Sometimes a death scene seems to tell you exactly what happened. A child is found submerged in a swimming pool, and the immediate assumption is drowning. But as a death investigator, I’ve learned that where someone is found doesn’t necessarily tell us where, or how, they died. In this episode of Pushing Up Lilies, I’m taking you through the case of four-year-old Aria Talaeire, who was found in the deep end of a swimming pool at a short-term rental in Florida while traveling with her mother, Dr. Neha Gupta. What initially appeared to be a devastating childhood drowning became something very different when investigators began looking more closely at the physical evidence. According to the arrest affidavit discussed in this episode, investigators said Aria’s lungs and stomach were considered dry, while the examination also documented cuts inside her mouth and bruising along the insides of her cheeks. Authorities alleged those injuries raised the possibility that she had been smothered and was already dead before being placed in the pool. I’ll take you behind the scenes of how I would approach a death investigation like this, including what I would photograph, what questions I would ask, how I would build the timeline, and why something as simple as a door latch, an undisturbed bed, a phone record, or the contents of a stomach can become important. And there’s something I don’t want us to lose in all of the forensic details: Aria was four years old. Before her name appeared in an arrest affidavit or became part of a murder case, she was a little girl who went to the beach, rode jet skis, and traveled with her mother. Her life deserves to remain at the center of this story. I also begin this episode with a brief update on the Lindsay Clancy case following the September 4 mistrial and what may happen next. Content Note: This episode discusses the death of a child, possible smothering/asphyxiation, drowning, and alleged homicide. EPISODE TRANSCRIPT: 00:06 Welcome to Pushing Up Lilies. I’m your host, Julie Mattson.  00:10 Pushing Up Lilies is a weekly true crime podcast with spine-tingling, unusual, and terrifyingly true stories from my perspective as a forensic death investigator and a sexual assault nurse examiner.  00:24 Do I have some stories for you? Are you ready? Hey, guys. Welcome back to another episode of Pushing Up Lilies. Guess what? The humidity in Mexico makes my hair wavy. That’s new to me.  00:40 I never knew that that happened, but I’m coming at you this week from Costa Mujeres, about 20 miles north of Cancun, and we are at the Majestic Elegance Resort. It’s beautiful here.  00:54 It’s a five-star resort that we just happened to find on American Airlines’… what is it? American Airlines Vacations. And so, we leave tomorrow, which I hate, because it’s been kinda nice.  01:06 Super warm and humid today, but this place has amazing food, and so we’ve loved our stay here. You might hear some random noises during my recording.  01:16 For some reason, it sounds like there’s a herd of elephants upstairs, so I don’t know what’s going on up there.  01:21 But wanted to remind you of a few things before I start talking about this week’s episode.  01:27 First of all, don’t forget October 10th is gonna be our second annual Murder Mystery Dinner at Studio 141 in Crump. It’s going to be so much fun. It’s gonna be a blast for everybody.  01:41 You know, there are gonna be a lot of true crime lovers there, so you’re gonna have a lot in common with the people who are attending.  01:47 Jan Bynum is gonna be our guest speaker, and her daughter was Kelly Anne Cox, the UNT student that was abducted and murdered back in 1997.  01:58 And then catered by Our Blended Table, who has delicious food. And so, it’s goanna be right next door to The Merc in Crump, and then we will have merchandise available there. Some new stuff.  02:10 I got some really new stuff that y’all are gonna absolutely love. October 24th is gonna be the Day of the Dead Festival in Downtown Denton. Again, I’m not racing this year.  02:20 I’m just gonna have a vendor table but have some super cute Day of the Dead stickers that I had made for that event. So y’all are gonna love that.  02:29 And then in the end of November, I’ll be at the Texas EMS Conference, where I will be giving advice to EMS and firefighters on how to preserve scenes when forensics is involved.  02:42 I know us death investigators talk about that all the time, how we need to educate first responders on forensics in general and how to preserve evidence, even though saving the life is definitely the most important thing.  02:57 But there are also some things to just take into account whenever you are at the hospital, in the ER, seeing a patient who has been shot or has been in an accident, what to do, what not to do type stuff, just to be helpful, just so that we can all be cohesive on our investigation, because there may or may not be an investigation following a patient being transported by EMS or being seen in the emergency room.  03:27 Just things to kinda help so we can all work together. And then I’m still trying to decide on the Crime Cruise. I haven’t really decided on that yet. I don’t know.  03:36 But I am still really looking forward to Crime Con in Florida, in Orlando, in September of 2027.  03:45 So, a lot of stuff going on, and I’m trying to get better about thinking ahead in advance, but I do wanna thank y’all.  03:53 I’ve been getting a lot of orders from my merch store and a lot of orders for the cereal box.  04:01 I love how people are ordering the Serial box for their