Body found is missing toddler

Father claims daughter choked while drinking milk

DALLAS — The father of a missing toddler whose body was found in a culvert under a road in suburban Dallas says the girl choked to death on milk in the family’s garage after earlier claiming she wandered off in the middle of the night when he sent her outside as punishment for not drinking her milk, authorities said.

Wesley Mathews reported Sherin Mathews, 3, missing Oct. 7 and searchers with cadaver dogs found her body Sunday. Richardson police said Tuesday that the Dallas County medical examiner’s office used dental records to identify the body as that of the child.

Police said the medical examiner has not determined a cause of death, and an autopsy isn’t released.

Mathews, who adopted Sherin from India in June 2016 with his wife, Sini, was arrested Monday after he voluntarily revised his police statement on what happened to the girl. His attorney, Rafael De La Garza, did not immediately return a phone call Tuesday.

Mathews initially told police that he had sent the girl to stand outside at 3 a.m. near a tree across an alley from the family’s fence because she refused to drink her milk. In his revised statement Monday, he said the girl choked on the milk and that he removed her body from the home after he believed she had died.

Richardson police spokesman Sgt. Kevin Perlich said Tuesday that the investigation is continuing, despite the revised statement.

“This by no means completes our investigation,” he said. “It is possible there would be additional arrests or modifications of the charges as the investigation proceeds.”

Police on Monday charged Mathews with first-degree felony injury to a child, punishable by up to life in prison, and he was being held on $1 million bond. He was initially charged with abandoning or endangering a child after reporting the girl missing.

Perlich previously said police believe Sini Mathews was unaware of her husband’s alleged punishment of the girl and that she was asleep at the time. She cooperated with police to identify Sherin’s body, he said.

According to an arrest affidavit filed Tuesday by Richardson police, Wesley Mathews said Monday in an interview that he had been trying to get the girl to drink her milk in the garage.

“Eventually the 3-yearold girl began to drink the milk. Wesley Mathews then physically assisted the 3-year-old girl in drinking the milk,” according to the affidavit.