Cary murder trial should go to jury today

RALEIGH -- Closing statements started this morning in the first-degree murder trial of a Cary man accused of killing his estranged wife and dumping her badly burned body on the side of an interstate in Virginia.

The case against Harish Purushottamdas Patel, 61, is expected to go to the jury in the Wake County courthouse later today. Patel is accused in the January 2008 disappearance and murder of his estranged wife, Vanlata Patel, 57.

Prosecutors contend that the defendant abducted and killed his wife after a week of contentious deliberations over the division of property and other assets, including more than $400,000 in Swiss bank accounts.

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.

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, they 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 for legal proceedings, she stayed with friends in Morrisville and refused to tell him where she would be.

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