Inset: Bal Khadka (Burlington police). Background: Apartment in the 200 block of S. Champlain Street where Khadka allegedly beat his wife to death (Google Maps).
A 44-year-old Vermont man allegedly beat his wife to death with a large black-and-green flashlight while three children watched, despite his daughter pleading with him to stop.
Bal Khadka faces a second-degree murder charge in the death of his wife, Lila Darjee Khadka. He is also charged with three counts of child cruelty.
Burlington police said in a press release that officers were called to an apartment in the 200 block of S. Champlain Street shortly before 6 a.m. Saturday. Dispatchers received several 911 calls reporting an active fight and a person in need of an ambulance.
Police entered the apartment and found Lila Khadka unresponsive in a bed with “substantial injuries” to her head. Paramedics transported her to a hospital, where she was initially listed in critical condition. She died Sunday.
Investigators determined that Bal Khadka allegedly struck his wife repeatedly with a large flashlight.
According to an arrest affidavit obtained by VTDigger, three children younger than 10 witnessed the assault, and one of them recorded part of it.
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In the audio recording, police said the 10-year-old girl can be heard shouting, “Dad, no,” and screaming.
Officers found the distressed, crying girl outside the apartment building. She told police that she and a friend had been having a sleepover when they saw her father allegedly attack her mother with the flashlight. The children then fled through a window, she reportedly said.
When officers confronted Khadka, he reportedly greeted them with a quiet “hello” while attempting to put shoes on a young child inside the apartment. Police said he behaved as though nothing unusual had happened. Investigators later found the flashlight inside a bedroom dresser drawer.
Police arrested Khadka and brought him to the station for questioning. During the interview, he appeared “stone-faced” and “unaffected by the incident,” according to the affidavit.
The children told investigators that Khadka had been using drugs. He was also arrested in 2020 on suspicion of aggravated domestic assault against his wife, but prosecutors told VTDigger that the case was dismissed after Lila Khadka declined to testify.
Khadka remains held without bond at the Northwest State Correctional Facility.
