Human hairs found on power saw in home of man who killed his wife and hid her body: Authorities

Background: Naresh Bhatt speaks with a Manassas Park Police Department officer in body camera footage about the disappearance of his wife (WTTG/YouTube). Inset: Mamta Kafle Bhatt (Missing person flyer/WTTG/YouTube).

Authorities have revealed new evidence in the case of a Virginia man who they say killed his wife and then dismembered her before pretending she moved away.

Naresh Bhatt, 39, faces charges including murder, concealing a dead body, and physically defiling a dead body, Prince William County Circuit Court records reviewed by Law&Crime show. He is accused of killing 28-year-old Mamta Kafle Bhatt, though her remains have not been found.

Mamta Bhatt was last seen on July 27, 2024, at her job at UVA Health Prince William Medical Center in Manassas, Virginia, a town about 30 miles southwest of Washington, D.C. According to the Prince William Times, a friend received two calls from her phone the following day, and on July 29, 2024, her frequent social media activity stopped.

Days later, on Aug. 2, 2024, after Mamta Bhatt had missed days of work and her supervisor asked for police to check on her, officers with the Manassas Park Police Department showed up at the Bhatts' door. Naresh Bhatt answered — holding a child — and reportedly said he had not seen his wife since July 31, 2024.

Police have released body camera footage of the encounter. The husband said that "she's going to go to either New York or Texas" and added that she had left before.

"If it's the first time, I can say, 'ok, where are you going?'" Naresh Bhatt said, adding that he and his wife were separating, per local CW affiliate WDCW. "This is like, multiple times."

Days later, Naresh Bhatt reportedly let his wife's friends enter their home for a first birthday party for the couple's daughter.

In the ensuing weeks, investigators allegedly found evidence showing blood was in the home and that a dead body had been dragged from the master bedroom to the bathroom. Naresh Bhatt was arrested on Aug. 22, 2024, on the charge of concealing a dead body, and that December, he was indicted for murder.

As hearings have continued in the high-profile criminal case, new evidence has allegedly emerged.

A forensic report from April 29 shared by prosecutors indicated that three "human hairs," 13 "human hair fragments," and fibers and debris were recovered from a handheld power saw in the Bhatts' home. The human hairs "may be suitable for nuclear DNA testing" and were submitted to a lab, per court documents obtained by Washington, D.C., Fox affiliate WTTG.

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Authorities believe the defendant killed his wife before allegedly dismembering her body and scattering the remains across Northern Virginia.

Additional hearings are scheduled as investigators and prosecutors build their case against Naresh Bhatt. He is due to appear in court on Thursday — and then three more times before a scheduled jury trial on Oct. 5.