MANASSAS, Va. (Court TV) — Neighbors who testified at the trial of a man accused of killing his missing wife said that the defendant talked about being unhappy in his marriage before the victim vanished.
Naresh Bhatt sits in court on Oct. 27, 2026. (Court TV)
Naresh Bhatt, 49, has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and defiling a body in the death of his wife, Mamta Kafle, 28. Prosecutors have said that Bhatt killed Kafle in the couple’s home on July 30, 2024; she wasn’t reported missing until concerned co-workers called police days later. In interviews with the police, Bhatt said that he didn’t know where his wife was, but that she had left of her own accord and suggested that she may have gone to Texas or New York.
On Tuesday, neighbors who lived near the couple testified that it would be hard for Kafle to get to Texas or New York because she didn’t drive. “Whatever words he used, he told me that Mamta would never own a car,” neighbor Kevin Fennell testified, recalling a conversation with the defendant.
Fennell sold Bhatt the Manassas Park home the defendant shared with Kafle, but noted that the victim was not listed on the deed. Fennell said Kafle was not listed on the purchase contract, and the filed deed named only Naresh Bhatt as owner.
After Kafle’s disappearance, Fennell said he offered Bhatt whatever help he could. “You know, we weren’t necessarily friends, but we were friendly neighbors,” Fennell testified. “And after she went missing, I reached out to him and said, ‘Look, I mean, if there’s anything you need, my wife and I are happy to help you.'” Bhatt invited Fennell into his home on Aug. 9, 2024. “When I first went in, the smoke detector was chirping, and he invited me into the living room,” Fennell said.
Fennell said he raised the chirping smoke detector issue with Bhatt, who did not know how to fix it. Fennell retrieved batteries from his own home to fix the problem. Prosecutors asked whether anything was amiss inside the home. “Nothing stood out,” he said. “It looked like there was a single dad there, and, I mean, untidy maybe, but nothing unusual about it.”
Christine Schultz-Stone, who had gone to the Fennell home on the morning of Aug. 1 to wish Fennell’s wife a happy birthday, recalled seeing the defendant standing outside his own home wearing a mask. She said she remembered thinking the mask was odd because “he wasn’t wearing one the previous days.” She noticed that Bhatt had been watching landscapers working on his property.
A Ryobi reciprocating saw investigators say was used to dismember Mamta Kafle. (Evidence Photo)
One of those landscapers, Jose Ayala, previously testified that while he was cutting Bhatt’s lawn, the defendant came out and gave him a saw. Ayala said that Bhatt had been trying to use the saw to cut a small tree trunk, but was doing so in “an erratic fashion.” Ayala approached Bhatt to explain how to use the saw better. “He told me after that, that he had the money to pay me that day, but that if I wanted, he could give me the saw in exchange for the work of that day,” Ayala testified through an interpreter. “So, obviously I took the saw. That was more than $40 and it was more useful to me.”
Prosecutors said that saw was likely used to dismember the victim, whose body has never been found. Receipts from Home Depot showed that the Ryobi reciprocating saw and a 9-inch blade were purchased on June 2, 2024. When detectives retrieved the saw from Ayala and took the tool apart, they found reddish-brown staining and numerous “hair-like strands” that matched Kafle’s DNA profile.
Investigators said that, in addition to the DNA on the saw, they found evidence of blood inside Bhatt’s home.
Another of Bhatt’s neighbors testified on Tuesday that the defendant had described himself as unhappy in his marriage. Neighbor Rajeev Dhakal said Bhatt called the marriage “not working” and mentioned considering a divorce.
