An Oklahoma pediatrician was accused of murder after, authorities said, she staged her daughter’s accidental death at a vacation rental in suburban Miami, court records obtained Thursday show.
Dr. Neha Gupta, 36, was arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder in Oklahoma City and is awaiting extradition to Florida in the June 27 death of her daughter, the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.
The 4-year-old girl, identified in an affidavit in support of an arrest warrant as A.T., was found unresponsive in a pool at the home, but her lungs and stomach contained no water, prompting authorities to rule out drowning as the cause of death.
A lawyer for Gupta said Thursday that he was disappointed the sheriff’s office “decided to hastily arrest a grieving mother who fully cooperated with the police and who is absolutely devastated for the loss of her child.”
“We look forward to more evidence, evidence that the Miami Dade Sheriff’s office could not possibly have obtained in the 24-hour investigation that they completed,” the lawyer, Richard L. Cooper, said in an email.
According to the affidavit, Gupta traveled to Florida from Oklahoma, where she is a doctor, on June 25 and rented a home in El Portal, north of Miami.
Gupta told authorities that she arrived at the rental with her daughter between 7 and 8 p.m. June 26 after having spent the day at the beach. Gupta awoke the girl to feed her dinner at 9 p.m., and the 4-year-old remained awake until 12:30 a.m., the affidavit says.
Gupta told authorities she was awakened about 3:20 a.m. by a noise and saw that her daughter was not in the bed they were sharing, according to the affidavit.
A sliding glass door to the patio was open, Gupta told authorities, even though she said she had locked it before bed.
Gupta “stated she then observed the ‘deceased victim’ submerged underwater within the swimming pool of the residence,” the affidavit says. ‘The Subject’ stated she attempted to remove the victim from the pool; however, she was unsuccessful due to the fact that she is unable to swim.”
Gupta said she tried to help the girl for 10 minutes before she dialed 911, according to the affidavit.
First responders performed CPR, but A.T. was pronounced dead at a hospital at 4:28 a.m., the affidavit says.
During an autopsy Sunday, a pathologist with the Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner Department found that the girl’s lungs and stomach were “dry” and that cuts in her mouth and bruising in her cheeks were “not consistent” with the first responders’ lifesaving efforts, according to the affidavit.
The pathologist concluded that the girl was dead before she was put in the pool, the affidavit says.
While the cause and manner of death are pending, the pathologist’s preliminary findings indicate that the girl’s injuries are consistent with asphyxiation by smothering, the affidavit says.
The autopsy also showed that the girl’s stomach was empty, contrary to what Gupta told authorities about having fed her at 9 p.m., the affidavit says.
Gupta “attempted to conceal the killing of the ‘deceased victim’ by staging an accidental drowning within the swimming pool of a rental property,” it says.
The affidavit does not identify a possible motive.
Gupta was in a custody battle with her ex-husband when his daughter died, and he was unaware that she had left Oklahoma, according to the document.
