Details in this report are disturbing.
The lead detective on the case of a Northern Virginia woman who disappeared two years ago testified Tuesday about the moment crime scene investigators conducted a test designed to show blood evidence.
Mamta Bhatt went missing from her family’s home in Manassas Park in July 2024. Her husband, Naresh Bhatt, is on trial for murder and is accused of dismembering and disposing of her body, which has never been found.
Prince William County Detective Claudia Ventura described when crime scene investigators used Bluestar in the Bhatts’ home. It’s a chemical applied to a physical surface that chemically reacts with blood and illuminates blue when lights are turned off.
Investigators applied Bluestar on the home’s floor and to the primary bedroom, primary bathroom and down a hallway, Ventura said.
“After you saw the application of this Bluestar liquid in the master bedroom, what, if anything, did you see next?” prosecutor Matthew Sweet asked.
“So, the lights were turned off and the room lit up,” Ventura said.
Naresh Bhatt floated theory about MS-13 and wife’s disappearance
Ventura spoke about interviewing Naresh Bhatt three times in the family’s home amid an intense search for Mamta.
Ventura asked Naresh Bhatt where he thought his wife could be.
He said he had heard people talking about the gang MS-13 in the area, which the detective said she thought was odd. No evidence suggested any link between Mamta Bhatt’s disappearance and MS-13.
In the Bhatts’ bedroom, Ventura said she noticed Lysol and cleaning products in the closet. The placement of the bed struck her as odd.
“This is another closet, and the bed headrest is on top of the frame of the closet,” she testified.
Prosecutors claim he moved the bed and other furniture to cover up blood-soaked carpet.
During the defense’s cross examination of Ventura, public defender Tracey Lenox hammered home that Naresh Bhatt opened up his home to police and answered every question they asked.
“Was there any point during, really, any of these three encounters with him that he declined to give you access to any part of the house?” Lenox asked.
“No,” Ventura replied.
Prosecutors said that while he was cooperative, his story repeatedly changed.
Mamta Bhatt never would have chosen to leave her baby, prosecutor says
During opening statements on Oct. 7, Sweet said the evidence includes a saw that Naresh Bhatt allegedly handed over to a landscaper who was working on a house in their neighborhood.
The landscaper took the saw to police after realizing Mamta Bhatt had disappeared, Sweet said. Investigators took samples from the saw, which matched Mamta Bhatt’s blood and DNA, he said.
Sweet has also said forensic evidence from the home, suspicious Google searches and Naresh Bhatt’s statements prove his guilt.
During his opening statement, Sweet said Mamta Bhatt would not have run off just weeks before her daughter’s first birthday.
Naresh Bhatt has maintained his innocence, pleading not guilty to first-degree murder, defiling a dead body and concealment of a dead body. He has changed attorneys over the past two years and tried to get his current public defender removed from his case as recently as last month.
News4 is covering the whole trial. Video cameras are allowed in the courtroom, but live broadcasting and livestreaming are not.
The Bhatts’ daughter, who is now 3 years old, is being cared for by relatives.
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