Oklahoma pediatrician accused of staging 4-year-old daughter's drowning in Miami pool, MDSO says
The mother of a four-year-old girl found floating in a Miami-Dade pool last week is now accused of murdering her own daughter, authorities said.
On Wednesday, the Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office announced the arrest of 36-year-old Dr. Neha Gupta, a pediatrician from Oklahoma City, in connection with her daughter's death and staging her drowning on June 27.
She is currently detained and awaiting extradition to Miami-Dade County, where she will be facing a first-degree murder charge, authorities said.
Richard L. Cooper, Gupta's attorney, told CBS News Miami in a statement that he was "extremely disappointed" after he read MDSO's "flimsy arrest warrant" that charged a "grieving mother."
"Dr. Gupta met with the police and State Attorney's Office at our request and was 100% cooperative with the investigation," he continued. "Let's assume for a second that my client is innocent: She has had the worst tragedy imaginable occur, and then she's locked up without bond and is missing her own daughter's funeral. Common decency would dictate that a little more than 1 day's worth of investigation transpire before making such a dramatic move."
OU Health and the University of Oklahoma, where Gupta practiced medicine, also provided a statement to CBS News Miami, saying that she was suspended from patient care and terminated from her position on May 30.
Mother was in the midst of a custody battle with her ex-husband
MDSO said the preliminary investigation revealed that Gupta and her daughter had traveled from Oklahoma City and were staying at a short-term rental in El Portal, a village just north of Miami city limits.
According to investigators, Village of El Portal Police officers responded to reports of a drowning child in a residential pool near Northwest 90th Street and Northwest 1st Avenue early Friday morning.
At the time, authorities said someone had called 911 around 3:40 a.m. to report a child in distress, and a dispatcher was heard in a radio transmission saying, "The patient is in the pool and drowning."
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue also responded to the scene and took the girl to Jackson Memorial Hospital, where she died.
Through a police transmission, CBS News Miami found that a woman was inside the home and saw the child in the pool, but was unable to help. A dispatcher was heard saying, "The complainant is advising [that] the juvenile is in the pool and she can't swim to get to her." It is unconfirmed at this time whether this was Gupta or another person.
Neighbors told CBS News Miami they were devastated by the news and questioned how the girl ended up outside so early in the morning.
According to the arrest documents obtained by CBS News Miami, Gupta told police she and her daughter were asleep when, around 2:30 a.m., she heard a loud noise, woke up and saw the sliding door open. Once outside, she saw her daughter at the bottom of the pool. Gupta claimed that she tried to help for about 10 minutes before calling the police.
The arrest documents continued, revealing that Gupa and her ex-husband were in the middle of a custody battle and that the girl's father didn't know she was visiting from Oklahoma and staying at the rental home where the alleged drowning happened.
On Sunday, an autopsy was performed on the girl, where the Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner Department found that the child's lungs and stomach did not contain water and were considered "dry," and that she had cuts within her mouth and bruising within her cheeks, which were injuries consistent with "aphysixation and smothering," the arrest documents said.
"As a result, based on the totality of the circumstances, [Gupta] was a caregiver of the 'deceased victim' -- a minor child -- who caused death to the 'deceased victim,'" the arrest documents said. "Furthermore, 'the subject' attempted to conceal the killing of the 'deceased victim' by staging an accidental drowning within the swimming pool of a rental property."
