A Virginia man has been charged with murder four months after his wife disappeared

MANASSAS PARK, Va. – A Virginia man has been charged with murder more than four months after his wife disappeared and a significant amount of blood was found in their suburban Washington home, authorities announced Monday.

Naresh Bhatt, 37, was indicted by a Prince William County grand jury and faces charges of murder and desecration of a corpse, according to online court documents.

The body of 28-year-old Mamta Bhatt has not been found. But investigators have linked their DNA to the blood found in the couple’s home, Manassas Park Police Chief Mario Lugo said at a news conference Monday night.

“From the beginning we believed she was murdered,” Lugo told reporters.

Investigators executed their first search warrant while Naresh Bhatt was home with the couple’s baby and discovered blood in the bedroom and bathroom, Lugo said.

He added that evidence suggested Bhatt cut up his wife’s body, which led to the defamation charge.

“I think we have good reasons for not having the body,” Lugo said.

Senior public defender Tracey Lenox did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press seeking comment on the new charges against Bhatt, who is already in jail awaiting trial on various charges in the case.

The investigation has drawn international attention to the small northern Virginia community, where murder cases are rare. The disappearance of Mamta Bhatt, a pediatric nurse, spurred community members and her family in Nepal to band together to find out what happened.

They posted on social media, hosted community events, and held a rally. Within days, community members began putting public pressure on her husband.

Three weeks after her disappearance in late July, Naresh Bhatt was charged with hiding a body and sent to prison, where he remains. A prosecutor said in court this summer that the amount of blood found in the house indicated non-survivable injuries.

The investigation into Mamta Bhatt’s death continued. But in September, Lenox, the public defender, argued that Naresh Bhatt was still entitled to a speedy trial on the concealment of a body charge. The trial on this charge was scheduled for next week.

According to law enforcement experts, cases of disembodied murder are not uncommon. And while it can still be difficult to prosecute, it has become easier in recent years because of new types of evidence such as DNA, cell phone location information and surveillance cameras.

Tad DiBiase is a former federal prosecutor and author of the 2014 book “No-Body Homicide Cases: A Practical Guide to Investigating, Prosecuting and Winning Cases When the Victim is Missing.”

He maintains a list of disembodied murder trials on his website. On September 2, DiBiase noted that the conviction rate was 87% after 604 trials across the United States