Manassas Park Police Chief Mario Lugo told Mamta Kafle Bhatt‘s friends and colleagues from NEPAlese Community Thursday afternoon that the police have not found her yet Body but also “no indication that she is still alive.”
That is by Prabha Bhattarai Deuja, a Nepalese community activist Who was among about 40 People who attended a closed community meeting at the police station on Thursday afternoon.
The meeting took place hours after 37-year-old Naresh Bhatt, Kafle Bhatt’s husband, was charged with hiding a body in connection with her disappearance.Bhatt was being held without bail at the Prince William-Manassas Adult Detention Center on Thursday evening.
Prabha Bhattarai Deuja (left) and Nadia Navarro after a meeting with Manassas Park Police Chief Mario Lugo on Thursday afternoon.
“It felt like someone had stabbed me in the heart,” said Nadia Navarro, a close friend and former roommate of Kafle Bhatt‘S who also attended the meeting. Navarro launched the GoFundMe and a Facebook page that friends from the Nepali community – as well as well-meaning strangers – have used to coordinate their efforts to find Kafle Bhatt.
FOrensian evidence collected by the police was enough to support the Criminal complaint to hide a corpse, Lugo told the crowd: accordingly Deuja. Lugo declined to describe any evidence so as not to hinder the investigation. Deuja said.
Bhatt’s arrest came after an all-night operation Search for the Manassas Park Home that Bhatt shared with his wifewhich began on Wednesday, August 21, around 5 p.m. And lasted until the afternoon hours of Thursday, August 22nd.
Lugo said The Criminal charges Bhatt Faces could change or be supplemented as the investigation proceedsaccordingly Deuja.
The core of Lugo’s message to the community, Deujawas that Manassas Park Police were working very difficult for investigation, which remains open.
“There’s more to come,” said Lugo in the meetingaccording tothing to Deuja.
Lugo informed the participants that the police The Community as soon as he had something, he could Report that is not disturb the investigation, Deuja said.
Deuja she said “HThe earth was racing,” as she listened to the boss’s news and “inconsolable“, when she heard Nature of Recharge directed against Bhatt.
In a press release, LShego and Commonwealth Attorney Amy Ashworth said Bhatt was charged with one count in connection with the prohibition of concealing a corpse.
“The Manassas Park Police Department is still investigating the disappearance of Kafle Bhatt and hopes to locate her,” the press release said.
BIin relation to Since the meeting is not open to the press, Manassas Park Mayor Jeanette Rishell said in a text that: “There was a decision in the middle–No press conference will be held this afternoon. If and when anything that can be shared more will be shared.”
During the meeting, Lugo said he wanted to “answer questions directly from the community,” Deuja.
The Bhatts’ one-year-old daughter was taken from the couple’s home on Thursday morning and placed in the care of social services. “The child is safe and is being cared for by an appropriate caregiver who has been approved by social services and the Manassas Park Police Department,” said a joint press release on Thursday afternoon. Lugo and Commonwealth‘s Attorney Amy Ashworth.
“The baby is fine,” said Navarro. “We are working very hard toHe doesn’t have to stay there overnight, but it looks like it could happen.”
Navarro said she hopes that either she or another of Kafle’s closest friends, Sarita Neupane, will be allowed maintain the baby During this time Because both women already know and love the child.
Deuja said She is “grateful that the baby is no longer in Bhatt’s hands.”
Bhatt, 37, a U.S. Army veteran, was declared a “person of interest” in the investigation late Wednesday night and is said to no longer be cooperating with police, Lugo said during a brief news conference Wednesday evening.
Coffee BhattNurse at UVA Prince William Medical Center in Manassas, has been missing since July 27 – not July 31, as police initially said – according to the joint press release from Lugo and Ashworth Rrelease.
She did not show up for work on August 1, prompting her friends and colleagues to call police To to ask for a welfare check. Police first visited her home on August 2, but Bhatt did not officially report her missing until August 5.
Coffee Bhatt is an immigrant from Nepal who came to the United States in recent years. In the weeks since she was reported missing, the local Nepalese community has rallied behind her, participating in the search near her home and helped raise over $10,000 for her search.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
