Audio captures a mother’s account as prosecutors pursue a murder case tied to a Florida pool.
MIAMI, FL — A newly released 911 call captures an Oklahoma pediatrician telling a dispatcher that her 4-year-old daughter was “at the bottom of the pool” at a South Florida rental home, as the mother faces a murder charge in a case authorities say was staged as an accidental drowning.
The audio, obtained and published by a local TV station on Feb. 23, 2026, adds a raw snapshot of the chaotic minutes before police and paramedics arrived at a home in the village of El Portal, just north of Miami. Investigators have said the child, Aria Talathi, did not die by drowning and that evidence points instead to smothering and an attempted cover-up. The mother, Dr. Neha Gupta, has denied wrongdoing through her attorney, who has said investigators rushed to judgment. The case remains pending in Miami-Dade County after prosecutors revised the charges more than once in 2025.
In the 911 call, Gupta tells the dispatcher she woke up after hearing a noise and found her daughter in the pool. “I tried to get her out,” she says, explaining that she does not know how to swim. When the dispatcher asks whether anyone else is there to help, Gupta answers that it is only the two of them. Later, the dispatcher asks whether the child is awake. “No,” Gupta replies, adding that the girl is at the bottom of the pool and is not moving. The dispatcher urges her to try to pull the child out of the water, suggesting she use a pool-cleaning pole or another object to move the child toward the shallow end. Gupta is heard asking when paramedics will arrive as the dispatcher repeats instructions to keep trying.
Police have said they were called to the property on Northwest 90th Street during the early morning hours of June 27, 2025. According to authorities, officers arrived and found the child unresponsive in the pool and emergency crews attempted lifesaving measures. The Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office later said the child was pronounced dead at 4:28 a.m. at a hospital. Investigators began examining the mother’s account of how the child could have left the home and ended up in the pool during the night. Authorities have said Gupta and her daughter had traveled from the Oklahoma City area and were staying at a short-term rental, with Gupta later telling investigators that the child fell into the pool after leaving the home while she slept.
But investigators said the medical findings did not match a typical drowning. A police affidavit summarized in published reports said an autopsy found no water in the child’s lungs or stomach, describing them as “dry,” and noted injuries that investigators said were consistent with asphyxiation by smothering, including cuts inside the mouth and bruising on the cheeks. Detectives said those findings supported the conclusion that the child was dead before being placed in the pool. Investigators also pointed to an inconsistency involving the child’s last meal. The affidavit said the child’s stomach was empty, which detectives said contradicted the mother’s statement that her daughter ate dinner several hours earlier. Authorities have said the timeline included beach time and jet skiing on June 26, 2025, followed by bedtime in the early hours of June 27, with the 911 call placed after Gupta said she discovered the child missing and then found her in the pool.
The case has drawn attention because it centers on a physician and because the charging history has shifted as prosecutors refined the allegations. The sheriff’s office announced in July 2025 that it had obtained an arrest warrant for Gupta and that she was taken into custody in Oklahoma with the assistance of local police and the U.S. Marshals Service. Early statements from authorities described a first-degree murder charge. Court records later showed the charge was reduced and then changed again as the case moved through the state court system. By mid-August 2025, prosecutors had filed a second-degree murder charge, and a judge ordered Gupta held without bond after a not guilty plea was entered, according to local reporting. In a statement reported at the time, defense attorney Richard L. Cooper criticized the state’s changes and said the defense believes the death was an accident.
Even with the 911 audio now public, key questions that will likely be contested at future hearings remain unresolved in court filings available to the public. Prosecutors will need to prove not only how the child died but also why, and defense lawyers are expected to challenge the medical conclusions, the investigative steps, and the interpretation of any physical evidence. Investigators have said the scene was staged, a claim that typically rests on a combination of forensic pathology, timing, witness statements, and the physical layout of a location, including pool access points and door locks. Published reports have also described a custody dispute between the child’s parents, with the father saying he did not know the child had been taken out of Oklahoma, a detail that detectives included in their broader timeline of the trip.
For residents in El Portal, the case has been an unsettling reminder of how quickly an emergency call can turn into a criminal investigation. The 911 audio, with its repeated questions, brief answers, and urgent instructions, captures a dispatcher trying to guide a caller through a rescue that investigators later said could not have unfolded as described. The call includes long stretches where the dispatcher presses for simple facts, such as whether the child is awake and whether the caller can physically reach her in the water. In those moments, the details that matter in a medical emergency also become details investigators weigh later: how long a victim may have been submerged, whether rescue attempts were possible, and whether the account changes as the caller reacts under stress.
The murder case against Gupta remains active in Miami-Dade County, with the child’s death still listed by authorities as a homicide investigation and prosecutors pursuing a second-degree murder charge in court records cited in local reporting. The release of the 911 call adds another piece of evidence to a file that is expected to be argued through motions and hearings before any trial date is set or confirmed in open court.
Author note: Last updated February 24, 2026.