Community intensifies search for missing Manassas Park mother Mamta Bhatt

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Dozens of people gathered in front of the Manassas Park Police Department on Tuesday afternoon, a handful taped fliers onto bus stops, and others asked nearby businesses to display signs featuring the smiling face of Mamta Kafle Bhatt in their front windows.

For some, the woman looking out at them from the missing-person flier was a complete stranger. For others, she was a co-worker, a former roommate, a close friend.

No one has seen Bhatt since July 31.

Now, nearly two weeks after the disappearance of the 28-year-old Manassas Park mother, community members say they are tired of waiting for answers.

“We want to put pressure on the police,” said Nadia Navarro, who is Bhatt’s former roommate and organized the gathering. “In the most respectful and peaceful way possible, we want to show them that we’re worried and we care. It’s an emergency. It’s urgent.”

Bhatt’s husband did not report her missing until Aug. 5, Manassas Park Police Chief Mario Lugo said. And police did not post her missing person flier on social media until Thursday.

Lugo said police began investigating Bhatt’s disappearance immediately after her husband reported her missing – five days after anyone had last seen her. Police do not have any descriptions of clothing she might be wearing, do not name a vehicle people should look out for because she does not own a car, and do not know if she has her phone with her.

“She is considered as an involuntary missing person because it is out of her normal routine to be gone this long,” Lugo said in an email to The Washington Post.

Attempts to reach Bhatt’s husband were unsuccessful.

For Navarro, Bhatt’s disappearance feels especially dire because it sounds nothing like the calm and reliable woman she once lived with. Navarro met Bhatt in 2021 after she answered a Facebook ad. Bhatt, who had just emigrated from Nepal, was in search of a roommate and local tour guide. Navarro, who had immigrated to the United States as a child, messaged her and the two moved in together, quickly becoming friends.

Navarro described Bhatt as measured, reliable and steadfast. So reliable, in fact, that she trusted Bhatt to cut her hair when they lived together. The kind of friend who never took too long to reply to a text.

Navarro said she thinks back to how her friend worked nights so that she could study nine hours a day for her nursing license exam, and she can’t believe Bhatt would ever intentionally not show up for her nursing shifts at UVA Health Prince William Medical Center with no warning.

Bhatt’s nursing mentor agreed. Sunita Basnet Thapa worked with Bhatt at Inova Fairfax Medical Campus before Bhatt transferred to a different hospital. The fellow nurse called Bhatt her “professional child” and said the two remained in contact even after she switched hospitals.

“Here’s what I know: She is a very strong lady,” Basnet Thapa said. “She is not impulsive. She would not do any self-harm, as long as I know her, and she is not the kind of person to just run away.”

Basnet Thapa said Bhatt was not only a dedicated nurse, but also a loving mother to an 11-month-old baby. She said Bhatt encapsulated the Nepali meaning of the name “Mamta”: affection and motherly love.

“She is very happy, very positive, very energetic and very family-oriented,” Basnet Thapa said. “As a nurse, she was very compassionate. She was the most loving mother. She was very passionate about her child.”

The majority of the people gathered at the police station Tuesday had never met Bhatt. Yet something about her story – whether that she was a neighbor or a new mother or a nurse or a Nepalese immigrant – compelled them to show up and spread the word about her disappearance.

When longtime Manassas Park resident Prabesh Humagai learned Bhatt had immigrated to his city from the same town in Nepal where his father was born, he felt an instant connection. He said the local Nepalese community has rallied around her, attending vigils and printing fliers.

“More Nepalese people are coming to America, and they’re coming to Virginia because they think Virginia is safe, they think Virginia has a lot of opportunity,” said Humagai, 35. “Manassas Park particularly, we generally like to claim that we are a safe town, and I want it to stay that way for Nepalese people.”

A number of nurses attended the event Tuesday, including 32-year-old Stuti Lamsal Poudel. Lamsal Poudel worked on the 10th floor of Inova Fairfax Medical Campus while Bhatt worked on the seventh floor, though the two never crossed paths. Still, Lamsal Poudel arrived Tuesday holding a handmade poster decorated with photos of Bhatt and red hearts, reading “COME HOME MAMTA” and “We miss you, we love you, our hearts are with you.”

Lamsal Poudel said she showed up to press authorities for transparency about the investigation into Bhatt’s disappearance.

“Where is she? Is she alive? Is she not alive? We just want to know,” Lamsal Poudel said. “We are not going to let this go. We need answers.”

Another nurse, Rakshya Ghimire, said she felt a responsibility to advocate on behalf of the missing woman she had so much in common with. Standing in front of the windows of the Manassas Park Police Department, she said she hopes the group’s presence will remind police that many people care about what happened to Bhatt.

“We are co-workers. We are nurses. We are women. We are moms. We are civilized people, and if we don’t speak out for her, it could become any of us,” Ghimire said. “We don’t want this case to go and sit in a cold-case file.”

Navarro started a Facebook page titled “Find Mamta Kafle Bhatt” that had amassed more than 2,000 followers by Tuesday evening and launched a GoFundMe that raised nearly $2,000 in its first seven hours. The money will contribute to printing more fliers, Navarro said, as well as purchasing safety gear such as safety vests and whistles for search parties. Navarro’s next plan is a community-wide search Thursday.

“Mamta is important,” Navarro said. “We’re not going to forget her. We love her quite a bit, and we’re going to find her.”