Armed officers from the Oklahoma City police department and the United States Marshals Service approached the front door of a home in a quiet gated community. They were there to arrest an Oklahoma paediatrician accused of murdering her 4-year-old daughter and attempting to stage the death as a drowning while on vacation in South Florida.
Newly released body camera footage from the Oklahoma City Police Department shows the moments when 36-year-old Neha Gupta was arrested at her four-bedroom, three-bathroom home on July 1. Just four days before, her daughter, Aria Talathi, was discovered lifeless in a pool at their vacation rental home in El Portal at 4 a.m.
The video shows officers cutting across a manicured lawn before approaching the front door. They bang loudly, announcing themselves as “Police with a warrant, open the door!” “Do it now!” When no one responds, they force the door open.
“Neha Gupta, come to the front door now,” one officer shouts, adding that the US Marshals have a warrant for her arrest. There is no response.
As officers enter, they move cautiously, weapons drawn. A pram can be seen right inside the entryway. To the left, a pink child’s dollhouse sits against the wall, a reminder of the child who once lived there.
Officers search the home, inspecting cluttered closets and rooms littered with children’s toys. A small pink jacket hangs from a hook.
Their search leads them to a closed laundry room door. They undo a child safety lock, open the door and find Gupta standing in the dark, dressed in matching pyjamas and white flip-flops.
Officers order her to the ground. She kneels and puts her hands behind her back as they handcuff her. She is led through the garage, passing stacks of cardboard boxes and a white Nissan parked inside.
Gupta spent the next 17 days in an Oklahoma City jail before being extradited to Miami-Dade County, where she faces first-degree murder charges in her daughter’s death. She is still at Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Centre after a judge denied her bond.
911 call to El Portal home.
In the early hours of June 27, officers from the El Portal Police Department and paramedics from Miami-Dade Fire Rescue responded to a 911 call reporting that a child had been discovered unresponsive in a swimming pool at a home on 156 NW 90th Street in El Portal.
Gupta led the officers to her backyard, where her daughter Aria was discovered submerged in the deep end of the pool, according to the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office, which took over the investigation from El Portal Police.
On June 25, the doctor and her daughter arrived in South Florida and rented the house for a short period of time through Airbnb.
Gupta’s attorney, Richard Cooper, previously told the Miami Herald that MDSO did not conduct a thorough investigation prior to Gupta’s arrest.
“Dr. Gupta fully cooperated with law enforcement and gave multiple statements that never wavered in consistency,” according to Cooper. “Rather than conducting a thorough investigation, which could necessitate multiple autopsies and toxicology analyses, the MDSO chose to apply for a warrant for a grieving mother going through the unimaginable. We eagerly await the disclosure of all relevant facts.”
An autopsy revealed that the girl’s lungs contained no water.
The Miami-Dade Medical Examiner’s Office conducted a preliminary autopsy on Aria, which revealed no water in her lungs or stomach, ruling out drowning. Instead, doctors discovered bruising inside the child’s cheeks and cuts in her mouth, which were inconsistent with resuscitation attempts, according to Gupta’s warrant.
The autopsy results indicated that Aria died from asphyxiation by smothering before being placed in the pool.
Gupta told authorities that the day before Aria died, she and her daughter went to the beach and rode personal watercraft before returning to their vacation home for dinner.
She explained that after their meal, they shared a bed and went to sleep. Around 3:20 a.m., Gupta reported being awakened by a noise and realising Aria was no longer in bed. She told investigators that she opened the sliding glass door and discovered Aria submerged in the pool.
Gupta claimed she couldn’t swim but attempted to rescue her for 10 minutes before calling 911.
Gupta is scheduled to be arraigned on August 7, according to court records.
