Bhadreshkumar Patel, right, who is accused of fatally stabbing his wife Palek Patel, left, in a Dunkin Donuts in 2015, is being added to the FBI's Top 10 Most Wanted List.
Bhadreshkumar Patel, right, who is accused of fatally stabbing his wife Palek Patel, left, in a Dunkin Donuts in 2015, is being added to the FBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted List.
SAN FRANCISCO (Diya TV) — A 26-year-old man who authorities say killed his wife at a Dunkin Donuts in 2015 was added to the FBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted list Tuesday. The FBI is offering up to $100,000 for any information that leads to the arrest of Bhadreshkumar Patel, who police allege stabbed his wife, Palak Patel, 21, multiple times with a large knife in the backroom of the doughnut shop on April 12, 2015.
A video released by the FBI shows both Bhadreshkumar and his wife working on the day of her death, walking off screen behind some racks in the kitchen together. Patel can be seen re-emerging without his wife in the footage. He turns off an oven and promptly leaves the scene. Palak’s aunt, Arun Patel, told The Capital Gazette in 2015 that Palak had told a family member on the night of her murder that she wanted to return to India and asked for a ticket for April 17.
Authorities said the husband and wife were involved in a dispute, but did not release further details over what is was about.
Bhadreshkumar was charged with first- and second-degree murder, first- and second-degree assault, and a weapons offense in connection with her death. A federal arrest warrant was also issued a week after Palak’s death as Bhadreshkumar was charged with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.
Two years after the killing, the FBI is upping the reward. Investigators involved in the case described Palak’s death as a brutal one and something that would elevate her alleged killer to the attention of the FBI.
Investigators said Patel was last seen taking a shuttle to Newark Penn Station in New Jersey on April 13, 2015 around 10 a.m. There was no new information on his whereabouts. The agency placed a large “Wanted” poster with his face in Times Square in New York City back in 2015, they believed Bhadreshkumar may have been receiving help from family or friends in the area at the time.
Bhadreshkumar Patel was added to the FBI’s Top 10 Most Wanted list after authorities say he stabbed his wife multiple times at a Dunkin Donuts in 2015.
George B. Johnson, the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Baltimore Field Office, said Tuesday there was no evidence that suggested Patel’s family helped him escape.
Police said in 2015 Patel, originally from Gujarat, had a visa to be in the U.S., but it had expired a month prior to Palak’s death. Anne Arundel police chief Timothy Altomare said there still was no evidence that Bhadreshkumar was able to “legally” flee the country.
The FBI said he may have fled to India or possibly Canada and that he has ties to New Jersey, Kentucky, Georgia and Illinois. Johnson added that “for someone to go off the grid like this, for this length of time, we really believe that people know him.”
“People may be interacting with him and not realize what he’s done or they could even illegally be helping him, so that’s why we want to bring attention to this,” Johnson told The Capital Gazette.
