Asia Calabrese-Lewis and Nirvana Oliver (Fulton County Sheriff’s Office)
A 24-year-old Georgia mother has been arrested for allegedly drowning her 1-year-old daughter in a retention pond located across the street from their home.
Asia Calabrese-Lewis was taken into custody on Friday and charged with two counts of felony murder as well as one count of first-degree cruelty to a child in connection with the death of 22-month-old Nirvana Oliver, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
Officers with the Sandy Springs Police Department at about 6:39 p.m. on Thursday, May 11 responded to a call regarding a “disturbance” at 2 Concourse Parkway, according to a press release. Upon arriving at the scene, first responders say they located Calabrese-Lewis in the parking deck of 2 Concourse Parkway where she was having “some type of episode.”
The father of the young girl arrived at the parking deck a short while later and police heard him ask Calabrese-Lewis where their baby was. Calabrese-Lewis allegedly responded by indicating that the baby was “deceased in the pool,” police said.
Members of the Sandy Springs Fire and Police Departments immediately began searching all of the pools and other bodies of water in the area after a missing child alert was issued at around 7:20 p.m. Soon after the search began, authorities found Nirvana in the retention pond of a nearby office park located between Concourse Parkway and Peachtree Dunwoody Road, officials said.
Authorities pulled the child from the water and began administering life-saving measures before she was rushed to Children’s Scottish Rite Hospital. Unfortunately, Nirvana was pronounced dead shortly after she arrived at the facility, the press release states.
“[The family members] live in the area, the father showed up and found [the mother] there with us and asked where the child is,” Sgt. Matt McGinnis told reporters, according to a report from Atlanta Fox affiliate WAGA-TV. “And she responded with something along the lines of ‘She’s in the bottom of the pool.'”
Police are awaiting the results of a pending autopsy to discover the official cause of Nirvana’s death, but Sgt. McGinnis said that investigators “don’t think it’s an accident at this time.”
According to a copy of the probable cause affidavit obtained by WAGA, security cameras in the area captured Calabrese-Lewis and Nirvana walking towards the area of the retention bond, which is located just across the street from their home.
The document reportedly states that Calabrese-Lewis walked her daughter into the pond and then both mother and daughter go out of frame for about six minutes. When Calabrese-Lewis reappears in the frame she is reportedly completely naked as she “calmly” walks back in the direction of her home without Nirvana.
Calabrese-Lewis waived her first court appearance on Monday. She has not yet entered a plea.
Authorities emphasized that the investigation into Nirvana’s death remains ongoing and urged anyone with information relevant to the case to contact Det. J. Pearson at [email protected] or 770-551-6939.
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