Oklahoma doctor accused of killing young daughter and faking a drowning at Florida rental home

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Oklahoma doctor accused of killing young daughter and faking a drowning at Florida rental home

2025-07-04 04:55 Last Updated At：05:01

An Oklahoma medical doctor is accused of traveling to South Florida and staging the death of her 4-year-old daughter to make it appear the child drowned in the swimming pool at their rented vacation home in the middle of the night, detectives say.

Dr. Neha Gupta, a 36-year-old pediatrician, was booked into the Oklahoma County Jail in Oklahoma City on Tuesday. She is accused of first-degree murder in Miami-Dade County, an arrest warrant states.

Gupta “attempted to conceal the killing of the deceased victim by staging an accidental drowning within the swimming pool of a rental property,” a Miami-Dade sheriff's homicide detective wrote in an affidavit obtained by The Associated Press.

But her lawyer, Richard Cooper of Miami, said he and Gupta cooperated with authorities by telling their account of what happened and were surprised when the first-degree murder charge was announced. The doctor, he said, is a victim of a terrible tragedy.

“No one thought in a million years that she would be charged with murder,” Cooper said in an interview Thursday.

In addition to facing the murder charge in Florida, she is accused of fleeing to the Oklahoma City area where she lives to avoid prosecution in Florida, according to jail records. Gupta is jailed without bond, and Florida authorities are seeking her return to Miami to face the murder charge.

Gupta told investigators that she was sleeping with her daughter Aria at the Airbnb rental home in El Portal, north of Miami, when she heard a noise around 3:20 a.m. on June 27. She noticed a sliding-glass door in the bedroom that led to the outdoor patio was open.

Cooper said he visited the home after the child's death and found the latch to the sliding-glass door to be so easily opened that he was able to do so with his pinky finger.

“Her story made sense to me," he said. "It matched up. She voluntarily gave multiple statements with me to the police, and they were always consistent.”

Gupta said that once she awoke and went outside, she found Aria under water and unresponsive in the deep end of the pool, the affidavit states.

Gupta said she tried to save the girl, but told the detective that she doesn't know how to swim and was unable to get Aria out of the water.

Police and firefighters arrived and performed CPR on the girl, but Aria was pronounced dead at a hospital before dawn.

A doctor who performed an autopsy at the medical examiner's office did not find water in the child's lungs or stomach, and that “based on these findings she was able to rule out drowning as being the cause of death,” the detective wrote. Dr. Tuyet Tran also advised authorities that she believes the child was dead before being placed in the pool, the detective wrote.

The cause and manner of death are pending, but Tran found injuries such as bruising within the girl's cheeks. Tran's preliminary findings are that these injuries “are consistent with asphyxiation by smothering," the affidavit states.

Police have not revealed any possible motive in the case. The detective noted in the affidavit that Gupta shares custody of the child with her ex-husband, who told detectives that he and his ex-wife are involved in an ongoing custody battle over the girl.

The ex-husband also told detectives that he was unaware that Gupta and the child had traveled to South Florida. Based on surveillance video and Airbnb records, investigators determined that Gupta and her daughter were the sole occupants of the rental unit, the affidavit states.

Cooper said he has seen no real evidence that would support the charge, and he plans to arrange for an independent autopsy.

“Unfortunately what they do have is a mother who I was with all day, crying,” he said. “We were crying together, we were hugging. And now she’s in a jail cell missing her own daughter’s funeral.”

“I was in the car with her and she was on the phone with funeral homes, doing the things that we as parents pray – pray – to never have to do,” he said.

Gupta practiced medicine at Oklahoma Children's Hospital, part of the University of Oklahoma's health system, according to records from the Oklahoma Board of Medical Licensure and Supervision. The university's faculty directory showed that she has also been an assistant professor at the university's health sciences center.

The University of Oklahoma and its health system released a statement this week saying that Gupta has been “suspended from patient care, given notice of termination, and was no longer seeing patients at the health system as of May 30, 2025.”

Gupta has also been given a “notice of termination” by the university, the statement said.

The statement did not explain why Gupta had not been seeing patients as of late May, nor did it specify why the university cut ties with her.

“From what I know of Dr. Gupta, I know she's going through a rough patch in her life,” Cooper said. “Her life was crumbling a little bit — she lost her husband, her job was in a little bit of jeopardy.”

However, "to think that could ever lead to murdering your own child — it’s absurd.”

Thousands of nurses go on strike at several major New York City hospitals

NEW YORK (AP) — Thousands of nurses in three hospital systems in New York City went on strike Monday after negotiations through the weekend failed to yield breakthroughs in their contract disputes.

The strike was taking place at The Mount Sinai Hospital and two of its satellite campuses, with picket lines forming. The other affected hospitals are NewYork-Presbyterian and Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx.

About 15,000 nurses are involved in the strike, according to New York State Nurses Association.

“After months of bargaining, management refused to make meaningful progress on core issues that nurses have been fighting for: safe staffing for patients, healthcare benefits for nurses, and workplace violence protections,” the union said in a statement issued Monday. “Management at the richest hospitals in New York City are threatening to discontinue or radically cut nurses’ health benefits.”

The strike, which comes during a severe flu season, could potentially force the hospitals to transfer patients, cancel procedures or divert ambulances. It could also put a strain on city hospitals not involved in the contract dispute, as patients avoid the medical centers hit by the strike.

The hospitals involved have been hiring temporary nurses to try and fill the labor gap during the walkout, and said in a statement during negotiations that they would “do whatever is necessary to minimize disruptions.” Montefiore posted a message assuring patients that appointments would be kept.

“NYSNA’s leaders continue to double down on their $3.6 billion in reckless demands, including nearly 40% wage increases, and their troubling proposals like demanding that a nurse not be terminated if found to be compromised by drugs or alcohol while on the job," Montefiore spokesperson Joe Solmonese said Monday after the strike had started. "We remain resolute in our commitment to providing safe and seamless care, regardless of how long the strike may last.”

New York-Presbyterian accused the union of staging a strike to “create disruption,” but said in a statement that it has taken steps to ensure patients receive the care they need.

"We’re ready to keep negotiating a fair and reasonable contract that reflects our respect for our nurses and the critical role they play, and also recognizes the challenging realities of today’s healthcare environment,” the statement said.

The work stoppage is occurring at multiple hospitals simultaneously, but each medical center is negotiating with the union independently. Several other hospitals across the city and in its suburbs reached deals in recent days to avert a possible strike.

The nurses’ demands vary by hospital, but the major issues include staffing levels and workplace safety. The union says hospitals have given nurses unmanageable workloads.

Nurses also want better security measures in the workplace, citing incidents like a an incident last week, when a man with a sharp object barricaded himself in a Brooklyn hospital room and was then killed by police.

The union also wants limitations on hospitals’ use of artificial intelligence.

The nonprofit hospitals involved in the negotiations say they’ve been working to improve staffing levels, but say the union’s demands overall are too costly.

Nurses voted to authorize the strike last month.

Both New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani had expressed concern about the possibility of the strike. As the strike deadline neared, Mamdani urged both sides to keep negotiating and reach a deal that “both honors our nurses and keeps our hospitals open.”

“Our nurses kept this city alive through its hardest moments. Their value is not negotiable,” Mamdani said.

State Attorney General Letitia James voiced similar support, saying "nurses put their lives on the line every day to keep New Yorkers healthy. They should never be forced to choose between their own safety, their patients’ well-being, and a fair contract.”

The last major nursing strike in the city was only three years ago, in 2023. That work stoppage, at Mount Sinai and Montefiore, was short, lasting three days. It resulted in a deal raising pay 19% over three years at those hospitals.

It also led to promised staffing improvements, though the union and hospitals now disagree about how much progress has been made, or whether the hospitals are retreating from staffing guarantees.