The owner of a now-defunct orphanage in India where a young girl was living before being adopted by a Texas couple says the child had no eating issues despite her adoptive father’s account to police when reporting her missing.
The body of three-year-old Sherin Mathews was found in a culvert in suburban Dallas on Sunday. Police have said Wesley Mathews told them his daughter was malnourished and needed to eat at odd hours.
The orphanage owner, Babitha Kumari, told WFAA the girl had no problems eating or drinking milk when she was adopted last year.
Father in handcuffs: Wesley Mathews is escorted by police during his transfer to Dallas County jail in Dallas on Wednesday after his arrest in connection to his daughter’s death
Mathews (right in his mugshot on Monday) has been arrested for the death of his daughter, Sherin, three, whose body he dumped in a drainage tunnel on October 7. He claims her death was an accident and that she choked on her milk in front of him
Police on Monday charged Mathews with first-degree felony injury to a child and he was ordered held on $1million bond
Wesley Mathews is being held on $1million bond on a charge of felony injury to a child. He reported the girl missing on October 7, initially saying he had left her outside as punishment for failing to drink her milk and the toddler must have wandered off.
Mathew, whose wife is a nurse, suggested to police she may have been taken by coyotes, which are common in the area.
On Monday, a day after Sherin’s body was discovered in a drainage tunnel near the Mathews family’s house in Richardson, her father changed his story, telling police the three-year-old choked on some milk and died.
He admitted knowing she was dead all along but denied killing her, saying instead that he forced the girl to drink milk in their garage.
Mathews initially told police that he took Sherin outside of their $300,000 home in Richardson, Texas, (above), on October 7 at 3am. He said she vanished at 3.15am and he went back inside to do laundry before eventually calling police at 8am
Sherin’s body was found in this tunnel half-a-mile from their home on October 22
Sherin, three, was adopted from an orphanage in India last year. Her parents said she had a developmental condition and that they often fed her in the middle of the night if she woke up hungry to encourage growth
Mathews said he realized she was dead when her breathing ‘slowed’ and her pulse stopped. He then admitted removing her body from their $300,000 home.
Wesley and his wife Sini adopted Sherin from Nalanda Mother Teresa Anatha Seva Ashram in India last year.
‘The child had no problem at all when she was here, neither in drinking milk or eating,’ Babitha Kumari, the owner of the now-closed orphanage in India told WFAA.
She said Mathews and his wife seemed ‘loving,’ and before the toddler was taken to the US to join her new family in Texas, her adoptive dad would often call to check on her ask to put her on the phone so that Sherin could hear his voice.
The Mathews couple have another biological daughter, aged four, who was removed from their care after Sherin’s disappearance and is now being looked after by a foster family.
Sini, who is said to have been asleep when Sherin vanished, is not facing charges.
Mathews and his wife Sini (right) appeared in court last week where a judge ordered that their other, biological daughter, remain in the care of a foster family for another three weeks pending the investigation into Sherin’s disappearance. Sini is not facing any charges
Initially, Wesley claimed it was normal for him to feed Sherin at 3am because he and his wife were trying to help her overcome a developmental condition which stunted her growth and that as part of their treatment plan, they fed her whenever she was hungry.
On October 7, he said he took Sherin outside to stand beside a tree because she failed to drink all of her milk. When he went to retrieve her 15 minutes later, she was gone.
Rather than call the police immediately, he said he went inside to do laundry and waited for her to come back on her own.
Wesley reported the girl missing at 8am that day.
After giving his first statement, police arrested him for endangering a child by leaving her outside on her own at 3am, as he had admitted to doing.
He was booked into county jail but was released on bail shortly afterwards, only to be rearrested on Monday on the felony charge.
The couple’s four-year-old biological daughter (above with Sherin) has been placed into foster care