Who is Bhadreshkumar Patel, the Gujarati wife-killer on FBI's top 10 most-wanted fugitives list since 2017?

By Sunita Iyer | First Published May 31, 2023, 12:49 PM IST

The FBI officials have been tirelessly pursuing Bhadresh Patel since he went underground in 2015 after brutally stabbing his wife Palak, who was 21 then, to death.

Osama bin Laden, the Al-Qaeda leader and global terrorist, once featured in the Federal Bureau of Investigation's most wanted fugitives. While the United States tracked and took down the perpetrator of the horrifying September 11, 2001, attack on American soil, few names continues to feature in FBI's most wanted list. Surprisingly, an Indian features in the FBI's top ten most wanted fugutives list.

Bhadresh Patel, a 33-year-old Gujarati, disappeared in 2015 after fatally murdering his wife Palak Patel at a Dunkin Donuts store in Hanover, Maryland. Since then the FBI has been following him nonstop and added Patel's name as one of the agency's ten most wanted fugitives in the US on April 18, 2017. Patel was included as the FBI's Ten Most Wanted as the 514th fugitive.

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Patel was born on May 15, 1990, in the Indian state of Gujarat. By 2015, he had wed Palak Patel, and the two of them were taking vacations to see family in the US. At the time, Palak was 21 and Patel was 24.

Palak Patel's murder: What happened in April 2015

Patel and Palak were working the night shift at a Dunkin' Donuts in Hanover, Maryland, on the evening of April 12, 2015. The pair was visiting a relative of Patel who ran the shop. At about 9:30 p.m., Palak and Patel could be seen walking together in the kitchen before they vanished behind some racks. After a brief return to the scene without his wife, Patel turned off an oven before leaving the shop.

Later that evening, the body of Palak Patel was discovered. She had been repeatedly stabbed with a big kitchen knife and beaten to death. Investigators think the couple argued because Patel wanted to stay in the United States while Palak wanted to go back to India.

When no employees appeared to serve the new Dunkin' Donuts, customers were worried. They contacted a police officer who was nearby the store and he checked out the situation. The officer searched the shop and discovered Palak's body. When police reviewed the CCTV footage, they discovered Patel, who had disappeared, was the murderer. Patel had time to flee because he wasn't named as the suspect until more than an hour after the murder.

Patel left the store after killing Palak and made his way on foot to a nearby residence. He collected a few belongings before boarding a taxi to a motel close to a Newark, New Jersey airport. Patel was extremely composed throughout the taxi ride, according to the driver. He checked into a motel in Newark, and CCTV footage shows him paying cash for a room at the desk. The following morning, he left.

Around 10 a.m. on April 13, 2015, Patel was last spotted at Newark Penn Station in New Jersey. He rode the shuttle from the hotel to the station, but he hasn't been seen since.

Tracking Bhadresh Patel

Authorities think Patel might be hiding with relatives or may have left the country. Although Patel had a visa to enter the country, it had already expired when he committed the murder. There was no proof, according to a report, that he was allowed to legally depart the nation as a result of this.

When Palak's family was questioned about the murder, they discovered that she had expressed her desire to go back to India in their last chat. This call was made just before Palak's husband killed her, and he overheard it. For this reason, police think Patel killed his wife.

Patel has ties to New Jersey, Kentucky, Georgia, India, Canada, Illinois, and Georgia. There is a reward up to 250,000 dollar offered for information leading to his location.

Twist to the Palak murder case investigation

New information indicates that Bhadresh Patel received assistance from a human smuggler of Punjabi ancestry who lives in the US to depart America, changing the troubling circumstances of the case in an unexpected direction. The same facilitator had allegedly assisted Bharat Patel, also known as Bobby, in smuggling Gujaratis into the US.

According to reports, Patel first sought safety with his relatives in Ecuador before crossing the border illegally into Canada, where his family and friends dwell. His whereabouts are currently unknown because he has severed all relations with his Ahmedabad-based parents.

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