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Dr Neha Gupta, accused of murdering daughter, told 911 ‘She's at the bottom of the pool’
Investigators have released the 911 call made by an Indian-origin US doctor accused of murdering her 4-year-old daughter and staging her death as a drowning
Investigators have released the 911 call made by an Indian-origin American doctor accused of murdering her 4-year-old daughter and staging her death as a drowning. Dr Neha Gupta, a pediatrician from Oklahoma, was arrested in July 2025 — days after her 4-year-old daughter Aria Talathi was found dead at the bottom of a pool in Florida, where the family had been vacationing.
Background on the case
In the early hours of June 27, 2025, Neha Gupta called 911 and said that her four-year-old daughter was lying at the bottom of the pool at their vacation rental in El Portal, Florida.
When emergency responders arrived, Gupta, 36, directed them to the backyard pool where Aria Talathi was found unresponsive. The 4-year-old received CPR and was rushed to a hospital, but her life could not be saved.
According to an ABC6 news report, Neha Gupta told Florida authorities that she and her daughter had traveled from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and were staying at a short-term rental. Gupta shared custody of her daughter with her ex-husband, Saurabh Talathi.
Gupta’s ex-husband, Dr Talathi, said he was unaware that his daughter had been taken out of Oklahoma and added that the couple was engaged in an ongoing custody dispute.
Charged with murder
On July 2, 2025, Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office (MDSO), Homicide Bureau detectives arrested Gupta in connection to the death of her daughter.
A police affidavit said that the child’s autopsy revealed that her lungs and stomach did not contain any water and were considered "dry" -- ruling out drowning as the cause of death.
The police affidavit also noted that the medical examiner noticed “"cuts within the mouth and bruising within the cheeks” of the child’s face, which is consistent with asphyxiation by smothering.
The findings of the autopsy disputed Neha Gupta’s account of events — that she and her daughter fell asleep around 12:30am, but she later woke up to find that Aria was not in the bed. She claimed that the child got out of bed and fell into the pool, where she died.
Officials concluded that the 4-year-old had been dead before she was placed in the pool.
911 call released
Officials released the audio recording of the 911 call which Gupta made on June 27, 2025.
"I tried to get her out," she told the dispatcher. "We were sleeping and I heard some noise. She was in the pool, I tried to save her but I don't know how to swim. She went down in the pool."
“Can we find something to pull her out?” the dispatcher asked. “Is there like a stick, like a pool stick, like if you're cleaning out the pool? You need to try to get her out of the water.”
“Do you know how far EMS is?” the Indian-origin doctor asked the 911 operator, who replied, “They’re on the way, they’re on the way but you need to try to help her.”
Gupta, 37, is now facing a second-degree murder charge in Miami-Dade County.
