A Prince William County jury on Tuesday convicted Naresh Bhatt, 39, of first-degree murder in the death of his wife, Mamta Kafle Bhatt, 28, a nurse and mother from Manassas Park, Virginia. The jury of eight women and four men deliberated a little more than four hours and found him guilty on all three counts: first-degree murder, concealing a dead body and physically defiling a dead body. Mamta vanished in the summer of 2024, and her body has never been found. The verdict closes the trial phase of a case that has held the attention of Manassas Park and the wider Prince William County community for more than two years, since her disappearance was first reported and searches and court hearings followed.
Mamta was last seen on July 27, 2024, at UVA Health Prince William Medical Center in Manassas, where she worked as a nurse. She spoke with her mother in Nepal by video call on July 29, 2024. The trial opened on October 5 and ran about six weeks. Prosecutors called close to 100 witnesses and showed nearly 500 exhibits, according to WJLA. Their case rested at a high level on forensic evidence, phone records and surveillance video. Bhatt testified in his own defense. In his testimony, he said he found her unresponsive, and he denied killing her. Prosecutors said the evidence proved a deliberate killing.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Amy Ashworth called the verdict an important measure of justice for Mamta. Bhatt faces 20 years to life in prison on the first-degree murder count, plus up to five more years on each of the other two counts. Bond was denied. Sentencing is set for March 12, 2027, before Judge Irving. Until sentencing, the court record stands as a conviction on all three counts returned by a jury that heard weeks of testimony and evidence in Prince William County. The visuals in this video are original Zark News graphics and are labeled as a Zark News illustration. No third party footage or agency photo is used in this package, and the account above follows the published Zark News story and the sources listed below for the verdict, the trial and what happens next in this Virginia case.
Full story: https://zarknews.com/bhatt-convicted-murder-manassas-park-nurse/
Sources: Prince William County Commonwealth’s Attorney; CNN; WTOP; WJLA • November 11, 2026. Zark News illustration. Video: Zark News.
