PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, Va. (7News) — Andrea Feldman, the lead crime scene investigator in the Mamta Kafle Bhatt disappearance case, returned to the witness stand Thursday morning in the murder trial of Naresh Bhatt after nearly three hours on the stand Wednesday.
Jurors also heard from another crime scene investigator, an expert on presumptive testing for blood using Bluestar technology, a police investigator and a security employee for the Walmart where Bhatt is alleged to have bought a set of kitchen knives around the time of Kafle Bhatt’s disappearance.
TIMELINE | What we know from prosecutors about missing Manassas Park mom’s disappearance
Kafle Bhatt has been missing since the summer of 2024. She is presumed dead and her body has not been found.
7News is in the courtroom, providing live updates throughout the trial.
COURT DISMISSED AT 4 PM
3:00 PM COMMONWEALTH CALLS MORE WITNESSES TO THE STAND
Dustin Walker with the Manassas Park Police Department told the jury that Naresh Bhatt said he tried to call Mamta on Aug. 1, 2024, in the evening. Dustin testified he was unable to verify any calls from hone records.
Walker confirmed he asked to track Kafle Bhatt’s phone records.
He also testified that he and other investigators went to two Walmarts in the area, an eatery at a Liberty Gas Station and a Home Depot to verify Bhatt’s whereabouts.
Walker said the objective when speaking with Bhatt was to “really build a timeline, so that if we could fit it into what we knew already about the missing female – so really establish how that timeline of his actions fit with that.”
Defense attorneys began cross-examination, noting Bhatt wasn’t looking at a calendar when providing details to officers regarding his whereabouts from two weeks prior.
They asked Walker if he knew what phone Bhatt used when trying to reach his wife, Kafle-Bhatt.
“But he didn’t say, or you don’t know if you tried from another phone?” the defense asked.
“That’s correct. He never mentioned another phone to me the entire time I interacted with him,” Walker said.
Walker was dismissed.
The Commonwealth also heard from Erika Delgado, an employee overseeing safety and security at Walmart at the Manassas Liberia Avenue location.
Delgado was asked to pull video of a Blue Tesla (Bhatt’s car) that was driven to the store. Delgado told the jury one Walmart in Manassas, Virginia, has over 350 cameras.
Delgado reviewed several surveillance videos that she told jurors show Bhatt while he was shopping at Walmart, from walking through aisles to purchasing products, on July 30 and Aug. 1, 2024.
She walked the jury through some of the items he purchased, including a set of three Thyme & Table kitchen knives, bananas and other fruit. Prosecutors had pointed jurors Wednesday to a picture of one kitchen knife from that brand that investigators found in a drying rack in Bhatt’s kitchen.
The defense did not opt for cross-examination.
2:11 PM COMMONWEALTH CALLS NEXT WITNESS
Nancy Sulinski-Steffens, a forensic manager based in Florida, took the stand as a crime scene expert, specifically speaking about Bluestara blood detection reagent used by crime scene investigators.
She told a jury she developed a curriculum for investigators regarding the proper application of Bluestar, its capabilities and limitations.
Sulinski-Steffens also taught all three crime investigators assigned to the case, including Restino, who testified just before her.
The expert stepped down to address the jury and provide a demonstration of how Bluestar reacts when sprayed at a crime scene.
In her demonstration for the jury. Sulinski-Steffens turned the courtroom lights off and explained how Bluestar reacts to blood cells to give a glowing effect.
“Bluestar is just a tool, OK, where some potential evidence might be. And then they can do additional forensic processing from that point,” Sulinski-Steffens said.
The defense had a chance for cross-examination, asking if the floor in her demonstration used in a courtroom this afternoon was different than what was in the Bhatt home at the time.
2:00 PM COURT RESUMES
Investigator Restino finished answering questions from the Commonwealth.
Defense began its cross-examination.
They approached initially asking about how many officers were in the home and if any of them were around the carpet in the Bhatt’s bedroom at the time of their search.
“You don’t know when the stain got there?” the defense asked.
“I do not,” Restino said.
“You don’t know how the stain got there?” the defense asked.
“I do not,” Restino said.
Restino originally said it was “impractical to send off a whole ten-foot rug to a lab for testing.”
The defense also asked whether Restino did Bluestar testing in other parts of the house, including rooms on the second floor, on the stairs, the dining room, the kitchen and the living room.
“I did not,” Restino told the jury.
Restino said he could not confirm what the stain was, only that it reacted to Bluestar, which is a presumptive test for blood.
Assistant Public Defender Laurel Rodewald asked whether there would be a Bluestar reaction if she cut her hand and washed it, or if she had her period. Restino said yes.
Restino was dismissed for the afternoon.
1:30 PM JURY DEPARTS FOR LUNCH
11:04 AM: ANOTHER CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATOR TAKES STAND
Joseph Restino, another crime scene investigator with the Prince William County Police Department, took the stand.
Restino spent about three hours answering questions from the prosecution team.
In the early part of the morning, two people carried a ten-by-eight-foot carpet into the courtroom during his questioning – the same carpet investigators said was cut from the couple’s bedroom.
They laid a tarp down on the floor and showed the jury what Restino said he suspected to be a blood stain that’s roughly one foot long and six inches wide.
The judge told jurors they could stand in order to see the evidence. He added that the investigators did Bluestar testing, which shows a color when a chemical reacts to iron in blood.
READ | Crime scene investigator testifies in Naresh Bhatt’s murder trial
9:15 AM: FELDMAN CONTINUES TESTIMONY
Andrea Feldman was sworn in to testify again.
Feldman told jurors about the items with suspected blood swabbed and sent to the state’s Department of Forensic Science for further testing.
The Commonwealth showed jurors a picture Feldman took of a bedroom armoire with a driver’s license in Mamta Kafle’s name in one of the drawers. The address listed on the license was a Falls Church apartment.
After about an hour on the stand answering questions from the prosecution, defense attorneys began cross-examination.
In the questioning, they shared images from what Feldman captured while on the scene in the Bhatt household.
“Were you aware that the crib was in the stairwell before your arrival, and that officers from Manassas Park had moved it?” the defense asked.
“No,” Feldman said.
“Are you aware of everything that the officers might have touched in the house before you got there?” the defense asked.
“No,” Feldman answered.
“Are you aware of everything that the officers might have moved in the house before you got there?” the defense asked.
“No,” Feldman said.
Assistant Public Defender Laurel Rodewald also asked about food trash left in the kitchen.
“At least one officer left food trash in the kitchen, correct?” Rodewald asked.
“Not his trash,” Feldman testified. “At one point, Mr. Bhatt and his daughter, they were still on scene and the daughter was hungry. From what I remember, one of the officers on scene was asked to make a meal or a bottle for the baby so she would no longer be hungry. We did that after I searched the kitchen.”
Defense attorneys also asked if Feldman had ever stepped in blood, to which she answered, “No.”
READ ALSO | Prosecutors show bodycam video and more witnesses take stand in Naresh Bhatt murder trial
According to Judge Irving, the group will not hold court on Fridays. The trial is expected to last up to seven weeks total.
Source: wjla.com
