table and maybe give them that. Thing about that. I have to take a look around and it's OK. And I'm just going to take a look around your house with you if that's OK. See what he says. Now, days before his August 22nd arrest, he was interviewed by not one, but two different WUSA 9 reporters. They're local in this D.C. area. And I'd like to play some of those for you here. First, you'll hear WUSA reporter Katie Lossos speaking to Nourish at his doorstep. What has been going on the last couple of days, weeks? Yeah, it's been a very terrible time. You know, like we are just, you know, like my baby and then myself, we are just waiting minute and second, every minute and second, just waiting, like, to get the, you know, I don't know how to explain. How are you doing? I don't know. I'm like prostrating, yeah. And this is WUSA 9 reporter Rafael Sanchez-Cruz speaking to Nourish a week later. Kudos to these reporters for really going after this story, knocking on doors. And this is before charges were even brought forward. They were just doing their due diligence out there, trying to figure out the latest. I mean, Katie was at his doorstep before he was arrested. So, Herman, how do you see these interviews playing out in court? I think these will really resonate with the jury. They're going to be watching his moves, the way he is, candor, everything that he has to say. They'll be hanging on every one of these words, because this is, like you said, good reporting. You really get to see, you know, the way he is, the way he is, the way he is, the way he is. And maybe they'll think to themselves, that's not how I would act if the mother of my child and my wife just left under these circumstances. That's what I've said. I've sat and watched juries and what clicks with them. And I think a lot of people try to see themselves in the way that they think that it's normal to act or that they would act. And I don't think they're going to be thinking to themselves, I don't think they're going to be thinking to themselves, that's exactly what I would say and do if I was being interviewed by the press about my missing mother of my child. We also know that three WUSA 9 reporters, including the ones we just heard from, were added to the witness list for the trial. So you're going to hear from them firsthand and you're going to get their insight and they're going to put on the record what he said and his demeanor. So you mentioned earlier that this case could prove to be more complicated because it's what's known as a no body case. So according to a study, now this was done by the general counsel for the United States Capitol Police, no body cases actually have a conviction rate of 86%. This is due to the strength of the evidence associated with those cases. Now, for comparison, the conviction rate of all murder cases is around 70%. I mean, without a body, I would imagine other evidence would have to be extremely convincing to make it to trial. Herman, you've covered another no body situation with us, and that was on case by case in the Larry Milioti murder trial. And that was over the summer. And that's where he was found guilty of first degree murder. So can you break down what is so unique about these kinds of cases? It's extremely challenging to prove criminal intent without a body present. It's hard enough when you do have one, obviously, you know, you look at those, you know, those things, statistics that you mentioned before. But this makes investigators look very closely at all of the evidence. It's some of it's crucial to the case, some of it's just to rule things out. But every single piece of evidence is given, like more weight than usual in a in a case like this. Absolutely. And in a pretrial hearing, this was just last week, prosecutors discussed 1000s of pages of digital records. This is going to be from Google, TikTok, and about 3700 pages of data from Meta alone, which could include Facebook, Instagram, or WhatsApp. Now, they even read some of nourishes, alleged searches allowed, and they included things like, how long does it take to marry after a spouse dies? And what happens to debt after a spouse dies? So these searches seem pretty damning, for sure. And you talked a lot about the digital evidence and why it's so important to go through every, corner and every piece of this. Do you see the prosecution using them to build a case against bot oh absolutely think about it like you know the way i was trained and the way i i go about just about every investigation it's the five w's the who what where when and why when you're missing the what and in this case it would be the what is the cause of death uh you have to really bolster the why so motive and things like getting an inside look into the what a person was thinking about while he was googling things and and searching search terms and things like that that's an amazing advantage that we have now you know i i didn't have them during my time as as a police officer as much as it's so prevalent now you really get an inside look at the state of state of mind of a person uh you know everybody's on their phone everybody's searching things you know he's not searching uh what do you do when your wife leaves you and how do you get her back he's searching how fast can i get married and what happens to my debt and things like that this is huge to a jury it would be to me anyway the police searched the bot home and found pools of blood the prosecution will likely use this along with google searches and gps data to paint a picture of of naresh's whereabouts all of this you know just being laid out by the prosecution uh you know i've seen it before they they they're going to paint a picture that you know that they want the jury to see what was going on inside of naresh's brain while these things were happening and how do you see the defense arguing against some of these claims well i think the defense is going to use mamta's history to portray her as somebody who has abandoned her husband in the past sarita is a friend of the couple who told the washington post that mamta and naresh had had a disagreement in february of 2024 that resulted in mamta and her daughter staying with sarita for a week i can see them trying to illustrate the possibility that she just left him again and this time she left behind her child the defense will likely use the lack of what is known as corpus delecti which means body of the crime it doesn't necessarily mean corpse or body in that sense but you know going back to the five w's the what is the cause of death and the prosecution is lacking sufficient evidence by not having a body so the defense will likely use the lack of who is known as corpus delecti which means body of the crime that they don't have a body to autopsy that they don't have things like you know defense wounds or anything else to analyze it gives the opportunity for the defense to speculate and theorize as to what did or didn't happen you've got a cause of death here that they they can pretty much illustrate that there are a bunch of different alternative situations here this is jill schlesinger from jill on money managing your small business finances shouldn't feel overwhelming zero brings your accounting payroll payments and analytics into one simple platform with automated features that clear away the daily busy work you get a quick detailed look at what's coming in and what's going out over five million customers worldwide rely on zero and 91 percent of customers across the u.s uk and australia agree it's easy to use based on a 2020 24 survey get the clarity and confidence you need to make smart decisions for your business learn more at xero.com i want to talk for a moment about the bot family before mumta's disappearance because as you mentioned earlier in the relationship it definitely had its own challenges certainly as i mentioned earlier momta had stayed with her friend sarita after a disagreement with narco noresh back in february of 2024 i believe the same friend sarita even said that momta briefly had her own apartment in nearby falls church virginia what really sticks out to me though is that the police were sent to the bot house that february on reports of disorderly conduct they called it and no charges were filed but according to prosecutors momta claimed that noresh wouldn't give her her official documents and destroyed her phone both sides in this case are going to scrutinize what the police did and what they did not do in response to that disorderly conduct call and he referenced her leaving home to stay with sarita and that wsa9 interview with katie lasso right he even mentioned that falls church apartment in the body cam footage yeah that that's definitely more more evidence for the defense to paint that picture of an unhappy marriage and a wife who was prepared to leave her husband it you know it's just indicating that the couple had issues but both sides can use this i think the prosecution will show she was looking for an escape and after noresh wouldn't provide the necessary you know paperwork for separation she attempted to find a safe place for herself and her child they could say something like momta needed a friend to help her facilitate leaving in the past so she would need it again if anyone knew or thought that she was going to leave her or plan an escape it would be her friend that helped her the first time i would think it was her co-workers that first reported her missing doesn't add up well when you really think about she left the husband you know didn't report her missing the police responded because her co-workers respond you know reported her missing that's a very important point about the co-workers reaching out to say that she's nowhere to be found and it wasn't her husband and there has been an outpouring of community support to find momta back in july there were supporters gathered outside the manassas park police department and this was to remember momta two years after her disappearance now momta's mother and brother they were both present at this vigil both also spoke to wsa9 i want to play some of that here first hearing from momta's mother via a translator he did whoever did this to my daughter he has to get punished i'm just waiting for the justice of my sister momta's friend and former co-worker also spoke up at the vigil and here's what she had to say i want us to flood the courtroom of prince william county judicial center to look naresh in the eyes and let him know that we are here as momta she has such a strong support network of people and and and friends who love her so much and i can only imagine what those friends are going through i mean it has been two long years without answers um i also think about her little girl left behind and as i mentioned i you know i have children i have a toddler and i know how connected these children are to their routine their life with mom and dad in in this particular case and having that communication shut off for this child it just you know it makes your heart hurt it's you think about you know think about this child i think about so many cases where these kids are left behind and um you know it's it's it's tough it's really tough i mean you look at the pictures of momta and her child it's it's heartbreaking you know that's just you know what a tragic tragic situation it's clear that she's been missed and uh and we can only hope the outcome trial which shed some light and give her loved ones some peace of mind maybe closure absolutely no you're right we can only hope that this will bring some sort of peace of mind thank you so much for joining us oh thank you and we will be back next week with another episode of case by case for our continuing coverage you can check the case by case feed wherever you find your podcast you can also watch episodes of case by case on the 48 hours youtube channel or by searching case by case on paramount plus be sure to rate and review us and let us know which cases you're following and which cases you'd like us to follow saturday october 3rd on paramount plus oh my goodness two rising ufc stars take center stage inside the octagon what a fight what a night natalia silva she is an absolute killer versus wong tongue one time defies the playbook in 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