Oklahoma pediatrician now accused of staging her daughter's drowning to cover up child's murder
Dr. Neha Gupta, 36, of Edmond, near Oklahoma City, has been accused of staging her four-year-old daughter Aria Talathi's death while on vacation in El Portal, near Miami.
Gupta told police she was awoken by a strange sound on June 27 and found her daughter unresponsive in the backyard pool around 3:30am.
Aria was rushed to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 4:28am.
However, while doctors were examining the little girl, they found cuts and bruising inside the toddler's mouth, suggesting she may have been smothered to death and had her body placed in the pool, NBC Miami reported.
They also didn't find water in the girl's lungs - disputing the mother's story that she drowned.
Gupta was arrested and charged with first-degree murder.
The mother-of-one had told authorities she and the little girl had enjoyed dinner around 9pm before going to sleep in the same bed in the master bedroom of the rental home around 12:30am.
When she was awoken by an 'unidentified noise' hours later, she claimed she saw her daughter submerged in the pool.
She claimed she had attempted to save her daughter, but was unable to as she didn't know how to swim.
Gupta also told police she had attempted to 'assist the deceased victim' for approximately 10 minutes before calling 911.
The girl's stomach was also found empty, which contradicted Gupta's claim that she had fed the child earlier that evening.
Aria's father, Dr. Saurabh Talathi, told investigators that he wasn't aware his ex-wife had taken the toddler out of state, Local 10 News reported.
The former couple got divorced last year and were currently in an ongoing custody battle.
Gupta had also been suspended from her job in May and give a notice of termination, OU Health and the University of Oklahoma told Local 10 News.
Detectives said surveillance video and the autopsy report burn holes in Gupta's account and suggested she had staged the girl's death.
'The subject attempted to conceal the killing of the deceased victim by staging an accidental drowning within the swimming pool of a rental property,' the affidavit said.
The doctor was arrested in Oklahoma City on Tuesday by US Marshalls and the Oklahoma City Police Department.
She is currently booked into the Oklahoma County Detention Center and is being held without bond.
She will be extradited to Florida to face her charges.
Miami-Dade Sherrif's Detective Joseph. R. Peguero Rivera told Daily Mail that they did not know when the doctor would be extradited to the Sunshine State. Nor do they have a motive for the brutal crime, he said.
It is also unclear if the child's remains are in Florida or been transferred back to Oklahoma.
Gupta's lawyer, Richard Cooper, told Local 10 that police 'rushed to judgement' and 'as a result, a grieving mother who just lost her daughter is in jail.'
'We look forward to a full investigation which will uncover the truth of the matter,' he said.
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