This article was republished with permission from WTOP’s news partner InsideNoVa.com. Sign up for InsideNoVa.com’s free email subscription today.
During a peaceful gathering early Sunday in front of the Prince William County judicial center in Manassas, Sunita Basnet paused for a moment to reflect, reminiscing on the hardship of the past 365 days.
July 27 marks the one-year anniversary of the day Mamta Kafle Bhatt, a Manassas Park nurse and mother, was last seen at UVA Prince William Medical Center, where she worked.
She was last heard from on July 29, 2024, when she talked to her mother, Gita Kafle, on their final video call. The pair habitually spoke twice a day while Kafle was still living in Nepal.
Basnet, Mamta’s former nursing mentor, told InsideNoVa she was “emotionally traumatized” by her mentee’s disappearance. Bhatt’s husband, Naresh Bhatt, was eventually arrested in the case and has been charged with first-degree murder, concealment of a dead body and physical defilement of a dead body.
Wearing red alongside fellow supporters Sunday to honor Mamta’s favorite color, Basnet said she arranged a transfer to a new hospital shortly after Mamta’s disappearance.
“I changed my job at the hospital,” Basnet said, “because it was very painful for me to stay in the same unit where I shared my time with Mamta and [when she] shared her story. I saw the bruises there, and I advised her to get out from that domestic violence.”
Basnet added, “I have all the memories following me, so I have to change my job [to] another hospital … I couldn’t sleep and I gained a lot of weight, and I was kind of depressed, too, very sad. So I am trying to get away from that emotional trauma as well.”
Trial delay, seeking closure
While Ben-Avraham initially said he was amenable to a July 2026 trial date, Sweet and Sami favored three months later due to packed schedules in the interim.
Bina Khadkalama, a Nepali community member and spokesperson who keeps the community apprised of the Mamta case through TikTok videos, made her dismay known Sunday.
“We’re disappointed, we’re sad, we’re very mad, we’re furious,” Khadkalama told InsideNoVa. “We’re in limbo, like – what can we do? Because culturally and religiously, the family wanted to have closure and do some rituals that we’re supposed to do … we want that official something declared that she’s no longer, so they can do some rituals. That’s a huge part of their life.”
Basnet echoed Khadkalama’s emphasis on rituals, stressing the need for closure.
“We are not able to do the rituals, say final goodbye to her,” Basnet said. “In this religion, we have to give her some kind of closure and say goodbye for her divine life. So it is very painful, and it is very painful for her mother. I see a lot of pain in her mother’s eyes and her brother.”
Holly Wirth, a former coworker of and advocate for Mamta Kafle Bhatt, said she “understands the rationale” for why the defense and prosecution wanted to avoid any legal vulnerabilities in the trial, but added she disagrees with it emotionally.
On July 18, Irving appeared baffled by the defense’s request for the lengthy delay. Addressing Ben-Avraham from the bench, Irving said it was “mind-blowing” that a trial could take place over two years after the filing of the initial charges against Naresh Bhatt.
Wirth added that Mamta Kafle Bhatt’s supporters will stand alongside her family “however long it takes,” despite a visible reduction of their numbers at the July 18 court hearing compared with last fall.
“The best way we can honor Mamta is, if somebody is at risk, if somebody’s suffering intimate partner violence, please get out and call for help,” Wirth said. “There’s resources – if you don’t know what the resources are, you can ask me, you can ask any of the Mamta supporters, but at the end of the day we don’t want there to be any more Mamtas.”
Naresh Bhatt was arrested Aug. 22 in connection with the disappearance of his wife and charged with concealing a dead body. He was arraigned Dec. 4 on the murder and defilement charges, as well as the prior concealment charge.
Mamta Kafle Bhatt’s body or remains have not been located, despite Manassas Park police conducting roughly 50 searches in the area since last fall.
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On July 30 and 31, Naresh Bhatt was captured on camera discarding trash bags at various dumpsters.
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Around 4:30 a.m. on July 30, Bhatt performed a Google search for “Diagram of brain” and looked up “Chicken farm near me.”
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Later that day, Bhatt went to Home Depot and bought a set of knives and a 40-pack of extra-strong black trash bags, according to Sami.
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At 1:30 a.m. on July 31, Bhatt was captured on video in Falls Church retrieving bags from his Tesla and putting them into a trash compactor. His Tesla tracked him to that location, but his phone was inactive and not on him at that time.
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In mid-December, court documents displayed a DNA match between Mamta’s hairbrush and a power saw. Mario Lugo, Manassas Park police chief, said at a Dec. 2 news conference that his team believed Mamta was dismembered in her home.
Initially scheduled for September of this year, Naresh Bhatt’s trial is now planned for six weeks between Oct. 5 and Nov. 13, 2026, with a pre-trial conference set for Sept. 10, 2026.
At the July 18 hearing, Irving directed both sides to block off an additional week through Nov. 19, 2026, in case the trial has to be extended.
Speaking on behalf of Mamta’s family, Wirth said the emotional ramifications of the case’s continued uncertainty have struck a chord.
“It’s heartbreaking,” Wirth said. “They never have exactly understood what happened to Mamta. They don’t have her, they can’t grieve her. They can’t have the death rituals for her because we don’t have her body. We suspect we know who could tell us, but he is not wanting to do that. So it’s going to be a really hard year to think they’ve gone 365 days with really no answers.”
Shortly after Naresh Bhatt’s arrest, Mamta’s mother and her brother Mahesh made their way stateside, arriving in October to care for Mamta’s daughter, Neema, who will turn 2 on Aug. 20.
Mahesh Kafle, Holly Wirth, Sunita Basnet and a fellow community member stand in solidarity at Sunday’s protest before the Prince William County judicial center. Kafle is Mamta Kafle Bhatt’s brother, while Wirth and Basnet are her former coworkers – Basnet being Bhatt’s former nursing mentor.
Nadia Navarro became Mamta Kafle Bhatt’s roommate in Fairfax County after Mamta arrived in the United States from Nepal in 2021.
Back in August, Navarro said she was at a loss for words after learning of the initial concealment charge against Naresh Bhatt.
“My first question to the police, I said, ‘Are you 100% sure that you know she is no longer with us?’ They were like 99% sure. I’m still in shock and really not processing this well,” Navarro said after Bhatt’s arrest.
In a phone interview with InsideNoVa this week, Navarro spoke about her bond with Mamta and said it lives on within her.
“I feel like there’s a hole in my heart where Mamta used to be,” Navarro said. “I try to get by, I try to do what I can to move on and continue with my life, but it’s really hard whenever there are these dates – like her birthday [on May 28] was excruciating. She didn’t ever get to turn 29, she didn’t get to see her daughter turn 1 year. She’ll never get to see that.”
Navarro added, “Not having any answers, not knowing where she is – I never thought we would be so in the dark a year later, right?”
Julia Kosatka, a Gainesville resident, also attended Sunday’s gathering. She said the supporters will continue to turn out despite the long wait for the trial.
