CNN
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The Northern Virginia community that rallied to raise awareness and demand answers when a 28-year-old woman was reported missing earlier this month is now coming together to remember the young mother, while her husband faces charges in connection with her disappearance.

Narash Bhatt is expected in court Monday for a bond hearing as he faces accusations that he killed his wife, Mamta Kafle Bhatt, inside of their home and dragged her body outside in late July. Bhatt is facing a felony charge of concealment of a body, according to Manassas Park Police.

A preliminary criminal complaint obtained by CNN affiliate WJLA states, “on or about July 30, 2024, the accused, Naresh Bhatt, murdered his wife, Mamta Bhatt.”

Police escorted Bhatt from the couple’s home in handcuffs Thursday morning, according to video from WJLA, a day after police said a search warrant was served at the residence.

A makeshift memorial filled with pictures, flowers and candles has continued to grow in front of the house since that day, WJLA reported.

Hundreds of friends, fellow nurses and community members gathered at Signal Hill Park Saturday to honor Kafle Bhatt, CNN affiliate WTOP reported. The park’s pavilion was soon filled with droves of people who came out to show their support, so organizers had to shift participants to a hill in the park.

“Mamta has a big, emotional family. We care about her. She is loved. And, also, we have a big responsibility to take care of Mini Mamta,” event co-organizer and former co-worker Sunita Basnet Thapa told WTOP.

Video shows authorities carrying an infant out of Bhatt’s home after they took him away.

Virginia State Sen. Danica Roem joined the community Saturday to show support and acknowledged the women who “knew something was wrong immediately and really, really raised their voices consistently and persistently.”

After Kafle Bhatt was initially reported missing, friends and community members took to social media to raise awareness about her disappearance and share updates in the investigation. The Nepali American Community Center in Manassas said it established a line of communication with police to stay on top of updates in the case.

Friends of Kafle Bhatt also helped launch a GoFundMe to support search efforts.

Kafle Bhatt was seen on July 27 at UVA Health Prince William Medical Center in Manassas, where she worked as a registered nurse in the medical surgical unit. The next day, she spoke with a friend and July 31 was the last day her husband claimed to have seen her, according to police.

The health system said it is cooperating with investigators.

“UVA Health is heartbroken to learn the devastating news that Mamta Kafle Bhatt is presumed deceased,” UVA Health Prince William Medical Center spokesperson Eric Swensen said in a statement to CNN on Friday. “First and foremost, we extend our deepest sympathies and condolences to Mamta’s loved ones, friends and colleagues, and we grieve together with our community and all who knew Mamta.”

Kafle Bhatt’s colleagues requested a welfare check when she didn’t report for work, CNN affiliate WUSA reported. Bhatt initially declined to declare his wife missing when police conducted the welfare check on August 2, but did report her missing three days later, authorities said in a news release.

Bhatt, a former US Army Reserve automated logistics specialist, is now being held without bail, according to WJLA.

Some members of the community said they weren’t surprised to see Bhatt charged in connection with his wife’s disappearance.

A neighbor, Ivy Freedman, told CNN affiliate WUSA9, “The mother wouldn’t leave her baby. Definitely wouldn’t miss her first birthday.”

Community members are making sure Kafle Bhatt’s young daughter isn’t being forgotten in the tragedy.

“The baby is innocent in any circumstances,” a community member, Adrian Pokharel, told WUSA9. “We got to protect her. That’s our baby. That’s our community baby. That’s the way I look at it.”

A GoFundMe launched to support a trust account for the child – whose care is being overseen by the Department of Social Services – has reached nearly $200,000 in donations.

Members of Kafle Bhatt’s family, who live in Nepal, have obtained visas and are in the process of the traveling to the United States to try to get emergency custody of the baby, Bandita Sharma Dhal, an immigration attorney working with the family, told CNN Friday.

While the water is still unsafe to drink or ingest, authorities in Orange, Virginia, say it is okay for bathing, washing and flushing.

Last Wednesday, Rapidan Service Authority’s (RSA) Wilderness Water Treatment Plant started hearing about a strange odor from their customers, saying their water smelled like paint thinner, gasoline and diesel.

“The water treatment staff responded to those concerns and validated them, and also smelled them at the water treatment plant,” said Dwayne Roadcap, director for the Office of Drinking Water at the Virginia Department of Health.

Roadcap told WTOP that after the reports started coming in, state agencies, local authorities started looking for what might be causing the odor. Some water sampling also started.

Orange County confirmed that testing showed presence of hydrocarbons in RSA’s water system and from source water in the Rapidan River.

That led the Virginia Department of Health and the RSA to issue a “do not use” water advisory for the Lake of the Woods subdivision, Wilderness Shores, Somerset, Edgewood, Germanna Heights, Twin Lakes, Germanna Community College Locust Grove campus, and two shopping centers with several restaurants on Route 3.

On Saturday night, the advisory was changed to a “do not drink” water advisory, meaning residents are able to use the water supply for “bathing, toilet flushing, laundry, and other uses not
associated with consumption or ingestion.”

“That was based on a few things that have been happening over the last few days,” Roadcap said. “Lab sampling results have been coming in. We know the odor is no longer present at the water treatment plant intake, and the objectionable odor has been reducing over time.”

The 32-year veteran of Virginia’s health department told WTOP that the best case scenario is whatever caused the odor has bypassed the intake at the Rapidan River where the water treatment plant draws its water.

According to Roadcap, as the next order of business, “local leaders have been actively trying to move fresh water from the river to the system that has been treated.”

The cause of the odor is still not known.

“There was a significant effort to investigate up and down the river. No source was identified,” Roadcap said.

Roadcap, who has been the director of the Office of Drinking Water for six years, said hydrocarbon problems do happen.

“There are effective ways to treat that and remove it. In this particular case the water treatment plant did not have the types of technology in place to do the chemical feeds that would help remove that type of odor,” he said.

There have been conversations, according to Roadcap, with his office and the RSA about adding that treatment process to the system.

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Last week, we went over five areas of optimism for Virginia football going into this season. This week, we’re going to take a much more cynical approach to the season. Considering Virginia hasn’t won much in UVA head coach Tony Elliott’s first two seasons, it is easy to be dismissive of Virginia’s chances of turning things around this season. There are some reasons for hope that things can take an upward turn, but let’s talk about the areas of concern going into this season.

This is definitely a big year for Virginia head coach Tony Elliott. Elliott has been dealt a tough hand since becoming UVA’s head coach, but it’s hard to be positive about his tenure given how bad the team has been in his first two seasons. Since becoming head coach, Elliott has gone 6-16 overall and just 3-12 in the ACC. Statistically, Elliott has been the worst UVA coach in his first seasons since Dick Bestwick went 3-18-1 in 1976 and 1977 in his first two years.

The good news for Elliott is that this year’s team is probably the best one he’s had at UVA. However, the bad news is that it might not lead to a meaningfully different outcome for this season. As previously talked about in our Five Keys for UVA to Make a Bowl Game article, Virginia was really bad in the fourth quarter of last season. In the fourth quarter alone, the Cavaliers had a margin of -60, losing four games that the Hoos at one point held a double-digit lead. While things can definitely turn around for Elliott and Virginia this year, Elliott has a lot of pressure on him this season, and it will be an uphill climb for UVA to make a bowl game.

Another area of concern is the running game for Virginia. Last year, Virginia was completely reliant on the passing game to move the ball, as the Hoos simply could not establish any type of ground attack. In 2023, the Cavaliers averaged just 117.9 rushing yards per game, which ranked 107th out of 133 FBS teams. To make matters worse, Virginia only averaged 3.1 yards per carry, which ranked 123rd in the country and dead last in the ACC.

UVA’s offensive line struggles over the past two seasons have had a direct correlation with the Cavaliers struggling to run the football. Virginia should have more continuity and playable depth this year with the offensive line, but the running game is still a point of concern for the Hoos. Running back is not a very deep spot for UVA this season with the departures of Perris Jones and Mike Hollins, so the Cavaliers will need Kobe Pace, Xavier Brown, and Jack Griese to be productive and efficient with their touches.

Virginia’s defensive line play has not been close to good enough so far in the Tony Elliott era. Last season, Virginia’s defensive line was one of the least productive defensive lines in all of college football, struggling not only to get to the quarterback but to stop the run as well. Last year, Virginia could not sack the QB at all, finishing dead last in the country with just 11 sacks. Against the run, the Hoos were not much better, giving up 184.5 rushing yards per game, which ranked 117th in the country.

The Cavaliers did have a couple of season-ending injuries to key players on the defensive line last year, but there needs to be major improvement moving forward. Virginia returned several key players on the defensive line, but the unit is still a concern going into this season. Mekhi Buchanan already suffered a season-ending injury earlier in fall camp, which is a big blow for a defensive line that will need all of the help that they can get this season in terms of production. Look for Kam Butler and Chico Bennett on the edges and Jahmeer Carter and Michael Diatta on the inside.

Poor special teams play has been very costly for Virginia football over the past couple of seasons. UVA has played in many close games so far in the Tony Elliott era and has struggled to finish down the stretch to get wins. In his first two seasons, Elliott is just 4-8 in one-score games, and special teams has certainly made a big difference in that discrepancy. Obviously, special teams has not been the only issue for Virginia, but the unit has made several key mistakes at the wrong times to contribute to Virginia’s struggles in close games. 

This offseason, Elliott has made it a point of emphasis to improve the special teams unit. The return of Daniel Sparks and Will Bettridge at punter and kicker respectively should help, but the proof will be in the pudding this year. Whether it’s kickoffs, punt coverage, or field goals, Virginia has not been good enough to win close games and will need to see a drastic improvement in order to lead to more wins.

A Challenging Start to the Season

In our Five Keys for UVA to Make a Bowl Game article, we talked about how Virginia actually has a reasonably favorable ACC schedule. There certainly are challenges and difficult matchups in conference play for the Cavaliers, but the good news is that UVA avoids many of the expected top teams in the ACC this season.

However, the beginning of the season will present several challenges for UVA. Virginia should be able to take care of business in the season opener against Richmond on August 31st, but the schedule only gets more challenging after that. The next week, the Cavaliers open ACC play against an underrated Wake Forest team on the road. Virginia has struggled mightily against Wake Forest in recent years, last beating the Demon Deacons in 2007. In fact, Virginia has not won in Winston-Salem since 2002. Then, the Hoos return home for another challenging matchup against Maryland. The Terrapins have been another thorn in Virginia’s side as of late, winning their last three meetings against Virginia. The two most recently met last season, which Maryland won 42-14. Finally, to close September, Virginia will play Coastal Carolina on the road, which will likely be Coastal Carolina’s biggest home game of the season.

Considering that Virginia will still have plenty of difficult matchups throughout the rest of the season, the first month of the season will be extremely important. If Virginia gets off to a slow start, it will be very tough to turn things around and make a bowl game. With several challenging matchups in September, Virginia will need to establish an identity and play well right out of the gate.

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