Working the night shift at Dunkin’ Donuts 11 years ago, newlyweds Palak and Bhadreshkumar Patel walked to a back storage room. Palak was on the phone, talking to family members about her desire to return to India. There were still customers out front in the Maryland shop.
Suddenly, authorities said, Bhadreshkumar attacked his wife, stabbing her repeatedly with a large knife. A day later, after being seen at a train station in New Jersey, he disappeared.
“I would hope that if he is out there living a life, it’s one of constant stress and concern that we’re right around the corner,” Anne Arundel County detective Vincent Carbonaro said recently. “I hope that every day he wakes up, he thinks that will be his last day of freedom.”
On Tuesday, the FBI raised its reward to $1 million for information leading directly to the capture of Bhadreshkumar Patel. The move was part of the FBI’s effort to increase the standard payout for information about fugitives on its Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.
In interviews Tuesday, Carbonaro and FBI Special Agent Jonathan Shaffer said Patel could be in any number of countries, including India, and may have changed his identify. They think there are people who know who and where he is. They hope the increased reward money — from $250,000 — will nudge a tipster off the fence.
The FBI said Bhadreshkumar Patel would be about 35 now and should be considered “armed and extremely dangerous.” He’s been on the Top Ten list since 2017, and remains the longest-tenured person on the current list, according to Shaffer.
In another Top Ten related move announced Tuesday, Samuel Ramirez Jr. was added to the list. The FBI is seeking him in connection with the murder of two women on May 21, 2023, at the Stars Bar and Grill in Federal Way, Washington. After the homicides, the bureau said, he was driven to Tijuana, Mexico.
The FBI also announced an increase to $1 million for the capture of Omar Alexander Cardenas, who was already on the list and is wanted in connection with an Aug, 15, 2019 homicide at a shopping center in Sylmar, California. He allegedly fired several rounds from a semiautomatic handgun, hitting the victim in the head.
The Patel case goes back to 2015. The Patels were Indian immigrants who had studied commerce in their home country and, according to the FBI, had obtained jobs working together at the Dunkin’ Donuts along Arundel Mills Boulevard in Hanover, Maryland. He was 24, she 21.
By 11 p.m. on April 12, several arriving customers could not get service, didn’t see any workers and became concerned enough to call 911, according to authorities. A police officer found Palak Patel dead. Investigators were soon reviewing interior surveillance cameras, which they said showed the couple arguing at about 10:32 p.m.
Palak Patel had been on the phone several times that evening with relatives in India, police said. After going to the back room, she handed the phone to her husband who put it down with the line still open. Investigators do not believe the relatives in India heard what happened next.
In court records filed years ago in Anne Arundel District Court, police asserted that the surveillance video recorded the killing. “Patel can then be seen picking up a large kitchen-style knife and striking Palak Bhadreshkumar Patel, causing massive trauma to her upper body,” Anne Arundel detectives wrote in the records.
Authorities described Palak as a devoted wife. “By all accounts, she was a caring, loving person,” Shaffer said.
After the attack, authorities say, Bhadreshkumar Patel went home and collected cash and belongings before taking a cab to New Jersey. He checked into a hotel near Newark Liberty International Airport at 3 a.m., checked out seven hours later and took a hotel shuttle to the local train station. He was last seeing getting off the shuttle, said Carbonaro, the Anne Arundel detective.
The couple’s visas had expired, according to authorities, and Patel’s wife wanted to return to India but he did not. Bhadreshkumar Patel is known to have connections in India, Canada, New Jersey, Kentucky, Georgia and Illinois.
Other Washington-area cases have made their way to the Top Ten list. In 2014, William Bradford Bishop, of Bethesda, Maryland, was addedin connection with the 1976 slaying of his family. Investigators allege he used a sledgehammer to kill his wife, three sons, and his motherand burned their bodies in North Carolina.
Bishop was removed from the Top Ten list in 2018 after no longer meeting its criteria. One reason, an FBI spokesperson said Tuesday, is that during his time on the Top Ten list he received extensive publicity that didn’t yield his capture. “There have been no confirmed sightings of Bishop since his initial disappearance,” the spokesperson said.
Bishop remainson the much longer Most Wanted list.
Anyone with information about Bhadreshkumar Patel or others on the FBI’s Most Wanted list can call 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324) or submit a tip online at tips.fbi.gov. Tipsters may remain anonymous and those outside the United States can contact the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate.
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