Husband Charged 3 Weeks After Wife Disappears

A Virginia man who pleaded for the safe return of his missing wife has reportedly been charged with moving her body. Naresh Bhatt was taken by police in handcuffs Thursday morning from the Manassas Park home he shares with 28-year-old Mamta Kafle, who's been missing since late July. The 37-year-old faces a felony charge of prohibition against concealment of a body which relates to the transport, concealment, or alteration of a body, police say, per WTOP. Manassas Park Police searched the couple's home on Wednesday evening. Chief Mario Lugo said officers had executed "in excess of 10 search warrants" and conducted "hundreds of hours of interviews related to this case."

Kafle, who is 5 feet, 132 pounds, with brown eyes and black hair, has yet to be found. The pediatric nurse failed to show up for a work shift on Aug. 1, per People. Her husband claimed to have last seen her at home on July 31; Kafle last spoke with a friend on July 28. Police say they spoke with Bhatt on Aug. 2 but he declined to report his wife missing. He finally did so three days later, police say. A Facebook page chronicling the search, run by Kafle's former roommate, claimed Kafle wanted to separate from her husband and had joined a support group for single mothers, per WUSA and People. The couple share an infant, who is now with a caregiver, per CNN. "We need her back," Bhatt told reporters, per WUSA.

Last week, Bhatt said his wife, who moved to the US from Nepal in 2021, had gone missing at least three times before but that she had never been gone so long and he was concerned about her whereabouts. "I'm the one who is suffering," he told WUSA. "She is my baby's mom. She is my wife." At the time, police said Kafle's "husband, friends and co-workers have all been cooperative throughout the investigation." On Wednesday, however, Logo said Bhatt had been "a point of interest" and had not been cooperative with police. Anyone with knowledge of Kafle's whereabouts is asked to contact police or Manassas Park Crime Solvers. (More missing person stories.)