Toddler drowns in tub while caretaker was allegedly on the phone for half an hour

A little girl drowned in a bathtub while her caretaker was allegedly talking to someone on the phone for over 30 minutes.

PEOPLE Magazine reported on Tuesday, Oct. 29 that Hailynn Volpatti was arrested for allegedly leaving the 21-month-old named Nova Lei Bryant unattended in a tub “for more than 30 minutes while she was on the phone in an upstairs bedroom talking to a friend.” 

As seen in a probable cause affidavit obtained by the media outlet, Volpatti called 911 after coming back to the scene and discovering that Bryant was already “floating in the bathwater on her back, with only a small portion of her nose above water.”

Upon arrival, responders performed CPR on Bryant and were still able to find a “faint pulse” before the victim was brought to a nearby hospital, where she was pronounced dead weeks later.

The document indicated that Volpatti initially told authorities she didn’t leave Bryant alone and made sure that she was with her 4-year-old brothers before grabbing a drink in a separate room.

Police claimed that Volpatti confessed two days later that she lied about the incident and that her phone call was extended while the three kids were left alone in the area.

Volpatti is now facing a felony neglect charge over the incident that took place in Brazil earlier this year.

Bryant’s birth mom Celena Conkright previously said that her child was born with complications that needed her to have a feeding tube. According to her, Indiana Department of Child Services decided to remove Bryant from her custody due to her ADHD diagnosis. The IDCS, at the time, said she “wasn’t capable of taking care” of Bryant.