On the evening of July 31, 2024, Mamta Kafle Bhatt reportedly ate dinner with her husband Naresh and the couple’s 11-month-old daughter at the Bhatt family home, and then disappeared. Manassas Park, Virginia police have stated that Mamta vanished under “involuntary circumstances,” but otherwise, details are scarce about what happened to her.
Mamta, 28, reportedly didn’t show up for work the next day, Aug. 1, at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Manassas Park, near Washington D.C., where she worked as a pediatric nurse. The next day, her coworkers checked on Mamta at her home. Naresh reported his wife missing on Aug. 5. Mamta and Naresh are from Nepal, and had lived in the U.S. for about three years before Mamta vanished. The couple married around the same time they moved to North America.
In an interview with D.C. news outlet WUSA9, Narash said his wife had disappeared before, and that the last night he saw his wife, there were no arguments. “We ate on the evening of Wednesday,” Naresh said. “She was the one who cooked and did the kitchen stuff. We did not have any specific conversation. We did not have any argument or something like that,” he added.
Why didn’t Naresh report Mamta missing sooner?
Referring to his wife’s three previous disappearances, Narash said she always came back. And when he first spoke with the police, he added, they told him to check with any friends and family who might know where she was or who might have seen her because she’d disappeared before. Narash did, and no one reported seeing or hearing from Mamta. Only then did he file a complaint, following police advice, Narash said. “I’m the one who is suffering,” Narash said. “She is my baby’s mom. She is my wife. I’m the one suffering, so I don’t [know] what I’m supposed to say.”
This is unlike Mamta, friends have claimed
Unconfirmed social media posts have reported that Mamta was seeking a separation from Naresh and that she recently joined a single mother support group, according to People. Other unconfirmed Reddit posts quoting social media comments from those close to the case say Mamta was about to become a naturalized U.S. citizen, which may have been a point of conflict with her husband, and that her green card had been missing for weeks before she vanished.
Mamta’s husband, friends, and colleagues have so far all cooperated with the authorities as a massive search for Mamta takes place in the Manassas Park area and online. Mamta’s concerned colleagues have also sought help from the Nepalese embassy so Mamta’s family can travel to Virginia to join the effort.
Sarita Neupane, another pediatric nurse at Mamta’s hospital, told Prince William Times that she didn’t think Mamta went missing voluntarily. “She’s a responsible person with her work and with her baby. She’s a good mom,” Neupane said.