Neha Gupta, a 36-year-old pediatrician from Oklahoma, is facing charges for the alleged murder of her 4-year-old daughter, Aria Talathi, during a vacation in El Portal, Miami. Gupta reported a drowning incident involving her daughter at their vacation rental’s pool to the Miami-Dade County Sheriff’s Office around 3:30 a.m. on June 27. Responding officers and Fire Rescue found the child unresponsive in the pool, and despite immediate CPR efforts, she was pronounced dead about an hour later at Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center.
Gupta told investigators that she and her daughter had spent the day at the beach and riding jet skis, had dinner around 9 p.m., and then retired to bed in the master bedroom around 12:30 a.m. She claimed to have been awakened by an unidentified noise in the backyard at 3:20 a.m., where she found her daughter in the pool. Despite her inability to swim, Gupta said she attempted to rescue her daughter for about 10 minutes before calling 911.
Gupta, accompanied by her attorney, voluntarily provided a recorded statement at the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office headquarters later that day. However, the initial assumption of a tragic drowning soon took a sinister turn. An autopsy revealed no water in the child’s lungs or stomach, but injuries were found in her mouth and cheeks, suggesting death by asphyxiation due to smothering.
The medical examiner concluded that the child had likely died before being placed in the pool. This, along with the absence of food in her stomach, contradicted Gupta’s account of the evening. Miami homicide detectives, after reviewing surveillance footage, the autopsy results, and Gupta’s statement, and consulting with the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, obtained an arrest warrant, believing that Gupta had staged the drowning.
Upon obtaining the warrant, investigators discovered that Gupta had returned to Oklahoma. Miami-Dade police detectives, with assistance from the Oklahoma City Police Department’s Homicide Unit and the US Marshals, located and arrested Gupta in Oklahoma City. She is currently awaiting extradition to Miami-Dade County, where she faces a first-degree murder charge.
Richard Cooper, Gupta’s attorney, expressed disappointment at the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office’s rush to judgment, stating that a grieving mother is now in jail. He expressed confidence that a full investigation would reveal the truth.
Prior to her arrest, it was discovered that Gupta was involved in a contentious custody battle with her ex-husband, Dr. Saurabh Talathi, in Oklahoma. The couple’s divorce was finalized in 2024, but Gupta’s request for sole custody was denied. Gupta also had a temporary protective order against Saurabh, alleging domestic violence, but it was dismissed due to lack of evidence. Gupta was ordered to pay Saurabh $79,000 in attorney’s fees, and his lawyers recently filed to have her wages or property garnished.
Gupta, who was a licensed pediatrician at Oklahoma Children’s Hospital, was fired from her job in May. OU Health and the University of Oklahoma confirmed her termination in a joint statement following her arrest.