Body of Indian girl in Texas released

Community wants proper burial for Sherin, who went missing on October 7, and was found dead in a culvert

The body of a three-yearold Indian girl, who disappeared from her foster parents’ home in Richardson, has been released by the Dallas County medical examiner’s office, although it declined to say to whom.

Sherin Mathews, who went missing on October 7, was found dead in a culvert under a road about a half-mile from her home on October 22.

Richardson community is mourning the tragic loss and want to handle her funeral. Sherin’s death has become an international point of discussion and has raised several questions about the process of adoption.

Sherin was adopted by the Indian-American couple, Wesley and Sini Mathews, from an orphanage in India last year.

Wesley, 37, the IndianAmerican father of Sherin, has been charged with firstdegree felony injury to a child due to a conflicting statement to police.

He had originally claimed that Sherin went missing after he sent her outside their home at around 3am on October 7 as punishment for not drinking her milk. Later, he said his daughter had choked while drinking milk and he had removed her body from the house as he “believed she had died”.

Police are still investigating how Sherin died and how long her body had been in the ditch.

Thousands of heart-broken community members are mourning the child.

The tree where Wesley initially said he had left Sherin for not finishing milk and the culvert where her body was later found by cadaver dogs have become memorial sites.

Baseless thought

An online petition, created by 23-year-old Siddiqi, had requested authorities to release her body and allow the people to give her a proper burial that she deserves.

The petition was signed by more than 5,000 people by Saturday.

Some people say they signed the petition to keep Sherin’s body in the US. It’s unclear how the rumour started that Sherin’s body would be sent back to her native India, but there’s no indication that’s true.

Council General of India in Houston, Anupam Ray, said: “We have not been approached by anyone. All mortal remains being taken to India require a no objection from the Consulate.”