The FBI has raised the reward for information leading to the arrest of a fugitive wanted in connection with the 2015 murder of a young Maryland woman to $1 million — the new standard bounty for suspects on the bureau’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, the agency announced.
Bhadreshkumar Chetanbhai Patel is wanted for the murder of his 21-year-old wife, Palak Patel, at a donut shop in Hanover, Md., where the couple worked the night shift. Investigators say he stabbed her multiple times in a back room just before midnight on April 12, 2015, then fled the scene.
After the killing, Patel walked across the street to the apartment he shared with his wife, gathered a few belongings and some cash, and hailed a taxi to a hotel near Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, according to the FBI. He checked in around 3 a.m. with no luggage, checked out around 10 a.m. the following morning and took a hotel shuttle to Newark Penn Station. That was his last confirmed sighting, the bureau said.
Patel was added to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list on April 18, 2017, becoming the 514th person named to the list since its creation in 1950. The reward for his capture has now been quadrupled from $250,000 to $1 million, reflecting an agency-wide increase in the standard bounty for Ten Most Wanted fugitives, the FBI said.
“We hope this $1 million reward attracts greater attention to our tireless search for Bhadreshkumar Patel and leads to tips we need to provide justice for Palak Patel,” FBI Baltimore Special Agent in Charge Jimmy Paul said in a statement.
Patel should be considered armed and extremely dangerous, the FBI warned. Anyone with information about his whereabouts is urged not to approach him but to call 1-800-CALL-FBI or submit a tip at tips.fbi.gov.
All information can remain anonymous. Those calling from outside the United States should contact the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate.
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