The adopted father of Sherin Mathews was booked into the Dallas County Jail on Wednesday and was placed on a suicide watch, NBC DFW reported.
The 3-year-old girl went missing Oct. 7 in a suburb of Dallas, Texas, and was later found dead, officials said.
Wesley Mathews told police that his daughter disappeared after he punished her by sending her outside at 3 a.m. for not drinking her milk. Weeks later, her body was found in a culvert.
Mathews told police a different story on Monday and was booked into a local jail in Richardson County. He said that she died after he “physically assisted” her in drinking the milk, local media reports said, and a warrant said that he claimed she choked on the milk.
He was arrested and charged with felony injury to a child.
Why didn't #WesleyMathews wake his nurse wife as #SherinMathews choked to death? https://t.co/b86ttLnzPs via @dallasnews #richardson #texas
— Jennifer Emily (@byjenemily) October 24, 2017
See culvert on left side of photo? There's a similar one on other side of tracks. Police & FBI focusing attention there. #SherinMathews pic.twitter.com/PaQihoQEvr
— Allison Harris (@AllisonFox4News) October 22, 2017
According to the NBC affiliate, he told police that her body was moved from the family’s home in Richardson. Police didn’t say where he took the girl’s remains.
On Wednesday, as he was taken from the Richardson County jail to a Dallas County jail, while handcuffed, he put his head down and ignored reporters.
Sherin Mathews tragedy: Does India follow up on kids adopted by parents abroad? Important story by @varier_megha https://t.co/tWVHhR12ar
— Dhanya Rajendran (@dhanyarajendran) October 24, 2017
After NBC submitted a request to interview Mathews, the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department told the station that he’s under a suicide watch and can’t accept the request.
Mathews and his wife Sini attended a court hearing on whether they could get custody of their biological daughter, who had been placed in protective custody after Sherin went missing.
Neither Sini Mathews nor husband Wesley had any comment regarding their daughter Sherin’s death at a court hearing in Dallas. pic.twitter.com/xLjGfpWSel
— T.L. Langford (@tlangford) October 23, 2017
Sini Mathews has not been charged in the case.
Reports said that when Sherin went missing, Sini was sleeping.
A medical examiner on Tuesday said that the body that was found in the culvert indeed belonged to Sherin. It was located only a few minutes from the family’s home, KHOU reported.
“He was physically assisting her with that milk, apparently to the point to where she began to choke, lost consciousness, and expired,” Sgt. Kevin Perlich of Richardson Police said. “He told us he removed her from the home, and she was deceased the time he removed her from the home,” said Perlich.
From The Epoch Times
