Mamta Kafle Bhatt's Friend Testifies About Chilling Birthday Party Encounter With Accused Husband

A Missed Call That Changed Everything

One day before Mamta Kafle Bhatt was last heard from, she called a close friend she had once shared a bedroom with when she first moved to the United States. The friend missed the call. She would never hear from Mamta again.

That friend, Nadia Navarro, took the witness stand on Monday, October 20, in the murder trial of Mamta's husband, Naresh Bhatt. Navarro told the court she had made plans to spend time with Mamta in July 2024 and missed a phone call from her on July 28 while she was hospitalized. Navarro testified that she immediately tried calling Mamta back several times with no answer, describing the silence as "really strange" and "weird" because Mamta was a "reliable and consistent person" who was not difficult to reach.

Mamta, a young mother and nurse, vanished from her Manassas Park home two years ago. Her body has never been found. She was missing for three weeks before her husband, Naresh Bhatt, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, concealing a dead body, and defiling a dead body.

Inside the Apartment — and the Control

In the third week of the trial, jurors heard testimony from Nadia Navarro, who lived with Mamta in an apartment on Wickersham Way in Falls Church from the fall of 2021 to early winter 2022. Navarro testified that Naresh Bhatt was looking for someone to share a room with his wife, who was arriving in the United States for the first time, offering a heavily discounted room in exchange for helping Mamta with her English and showing her around — and Navarro only learned in court that Bhatt had actually owned the property.

Naresh did not live with them in the apartment, but he did not want Mamta going out at all, Navarro said. For the first month, Mamta didn't have a cell phone, and if she didn't immediately respond to him via her laptop, he would text Navarro to tell them to go back to the apartment. Navarro also testified that Kafle Bhatt was fairly active on social media and that she helped her study for the NCLEX exam. During her time there, Kafle Bhatt didn't go out much, so the two spent time at the apartment cutting each other's hair and doing each other's makeup.

Navarro told the jury she created a page to raise money and help search for Mamta. When they didn't find Mamta, she returned all of the donations. When asked by prosecutors whether she believed Mamta was coming back by that point, Navarro answered simply: "No."

A Birthday Party and an Unsettling Approach

Days before Naresh's arrest, his and Mamta's young daughter turned one year old. There was a birthday party for her, and Navarro attended. Naresh approached her at the party and said he needed to tell her something. What followed was one of the most gripping moments of her testimony.

"I didn't want to be alone with him so I never found out," Navarro said. Navarro testified that she was uncomfortable around Naresh after Mamta disappeared. Whatever Naresh Bhatt wanted to confide in her that day remains unknown — a haunting detail that speaks to the atmosphere of suspicion and fear surrounding the case.

Surveillance Evidence Builds Against the Defendant

July 31 is the date Bhatt told police he last saw his wife, claiming he had stepped out of their home to run errands at a Lidl supermarket before returning to spend time with her. Prosecutors have also begun introducing Flock camera images into evidence, which law enforcement used to track the movements of Bhatt's blue Tesla, with additional evidence regarding vehicle tracking expected in the coming days.

Naresh Bhatt owned a blue Tesla that he sold to CarMax in Dulles days before his arrest in August 2024. When officers first came to check on Mamta, Naresh told them she had left to visit relatives in Texas or New York — but prosecutors later said Mamta had no family in the United States.

A grand jury indicted Naresh on charges of first-degree murder and defiling a dead body on December 2, 2024, with the concealment charge also incorporated into the proceedings. As the trial continues into its third week, the prosecution is methodically laying out a portrait of a controlled, isolated woman whose disappearance — and the silence that followed — may ultimately speak louder than any witness ever could.