Vanlata Patel, 57 [BODY POSITIVELY ID CHARRED REMAINS] Cary, VA

[Grande]

Published: Jan 22, 2008 09:47 PM
Body confirmed to be missing Cary woman
Marlon A. Walker, staff writer

CARY - Cary police officials this evening confirmed that charred remains found in Mecklenburg County, Va., are those of a woman reported missing on Thursday.

Firefighters responding to a report of a brush fire in a wooded area just off Interstate 85 in Mecklenburg County found the remains the day before Vanlata Patel, 57, of Woodway Bluff in Cary, was reported missing by her son last Thursday.

He notified authorities that she was missing after his mother failed to board a plane to Canada, where she was going to visit him, officials said in a press release.

On Sunday, Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office investigators contacted the Cary police about their unidentified remains after hearing of the story through the news.

The remains were positively identified as Patel today. The cause or location of Patel’s death have not been given, but investigators are treating the case as a homicide.

“Our prayers are with Mrs. Patel’s family and friends during this very sad and difficult time,” Cary Police Department Captain Dave Wulff said in a statement. “No resource is being spared as we work collaboratively with Mecklenburg County and numerous other law enforcement agencies to solve this horrific crime.”

Anyone with information on the crime is being asked to call Sgt. Randy Byrd at (919) 319-4513, Crime Stoppers at 226-CRIME or visit www.carycrimestoppers.net. Crime Stoppers pays up to $2,500 for the arrest or indictment of those responsible for committing certain types of crimes, and callers do not have to identify themselves.

marlon.walker@newsobserver.com or 836-4906

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/896836.html

[Grande]

Investigators Collect Evidence From Cary Woman's Apartment
Updated: Today at 8:44 p.m.

Cary — Crime scene investigators gathered evidence Wednesday from the apartment complex where a woman whose body was found last week used to live, Cary police said.

Yellow tape cordoned off the parking lot and the apartment building where Vanlata Patel used to live with her estranged husband, Harish Patel, at The Marquis at Silverton.

Nearly a dozen Cary police and City-County Bureau of Identification agents were seen searching a red car that Capt. David Wulff confirmed belongs to Harish Patel.

They also searched a white car that the couple owned jointly.

Wulff said they have not named any suspects or persons of interest in Patel's death, but they have not excluded anyone, either.

It was not clear whether Vanlata Patel still lived at the apartments or had moved elsewhere before she disappeared, and police would not comment on that. He family declined to talk to reporters Wednesday.

Firefighters in Mecklenburg County, Va., discovered Patel's body a week ago while fighting a brush fire along Interstate 85.

DNA evidence confirmed Tuesday that the body was Patel's. She was reported missing Friday after she did not arrive for a visit with her son in Canada.

According to Mecklenburg County authorities, Patel's body was found wrapped in a comforter 20 feet from the highway.

Electronic signs along I-85 alerted motorists on Wednesday that a body had been found and listed a number for motorists with to call with information.

Cary police investigators ask that anyone with information about Patel's death call 919-469-4012.

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/2344267/

[Grande]

Police search husband's apartment
01/24/2008 11:07 AM
By: News 14 Carolina Staff

http://i30.tinypic.com/ofzu47.jpg
Vanlata Patel

CARY, N.C. -- Cary police searched the apartment Wednesday of a man whose wife was found dead in southern Virginia.

Harish Patel lives at the Marquis at Silverton Apartments in Cary.

His wife, Vanlata Patel, was reported missing last week. Her charred remains were found on January 16th while firefighters were working a brushfire near Interstate 85 just over the Virginia state line. She was last seen the day before.

The News & Observer is reporting there was a dispute over a $400,000 bank account between Patel and her husband before she disappeared

http://news14.com/content/headlines/592120/police-search-husband-s-apartment/Default.aspx

[Roamer]

:1222423:

[KittyMom]

:1222423:

[Grande]

Modified: Feb 12, 2008 02:20 PM
Husband in court in wife's killing
From Staff Reports

The estranged husband of a woman whose charred remains were found burning along a Virginia interstate last month made a brief appearance in court today in connection with her murder.

Harish Purushottamdas Patel, 60, of 1128 Woodway Bluff Circle in Cary, is charged with murder in the death of Vanlata Patel, 57.

Patel, who is being held without bond in the Wake jail, appeared before District Court Judge Jane Gray, who told him he could face the death penalty or life in prison if convicted.

Gray also named the public defender to represent him. Patel responded, "When will I get to see my lawyer?" She told him the public defender's office would contact him.

Cary police charged Patel on Monday. "As sad as it was, we're glad we were able to bring closure to this case," Pat Bazemore, Cary police chief, said Monday night.

Vanlata Patel failed to board a flight at Raleigh-Durham International Airport on Jan. 16 back to Alberta, Canada, where she had been staying since she separated from her husband. She had been in Cary visiting friends. Her husband told authorities and reporters last month that he had not been aware she was in the Triangle.

Two hours before Patel's flight was to take off, officials in Virginia fighting a brush fire along Interstate 85 near mile marker 19 found a woman's charred remains. Her death had been classified as a homicide.

Vanlata Patel's 28-year-old son, Ashesh Patel, called Cary police Jan. 17 to report his mother missing. Mecklenburg County, Va., sheriff's investigators made a call to Cary police a few days later. They had seen information on the Patel case in the news, and wondered whether their Jane Doe and Cary's missing woman were the same.

The charred remains found in Virginia were positively identified as Vanlata Patel on Jan. 22.

Bazemore declined to provide any detail on the cause of Vanlata Patel's death or what was found during the investigation that led to Harish Patel's arrest. Several search warrants that would give more insight into the case and what leads were followed have been sealed from the public, she said.

The Patels had been married since 1996. They had no children together, but both had adult children from previous marriages. Harish Patel said last month that there should have been no separation, calling marriage an institution that requires "sacrifice and compromise."

The couple were also engaged in a legal battle with each other over more than $400,000 in Swiss bank accounts. In November, Vanlata Patel asked a court to bar her husband from withdrawing any money from the accounts. She also said a substantial amount of the money belonged to her before the two were married.

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/crime_safety/story/940013.html

[Texas53]

Money is usually in some way connected to a spouse being murdered. :1222423:

[KittyMom]

Authorities still searching for missing Clark County marine

Vatlana Patel claimed $100,000 of it was a gift from her parents that she was keeping in for her son, Ashesh Patel.

Bazemore said Ashesh Patel was relieved about the arrest, even though it was his stepfather who is charged.

“The whole case has been very difficult for the family,” Bazemore said.

Harish Patel said in an interview a few days after Vanlata Patel was reported missing that he loved his wife and wanted her to be happy.

“I said, ‘I am ready to do anything and everything in order to get you back,’"he told WRAL. "But I think she doesn't want to come back for whatever reason.”

Oh, these words will come back to bite him sharply in the bee-hind!

[Faith]

Published: Jun 03, 2008 12:30 AM
Modified: Jun 03, 2008 02:40 AM
Police say fibers may link husband to body


RALEIGH - Cary investigators say they found evidence in a car that may have been used in the disappearance and homicide of a woman whose badly burned body was found in Virginia on Jan. 16.

A search warrant made public Monday said leaves and green and yellow fibers were collected from a red 1996 Subaru Legacy after Vanlata Patel's body was found alongside Interstate 85 in Mecklenburg County, Virginia. Police think her estranged husband, Harish Purushottamdas Patel, 60, of Cary, abducted her and is responsible for her death. The Subaru was owned by Harish Patel.

Police said they also found biological evidence in a 1997 Nissan Sentra owned by Vanlata Patel. Vanlata Patel had left her husband and moved to Canada with her son, but the Nissan was seen parked at the Cary apartment of her husband the day she died, according to an earlier warrant.

Cary police learned of the death Jan. 22 after Virginia authorities connected the burned body to a description of Vanlata Patel, 57, who had been reported missing. Harish Patel denied having anything to do with his wife's death. But on Feb. 11, police charged Harish Patel with first degree murder.

On the day of Vanlata Patel's death, her husband was captured on surveillance video at a Cary convenience store, where he purchased a red gasoline container and the fuel he pumped to fill that vessel, court records show.

Vanlata Patel had arrived in Cary from Canada to settle a financial dispute with her husband and was scheduled to catch a flight back to Canada the day she disappeared, police reported.

In an interview with police Jan. 20, Patel denied his wife had ever been to his apartment at 1128 Woodway Bluff Circle in Cary. But a resident told police that Vanlata Patel's Nissan was in the apartment building's parking lot about 8:30 p.m. Jan. 16, investigators reported.

Police have not released a motive for the woman's death, but friends and court documents indicated the Patels had argued about money throughout their marriage. Before Vanlata Patel died, she and her husband disagreed about dividing more than $400,000 they had in Swiss bank accounts, court records show.

Investigators recovered dry leaves on the front windshield of the Subaru. They also found one yellow and one green fiber in the left rear passenger seat and more yellow fibers on the rear passenger floor of the vehicle, according to the search warrant.

Police reported that Vanlata Patel's body had been wrapped in a nearly destroyed comforter when firefighters found her body, but they did not indicate its color.

"The investigation has been turned over to the district attorney's office," Cary Sgt. Travis Baker said Monday.

Wake County Assistant District Attorney Howard Cummings declined comment.

Harish Patel remains in custody at the Wake County jail without benefit of bail, a jail spokeswoman said Monday.
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1094195.html

[annalyzer]

Cary husband's trial to begin in September

http://www.ncwanted.com/wralasset/news/local/2008/02/11/2423523/4925-patelmugshot-220x165.jpg

Posted: Jun. 4, 2009
Updated: Jun. 4, 2009

Raleigh, N.C. — Judge Donald Stephens set a Sept. 7 trial date Thursday for Harish Patel, who is charged with the death of his estranged wife.

Harish Purushottamdas Patel, 60, and Vanlata Patel, 57, had been married since 1996 and had adult children from previous marriages. She filed for divorce in November, and court records indicate the two had a dispute with over how their financial assets, including more than $400,000 in Swiss bank accounts, should be divided.

After her son, Ashesh Patel, reported her missing Jan. 18, 2008, Mecklenburg County, Va., authorities identified a body found along Interstate 85 as hers.

According to an affidavit, her partially clothed, charred body was found wrapped in a comforter and tied with rope.

http://www.ncwanted.com/ncwanted_home/story/5283664/

[Nut44x4]

Trial was delayed from Sept...to November, now they say December.

Posted: Today at 7:59 a.m.
Updated: Today at 8:59 a.m.
Cary man to stand trial in estranged wife's death

Raleigh, N.C. — A trial is expected to begin Monday for a Cary man charged in the death of his estranged wife whose charred body was found along Interstate 85 in Virginia last January.

Harish Purushottamdas Patel, 60, faces murder charges in the death of Vanlata Patel, 57. Her son reported her missing Jan. 18, 2008, after she didn't board a flight to visit him in Toronto.

http://www.ncwanted.com/ncwanted_home/story/6514966/

[LiveLaughLuv]

Rest Peacefully Vanlata :1222423:

[Nut44x4]

Divorce of Cary couple led to murder, state contends
12/6/09
RALEIGH - Vanlata Patel had planned to stay in the Triangle for eight days when she flew down from her son's home in Canada to tend to divorce proceedings.
But the day her return flight was scheduled from Raleigh-Durham International Airport in January 2008, Patel's burned body was found by volunteer firefighters alongside Interstate 85 in South Hill, Va., not quite 20 miles from the North Carolina border.

Harish Purushottamdas Patel, 61, of Cary, her estranged husband, is accused of killing her. His murder trial began last week in Wake County. A verdict is expected this month.

Prosecutors contend that the defendant abducted and killed Vanlata Patel, 57,after a week of contentious deliberations over the division of property and other assets, including more than $400,000 in Swiss bankaccounts.

Defense lawyers argue that Cary police put Harish Patel on the top of their suspect list shortly after his wife of 12 years was reported missing. In doing so, the defenders argue, investigators ignored leads and evidence that might have taken them to other suspects.

In opening arguments on Dec. 1, Assistant District Attorney Doug Faucette said the Patels separated in the summer of 2007. Vanlata Patel went to Alberta, Canada, to live with her son from a previous marriage.

Faucette said that Vanlata Patel was so fearful of her husband that when she came to the Triangle forlegal proceedings, she stayed with friends in Morrisville and refused to tell him where she would be.

Witness testimony and other evidence to be presented in the trial will bolster the state's case, Faucette said. Video surveillance from a Circle K convenience store will show Harish Patel buying gasoline that investigators contend was used to burn his wife's body.

Prosecutors also say Patel made odd statements in interviews with police.

Jeff Cutler, the Raleigh attorney defending Patel, told jurors in his opening statement to listen carefully to the state's evidence with four questions on their minds.

"When? Where? How? And why?" Cutler said. "See if the evidence in this case answers those questions."

http://www.carynews.com/news/story/14802.html

[Nut44x4]

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=7173172

Closing arguments expected in Patel murder trial
Updated at 07:35 AM today
http://cdn.abclocal.go.com/images/wtvd/cms_exf_2007/news/7146287_448x252.jpg
WAKE COUNTY (WTVD) -- It was announced Tuesday that Harish Patel would not take the stand in the murder trial of his estranged wife, Vanlata Patel's death nearly two years ago.

The defense also said it would not present any evidence.
But before both sides rested their case, there was some dramatic testimony heard.

The jury spent most of the morning watching dash-cam video of the highway in Virginia where Vanlata Patel's partially burned body was found.

They also watched a critical piece of prosecution evidence -- the surveillance video from a Circle K where Harish Patel bought gasoline and a gas can.

Then, one of the lead investigators testified about what Harish said after he was arrested.

He apparently asked the detective to retrieve a specific shirt from Patel's home.

"I asked Mr. Patel if the shirt contained any items that would hurt myself, or anyone else," Cary Police Department Det. Jim Young said. "He stated, 'No, before I hurt anyone else, I would kill myself.'"

As the day ended, the judge and lawyers determined they would not inform the jury about reduced charges like second degree murder or manslaughter.

The defense also conceded the case was heard properly in North Carolina.

So, jurors will have just one decision to make when they get the case Wednesday afternoon -- guilty or not guilty of first degree murder.

[Nut44x4]

http://www.ncwanted.com/wralasset/news/local/2008/02/11/2423523/4925-patelmugshot-220x165.jpg

wow...that is quite a transformation!

[Amusedtdth]

I'd say hes aged just a bit...

[Nut44x4]

Jury: NC man killed wife, set body on fire

Posted: Today at 11:22 a.m.

RALEIGH, N.C. — A 61-year-old North Carolina man has been found guilty of killing his wife and burning her body along the side of a highway in Virginia.

Multiple media outlets reported that a Wake Count jury Friday found Harish Patel guilty of first-degree murder in the death of 57-year-old Vanlata Patel in January 2008.

The pair divorced in 2007. Authorities say Harish Patel suffocated his wife after arguing over splitting their assets, including $400,000 in Swiss bank accounts. Her body was found in a brush fire along Interstate 85 in Mecklenburg County, Va.

Defense attorneys say there is no substantial evidence linking their client to his wife's death. Patel says he will appeal the conviction.

http://www.wral.com/news/state/story/6654460/