Virginia

An Indian man living in America has been charged with murdering his wife after he reported her missing in August. She had vanished in late July and the husband was arrested weeks later on suspicion of "concealment of a dead body". The couple has a young daughter and were married for nearly three years.

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Naresh Bhatt, a resident of Virginia, was indicted on Monday on two new charges first-degree murder and physically defiling a dead body, Manassas Park Police Chief Mario Lugo announced Monday. He is accused of killing her and dismembering her corpse to hide evidence. 

Mamta Kafle Bhatt disappeared in the summer of this year. She was last seen on July 31 in Manassas Park, officials say. The city is located  30 miles west of the Washington DC metro area. Mamta worked as a nurse at the Inova Fairfax Hospital. None of her friends, family and workers heard from her for days. The hospital staff alerted the police after which officials reached their home on Aug 2.

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Naresh filed a missing persons case on Aug 5 and was arrested on Aug 22 on a felony charge of hiding the body.

Body was chopped up in the bathroom

The police had found blood stains in the bedroom and bathroom of their home and they matched with Mamta's DNA samples. Lugo said in a press conference that the charges were filed after the DNA reports came. Forensics evidence confirmed that Mamta was killed in the bedroom and her body was dragged into the bathroom and dismembered.

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"I think we have a strong case for not having a body," Lugo said Monday. "All evidence points to one person which is Naresh. I just know whatever happened in that house, it was murder."

Lugo confirmed that the dead body had not been found, and stated that the murder likely happened sometime between July 29 and July 30.

The motive behind the gruesome murder is not known yet. Lugo stated that the police had never received any calls regarding domestic violence from the house.

Naresh had spoken to WUSA-TV in August, stating how "tough" it was to go through this. One of her friends, Nadia Navarro, started an online fundraiser to find her.