Husband on trial over wife’s disappearance admits to dismembering her body

Naresh Bhatt says he discovered his wife dead from suicide, and decided to get rid of the body, fearing accusations that he was responsible for murdering her.MANASSAS, Va. (CN) — Naresh Bhatt shocked a Virginia courtroom Thursday when he testified that he had cut his wife’s body up after finding her dead from what he believed to be suicide.Bhatt, 39, is on trial over the 2024 disappearance and presumptive murder of his wife Mamta Kafle Bhatt, 28. He has pleaded not guilty but admitted during testimony to charges of defiling a body and concealing a body, but maintained he had not killed his wife.Spectators in the packed courtroom gasped at his admissions. Mamta Bhatt’s family members and friends, wide-eyed, sat in a row behind prosecutors.Mamta Bhatt’s remains have not been found, leading prosecutors to lean on circumstantial evidence such as an increase in their home’s water usage and Naresh Bhatt’s web searches.Prosecutors say he previously gave shifting accounts of his wife’s whereabouts after her disappearance.Naresh Bhatt said on his second day on the stand that he discovered his wife next to a packet of poison, unconscious, unresponsive and in a pool of vomit on July 30, 2024.Bhatt said he attempted medical interventions himself, pulling the body into the bathroom and pouring water into his wife’s mouth. Instead of dialing 911, he said he panicked and decided to get rid of the body.“Why didn’t you call literally anyone else for help?” asked Tracey Lenox, his attorney and chief public defender for Prince William County. “Were you concerned about how it would look?”“I was concerned about everything,” he said.Lenox then asked if he was afraid he would be blamed for driving her to suicide.“Yes,” he said.Prosecutors have characterized Naresh Bhatt as abusive and he testified Wednesday his wife’s demeanor had changed in the months following the birth of their child.Naresh Bhatt has maintained that he never physically abused his wife. During cross-examination, Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Matthew Sweet derided this.“She loved you, always,” the prosecutor said.“Not only did you cut her up,” Sweet added later. “You stuffed her into a trash can.”Naresh Bhatt testified that after unsuccessfully trying to rouse his wife, he took his infant daughter to a babysitter’s house and returned home, where he considered hanging himself. Instead, he went to Home Depot, “to find anything to hide a body.”He said he considered dumping his wife’s corpse in the Potomac River but then decided to chop the body up.“Just to make it a smaller size so it fit in the can,” he said, explaining he deposited his wife’s body in the bathtub to do so.“I was trying to lower the body apart,” he testified. “Like, separate the legs from the body.”“Mentally and physically, I was powerless,” he added, explaining that initially, he did not have the strength to continue.Later, he got back to work, partially using knives but primarily depending upon a saw, which prosecutors have claimed to have found blood in.Lenox asked if Naresh Bhatt finished cutting the body before neighborhood trash pickup came by, and if he knew the body would then be taken away. Naresh Bhatt answered affirmatively.Bhatt said he did not throw her body in trash dumpsters around the area, as prosecutors accuse. Instead, he only tossed out clothing and trash in the dumpsters, he said. While wiping his eyes on occasion, he mostly spoke without hesitation.Mamta Bhatt was a nurse, and attendees included a contingent of nurses dressed in scrubs. When Sweet pointed to Bhatt and said, “You’re a liar,” and Bhatt responded, “yes,” applause rippled through the crowd.Trial continues Monday.If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988, or call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 (TALK). VisitSpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources* for a list of additional resources.*Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads