Toddler drowned in bath while caretaker reportedly spoke on phone: police

A toddler girl who drowned in a bathtub has been remembered as ‘a sweet little angel’, while her foster mother now faces neglect charges after police claim she admitted to leaving the child alone in the water for 30 minutes.

Hailynn Volpatti, 25, was arrested after investigators discovered she allegedly left her 21-month-old foster daughter Nova Lei Bryant “unattended for more than 30 minutes while she was in an upstairs bedroom on the phone with a friend” and then lied to police about the May 21 incident, according to a probable cause statement obtained by PEOPLE.

Nova’s grandmother Carri L. Nauman wrote in a GoFundMe post that the girl died on June 26. According to the probable cause affidavit, the child died weeks after the bathtub incident, which occurred at the suspect’s home in Brazil, Ind.

Volpatti called 911 after returning to the family’s bathroom and discovering her foster daughter “floating on her back in the bathwater, with only a small part of her nose above the water,” the affidavit alleges.

An officer who responded to the scene performed CPR and was able to find a “weak pulse,” according to the affidavit. The officer then rushed the girl to the hospital.

Volpatti initially told police that she left Nova in the bathtub with the girl’s 4-year-old twin brothers — Volpatti’s biological children — for a few minutes while she went for a drink in another room, the affidavit said.

But two days later, after police requested a meeting with a friend of Volpatti’s, the foster mother came to the Brazilian police station and reportedly admitted that she had lied. She told investigators that she instead had an extended phone conversation with a friend upstairs while the three young children were left alone in the bathtub, according to the affidavit.

On the GoFundMe page, Nauman, Nova’s grandmother, wrote, “My precious little angel will not be forgotten.”

The Clay County Prosecutor’s Office declined to comment on the case when reached by PEOPLE.

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Nova’s biological mother Celena Conkright told WRTV that her daughter was born with complications that required a feeding tube and that the Indiana Department of Child Services removed the child from its custody after two months because Conkright says she has ADHD and the department claimed she was “unable to to take care of Nova” .

“They said I wasn’t learning fast enough,” the toddler’s biological mother told the newspaper.

“I’m angry, sad,” Conkright said. “I think it’s crazy.”

PEOPLE contacted Indiana DCS for comment but did not immediately receive a response Tuesday morning. A spokesperson for the Indiana DCS told WRTV that the office has “investigated” the incident and is “taking action” by revoking Volpatti’s foster license.

If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or visit www.childhelp.org. All conversations are free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.