For 2 years a Virginia man said he didn’t know what happened to his missing wife. Now he says he dismembered her body

(CNN) — For more than two years, Naresh Bhatt said he didn’t know what happened to his missing wife.

The Virginia man insisted to police and in media interviews he last saw her at the family dinner table days before he reported her missing.

Now, Bhatt has admitted on the stand at his murder trial that not only is his wife dead, but he dismembered her before disposing of her remains.

Bhatt, 39, stopped short of admitting he killed his wife, Mamta Kafle Bhatt, telling jurors last week she died by suicide. He said he panicked after finding her unconscious and surrounded by vomit and blood in their bedroom.

The stunning testimony came nearly five weeks into Bhatt’s trial, in which he’s facing charges of first-degree murder, concealing a dead body and defiling a dead body.

Bhatt was arrested at his home in Manassas, Virginia, a small Northern Virginia suburb outside of Washington, DC, on August 22, 2024 – about three weeks after his wife was reported missing. He was initially charged with concealing a dead body, though a criminal complaint at the time alleged “on or about July 30, 2024, the accused, Naresh Bhatt, murdered his wife, Mamta Bhatt.”

At the time, Bhatt wasn’t formally charged with murder. That changed four months later, in December 2024, when a Prince William County grand jury indicted him on charges of first-degree murder and defiling a dead body, adding those charges to his concealment charge.

Bhatt now faces a life sentence if convicted. The additional charges of concealing and defiling a dead body carry lesser penalties under Virginia law, CNN affiliate WUSA reported.

CNN has reached out to Bhatt’s attorney for comment. The commonwealth’s attorney for Prince William County, Amy Ashworth, declined to comment on the pending case and told CNN on Monday the office would comment once the jury has concluded deliberations.

Judge Kimberly Irving approved an instruction allowing jurors to consider second-degree murder if they don’t find the necessary first-degree murder elements have been met, CNN affiliate WJLA reported.

A mother who vanished before her daughter’s first birthday

Kafle Bhatt was last seen July 27, 2024, at UVA Health Prince William Medical Center in Manassas, Virginia, according to police. Kafle Bhatt worked there as a registered nurse in the medical surgical unit, the center previously told CNN.

The 28-year-old spoke with a friend the following day, WUSA reported at the time. The same day, she posted a video on her TikTok account showing herself and her infant daughter, according to WJLA.

Then she vanished, just weeks before her daughter’s first birthday — a move loved ones considered unsettling given how devoted they said she was to her daughter.

Her absence sparked an extensive search that drew friends and members of the local Nepalese community to vigils and rallies calling for her safe return.

Kafle Bhatt’s mother, Gita, and brother Mahesh eventually came to Virginia from Nepal. Both have testified at Bhatt’s trial through an interpreter, WUSA reported. Gita now lives with Mahesh and helps care for Kafle Bhatt’s toddler, according to the local station.

Her husband says he ‘panicked’

Bhatt had maintained he didn’t know what happened to his wife, telling reporters the week after she vanished that he was “suffering” in her absence. But last week, on his second day on the stand, Bhatt changed his account entirely.

Bhatt testified he went to sleep with the couple’s infant daughter around 8 p.m. on July 29, 2024, and woke up around 4 a.m. to a strange smell in their bedroom at the foot of their bed, WUSA reported.

Kafle Bhatt was lying on her back surrounded by vomit containing pills, blood and an open packet of Celphos, a highly toxic insecticide, close by. Bhatt testified he tried to resuscitate her for about an hour before carrying her into their bathroom, the station reported.

He doesn’t know why he didn’t call 911 for help, he told jurors.

“I don’t know why I did not,” he said. “I tried to call. I was really scared. I don’t know why, something take over me. I was really, really panicked. I don’t know.”

Bhatt took his child to dispose of wife’s remains, he said

Instead of calling authorities for help, Bhatt said on the stand, he decided to conceal his wife’s body. He explained he initially considered throwing her body into the Potomac River and later tried to put her body in a trash can.

When it didn’t fit, he said, he began cutting her body into pieces in the family’s bathroom using a reciprocating saw he later gave to a landscaper in lieu of a $40 payment, WUSA reported.

“You cut her body up and put it in the trash so that it would not be found?” his attorney Tracey Lenox asked him in court last week. “Yes,” he replied.

Bhatt confessed he put his wife’s remains in multiple trash bags, though he can’t remember exactly how many, WUSA reported. He said he drove the bags to a former apartment complex’s trash compactor in Falls Church, where he previously lived, and put some in the household trash.

During his testimony, Bhatt said he disposed of Kafle Bhatt’s clothing in a separate dumpster because he feared her spirit, the station reported. He also admitted taking the couple’s daughter, who was 11 months old at the time, with him on some of the trips to dispose of her remains and clothing.

Bhatt returned to the witness stand Monday as his trial nears its end. A verdict could come as early as this week, WUSA reported.

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