What Happened to Mamta Kafle Bhatt?

0:00Hello, sir. Are you a month's a human ask part, please? We're looking for a miss mom to come. Yeah, we see like on Tuesday. She left and then she said she's going to go either New York or Texas and then she left. Like I said, had the phone and then she destroyed that phone and then she left. That was Narech Baud, the menaceous park Virginia man charged with murdering his wife, Mumta Coffley Baud. Narech was arrested and held without bond on August 22nd, 2024. Mumta's body still has not been found. I'm 48 hours producer Michelle Sagoona and this is case by case. Now, I'm in the GC area and this is a story that's been covered heavily, especially over the last couple of years by our local media. Mumta Coffley Baud was just 28 years old when she went missing and that was in 2024.

1:00She was last seen on July 27th that year by her co-workers and that was at the UVA Prince William Medical Center. That's where she was a pediatric nurse. Now, after not showing up for a few days, her co-workers requested a welfare check on August 2nd. It was then that officer spoke to Narech who initially said he didn't want to report her missing and that's because she had allegedly left the home like this before. Three days later, on August 5th, he did file that missing report and on the 7th, he even posted on Facebook that his wife went missing. He encouraged people to go to the nearest police department or to their friends or family with any information. Ending his post with, quote, I appreciate your unconditional support and hope to get help down the road in future days. Since she had not contacted her friends, family or even co-workers, Mumta's disappearance was declared involuntary and that was on August 8th.

2:05The Napoli American couple had an arranged marriage back in December of 2020 and they share a three-year-old daughter together. Mumta's mother and brother came from Nepal in October 2024 to care for the child right here in the United States and the bought child is expected to start in early October and this could last up to seven weeks. Now, while Narech initially faced charges of concealing a dead body, prosecutors later added charges of first-degree murder and physically defiling a dead body. In a bond motion hearing back in September 2024, senior assistant public defender requested that he be released and this was citing his seven years of experience and service within the United States Army and the fact that he worked in IT at the White House. Narech was also hired as a police recruit for Fairfax County in 2020. But according to the Fairfax County Police Department, he was, quote, unsuccessful in fulfilling the requirements of the role.

3:11Now, the bond motion was denied and Narech, as it's been held at the Prince William and NASA's Adult Detention Center. Joining us today is 48 hours consultant Herman Weisberg. Herman is a private investigator, former NYPD detective and the managing director of Sage Intelligence Group. Mrs. Weir, he oversees investigations. Thank you so much for being here Herman. It's always great to see you. Hi, Michelle. Happy to be working with you on this. I first want to talk to you about Mumtah's disappearance. I mean, she was last seen at work on July 27th, 2024. But from what we've been able to learn, she did speak to a friend on July 28th. And then the day after that, she had a video call with her mom. So I'm curious about how her phone activity leading up to her disappearance may come up in this trial and really play a role. So I read that Mumtah actually spoke to her mother twice a day. Her mom lived in Nepal at the time and they kept an extremely close contact.

4:13That call on the 29th was actually Mumtah's last call to her mom. So this sudden, cutting off of a very consistent, systematic communications between her and her mom, that's going to raise some red flags for the family. The defense could hint that Mumtah just pulled away from her husband and child because she was unhappy. But prosecutors are going to point out that Mumtah's probably not going to cut herself off completely from her whole community and family like that. Given the fact that Mumtah's body still hasn't been found, prosecutors will have to get creative about the evidence in this case. So phone data, camera footage, GPS location, all of this very much comes into play. Absolutely. So in a pre-trial hearing, this was in September 2024, the senior assistant Commonwealth Attorney laid out this timeline. Now early in the morning, this is on July 30th. Narech dropped off their three-year-old daughter at their babysitters apartment in Manassas Park. At the sitter's apartment complex, he was captured on camera, throwing away several bags of garbage inside one of the local dumpsters there.

5:21Now that same day, according to authorities, he googled, quote, diagram of a brain and chicken farm near me. Now all of this was before going to a local home depot and a Walmart to buy a set of knives and a 40 pack of extra strong black trash bags. Now I can see the knives and the bags raising eyebrows. You know, we've seen this before, but chicken farms, why do you think he could have been researching that? Well, the diagram of a brand you got me, anyone's guess is as good as mine. I don't, I can't figure that out. And remember, we're just getting bits and pieces of this. The prosecution is going to have this laid out and this will be a very important part of the case. I think anyone looking to mass the odor of a decomposing body, you would think to yourself, what's the smelliest places that I remember, even from your childhood or anything or just from reputation.

6:21And one of those places is this chicken farm. If you've ever been anywhere near one, you know that that's a extremely strong smell. I have been near a chicken farm. I own chickens and we keep the coop far away from the house. So yes. It's a very strong that ammonia smell is it's distinct and it I would think it would mask anything. Now, Herman, the day after this is on July 31, Narech did return to Manassas Park. And this was to pick up their daughter, but not before he was captured on video, taking bags out of that Tesla, putting them into a trash compactor about 20 miles away. And that was in Falls, church, Virginia. Now, when he returned to the babysitters apartment, this is what we've learned in Manassas Park, he threw away more trash bags there. Investigators spoke to the babysitter who said he was nervous and kept looking around. And Herman, the purchases dropping off trash bags and multiple locations. And now hearing from the babysitter, what do you think is going to stick out here to the prosecution team?

7:29So the police pulled Narech's Tesla's GPS data and the prosecution noted that he was spotted at a gas station with a noticeable limp was dropping off a bag at a donation bin. Luckily, because it was a donation bin and not just a dumpster, the police were able to retrieve that bag and they found a bath mat testing positive for blood. So that's really fortunate for the police because when you're just dropping off bags in different various locations, dumpsters and garbage, pales, police are never going to find any of that. There's never going to be recovered, but a donation that's a slip up because that stuff sits there for a while. I think, you know, based on the evidence, he was concerned with the disposal and the concealment of a body or body parts. And based on the purchases and visiting multiple locations, to me, it's conceivable that he was dealing with an extremely messy crime scene that produced a lot of evidence that he needed to get rid of. So that's going to be something for them to just go through with the jury step by step and create as much of a timeline as they can based on that information.

8:36Absolutely. Yeah. Let's talk about the phone for a moment. So according to the Commonwealth's timeline, on August 1st, Narech's phone was turned off with no activity. But Mumt has phone sent a signal from Loudon County, Virginia, and that's about 30 miles away from a NASA's park. So what do you make of this? I would think he was trying to mislead the detectives or anybody that might be looking at this stuff. As you said in the introduction, he had a IT background and a military background. I think this could be an attempt at somewhat of a false flag operation. That's a military term, basically describing an action meant to be pinned on someone else or to throw off investigators. And that kind of goes back to what he had mentioned early on in the body, Kim footage that we played for you at the beginning of the show. Maybe she went to New York. Maybe she went to another state, you know, something along those lines. So we've heard from the babysitter from a witness perspective, who else would you want to hear from regarding this case?

9:40I think it's interesting that Narech was dismissed as a police recruit. I'd love to speak to his instructors, see what happened there, because that's kind of a broad statement. You know, he didn't fulfill the needs that could be for so many different reasons. You know, just never know what you're going to find and you've got really good credible witnesses there that are all, you know, current or police officers. I'd pull his military records. Anything that could show if he had any kind of, you know, anger issues, temper issues, behavioral issues. They might even go back and interview some of his past girlfriends or relationships, neighbors, anybody that he might have interacted with that he might have blown a fuse. You know, I think if I was ringing doorbells out there, that would be like my aim to try to get a behavioral analysis or behavioral information on him. And I think with the military portion, I would imagine again, I probably have more experience with the police side portion you do as well.

10:40My husband went through a police academy while in the fire department and they go through, you know, everything they talk to so many people and do such a large investigation. So there's really a lot there to pull from as you mentioned. I do think it's interesting that Mumpt's phone was still active in the area because around this time is when her co-workers started noticing that she wasn't coming into work and that's when the welfare check was requested. And so just to let everyone know, a welfare check is an official request to check on an individual. It's due to concern for their safety or well-being under reasonable suspicion and police officers conducted this check on Mumpt Abad on August 2nd. Now in all of your years, Herman, as an NYPD detective, have you done welfare checks like this? And if so, what would you look for? Oh, yeah, welfare checks. When you're on patrol, when you're in uniform, you get calls for this a lot, you know, maybe not daily, but definitely weekly.

11:41They vary a lot, you know, sometimes you get a call from an out of town relative that wants to check up on their relative that has an answer their phone in a day or so. And you ring the doorbell and nine times out of 10, you know, they forgot to charge it or they did an update and they left the ringer off as a police officer after going on these calls over and over and over again. And it gets kind of mundane. You get jaded from doing these like a lot of things. This one's a little different because it's somebody that hasn't reported to work and the husband hasn't reported them missing. But, you know, as a young cop, you'd probably suspect that they had a bad marriage and they broke up. I can't really blame the police officers that responded and did this welfare check. But I can tell you, I'm sure they wish they had a second chance at this. They were invited into the house, Michelle, and they didn't take that offer. If he was bluffing and he invited them in and they went to take a step in and he said, well, let's talk out here. That's a tell. So maybe it would escalate, you know, you're kind of like that spidey sense that you use as a police officer.

12:47It's what they is what they don't do that's also telling, you know, if you ask Narech to show them around or, you know, can I take a look around and I have to check this box on this form and say that I searched the house is that cool with you, sir. And right away, you know, it's a bluff and you really don't have a search warrant or anything like that. But if somebody invites you in, you get a better feeling for this welfare check that maybe it is what I suspected when I was rolling up here. But you really, you got to push these things as an investigator and you learn that I look back on things that I always wish I had a second shot at a bunch of different scenarios that I had early on in my career, everybody does, but you learn from it. It's just one of those things. So I was surprised that Narech actually answered the door for this check and spoke freely for over 10 minutes seemed open forthcoming again has his daughter in his arms. He seems relaxed.

13:54He has answers, even offering to put officials in contact with Mumtus family and suggesting where she could have allegedly gone. So how significant would it be to the officers that the husband answered and that Mumtus was not there? I look back and I say, how would somebody act if they're taking care of their child and their wife just left them? It kind of could go with the way that he appeared at this on the body camera. I know people will second guess this and it's Monday morning quarterback it. But that's sometimes that's what a person looks like whose wife just left them. So we have to keep an open mind on that. But the fact that she wasn't there when the people from her work called in this welfare check that's big. And I probably would have pushed this like I said, if you and I were partners Michelle and we went there, I think we would have talked our at least tried to talk our way into the dining room table and maybe give them that thing about that I have to take a look around and it's okay.

14:57And I'm just going to take a look around your house with you if that's okay. See what he says. Now days before his August 22nd arrest, he was interviewed by not one, but two different W USA nine reporters, their local and this DC area. And I'd like to play some of those for you here. First you'll hear WSA reporter Katie Lossos speaking to Nourish at a store step. What has been going on the last couple days weeks? Yeah, it's been very terrible time. You know, like we are just, you know, like my baby and then myself. We are just waiting minute and second every minute and seconds. Just waiting like to get the, you know, I don't know how to explain. How are you doing? I don't know. I'm I'm like prostrating. And this is W USA nine reporter Raphael Sanchez Cruz speaking to Nourish a week later. I don't want to talk to the media like, you know, I don't want to be the bad person like, you know, hey, why you talk to the media?

16:00I don't think it would be bad. You don't think, but like, you don't know. But the message is you want them to if you see her, if you see, they may either like it. It's up to you. No, I'm not. I'm not okay like. I don't know. I don't know. I can do it. Okay. Sorry about that. Kudos to these reporters for really going after this story, knocking on doors. And this is before charges were even brought forward. They were just doing their due diligence out there trying to figure out the latest. I mean, Katie was at his doorstep before he was arrested. So Herman, how do you see these interviews playing out in court? I think these will really resonate with the Jerry. They're going to be watching his moves, his way he is candor. Everything that he has to say, they'll be hanging on every one of these words because this is, like you said, good reporting. You really get to see this person. And maybe, maybe they'll think to themselves, that's not how I would act if the mother of my child and my wife just left under these circumstances.

17:07You know, that's what I've sat and watched Jerry's and what clicks with them. And I think a lot of people try to see themselves in the way that they think that it's normal to act or that they would act. And I don't think they're going to be thinking to themselves, that's exactly what I would say and do if I was being interviewed by the press about my missing mother of my child. We also know that three W USA 9 reporters, including the ones we just heard from, were added to the witness list for the trial. So you're going to hear from them firsthand and you're going to get their insight and they're going to put on the record what he said and his demeanor. So you mentioned earlier that this case could prove to be more complicated because it's what's known as a nobody case. So according to a study, now this was done by the general counsel for the United States Capitol police. Nobody cases actually have a conviction rate of 86%. This is due to the strength of the evidence associated with those cases.

18:14But for comparison, the conviction rate of all murder cases is around 70%. I mean, without a body, I would imagine other evidence would have to be extremely convincing to make it to trial. Herman, you've covered another nobody situation with us and that was on case by case in the Larry Miliate murder trial. And that was over the summer and that's where he was found guilty of first degree murder. So can you break down what is so unique about these kinds of cases? It's extremely challenging to prove criminal intent without a body present. It's hard enough when you do have one, obviously, you know, you look at those statistics that you mentioned before. But this makes investigators look very closely at all the evidence. It's some of it's crucial to the case. Some of it's just to rule things out. But every single piece of evidence is given like more weight than usual in a case like this. Absolutely. And in a pretrial hearing, this was just last week.

19:17Prosecutors discussed thousands of pages of digital records. This is going to be from Google, TikTok, and about 3700 pages of data from meta alone, which could include Facebook, Instagram, or WhatsApp. Now, they even read some of nourishes alleged searches allowed and they included things like how long does it take to marry after a spell stys and what happens to dead after a spell stys. So these searches seem pretty damning for sure. And you talked a lot about the digital evidence and why it's so important to go through every corner and every piece of this. Do you see the prosecution using them to build a case against bot? Oh, absolutely. Think about it like, you know, the way I was trained and the way I go about, I've just about every investigation. It's the five W's, the who, what, where, when, and why? When you're missing the what, and in this case, it would be the what is the cause of death.

20:19You have to really bolster the why. So motive and things like getting an inside look into the what a person was thinking about while he was googling things and searching search terms and things like that. That's an amazing advantage that we have now, you know, I didn't have them during my time as a police officer as much as it's so prevalent. Now you really get an inside look at the state of state of mind of a person, you know, everybody's on their phone, everybody's searching things, you know, he's not searching. What do you do when your wife leaves you and how do you get her back? He's searching how fast can I get married and what happens to my debt and things like that? This is huge to a jury. It would be to me anyway. Police searched the bought home and found pulls of blood. The prosecution will likely use this along with Google searches and GPS data paint a picture of of nourishes whereabouts. All of this, you know, just being laid out by the prosecution, you know, I've seen it before they they they're going to paint a picture that you know that they want the jury to see.

21:32What was going on inside a nourishes brain while these things were happening. And how do you see the defense arguing against some of these claims? Well, I think that the defense is going to use mom to his history to portray her as somebody who has abandoned her husband in the past. Serita is a friend of the couple who told the Washington Post that mom to and the rush had had a disagreement in February of 2024 that resulted in mom to and her daughter staying with Serita for a week. I can see them trying to illustrate the possibility that she just left him again and this time she left behind her child. The defense will likely use the lack of what is known as corpus the lecti, which means body of the crime. It doesn't necessarily mean corpse body in that sense, but you know, going back to the five W's, the what is the cause of death and the prosecution is lacking sufficient evidence by not having a body. So they don't have a body to autopsy. They don't have things like defense wounds or anything else to analyze.

22:35It gives the opportunity for the defense to speculate and theorize as to what did or didn't happen. You've got a cause of death here that they can pretty much illustrate that there are a bunch of different alternative situations here. I want to talk for a moment about the bot family before mom to disappearance because as you mentioned earlier in the relationship, it definitely had its own challenges. Certainly. As I mentioned earlier, mom to had stayed with her friends Serita after a disagreement with the rest back in February of 2024, I believe. The same friend Serita even said that mom to briefly had her own apartment in nearby Falls church for junior, what really sticks out to me though is that the police were sent to the bot house that February on reports of disorderly conduct they called it and no charges were filed, but according to prosecutors,

23:40mom to claimed that norech wouldn't give her her official documents and destroy her phone. Both sides in this case are going to scrutinize what the police did and what they did not do in response to that disorderly conduct call. And he referenced her leaving home to stay with Serita in that WSA nine interview with Katie Lasso, right. He even mentioned that Falls church apartment in the body cam footage. Yeah, that's definitely more evidence for the defense to paint that picture of an unhappy marriage and a wife who was prepared to leave her husband. It's just indicating that the couple had issues, but both sides can use this. I think the prosecution will show she was looking for an escape and after norech wouldn't provide the necessary paperwork for separation. She attempted to find a safe place for herself and her child. They could say something like mom to need a friend to help her facilitate leaving in the past.

24:40So she would need it again. If anyone knew or thought that she was going to leave or plan an escape, it would be her friend that helped her the first time I would think it was her co-workers that first reported her missing doesn't add up well when you really think about. She left the husband, you know, didn't report her missing. The police responded because her co workers responded, you know, reported a missing. That's a very important point about the co workers reaching out to say that she's nowhere to be found. And it wasn't her husband. And there has been an outpouring of community support to find momta back in July. There were supporters gathered outside the Menace's Park Police Department. And this was to remember momta two years after her disappearance. Now momta's mother and brother, they were both present at this vigil. Both also spoke to the USA. I want to play some of that here first hearing from momta's mother via a translator.

25:43Whatever he did, whoever did this to my daughter, he has to get punished. I'm just waiting for the Zostis of my sister. Momta's friend and former co-worker also spoke up the vigil and here's what she had to say. I want us to flood the courtroom of Prince William County Judicial Center to look, nourish in the eyes and let him know that we are here as momta. She is such a strong support network of people and friends who love her so much. And I can only imagine what those friends are going through. I mean, it has been two long years without answers. I also think about her little girl left behind. And as I mentioned, I have children, I have a toddler. And I know how connected these children are to their routine, their life with mom and dad in this particular case.

26:44And having that communication shut off for this child, it just, you know, make sure hard-hearted. You think about, you know, think about this child. I think about so many cases where these kids are left behind. And, you know, it's tough. It's really tough. I mean, you look at the pictures of momta and her child. It's heartbreaking. You know, that's just, you know, a tragic situation. It's clear that she's been missed and we can only hope the upcoming trial which she had some light and give her love to one piece of mind, maybe closure. Absolutely. No, you're right. We can only hope that this will bring some sort of piece of mind. Thank you so much for joining us. Oh, thank you. And we will be back next week with another episode of Case by Case. For our continuing coverage, you can check the Case by Case Feed wherever you find your podcasts. You can also watch episodes of Case by Case on the 48 Hours YouTube channel or by searching Case by Case on Paramount Plus.

27:50Be sure to rate and review us and let us know which cases you're following and which cases you'd like us to follow. I haven't seen my son since 2012. This is Deborah Tice. The disappearance of her son, Austin, is one of the biggest missing person cases in the world. What do you want from me? I should solve the mystery. I know that my son is somewhere alive. Listen to Where is Austin Tice from MPR's Embedded and BBC Radio 4 on the MPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.