How Could You? Hall of Shame-India Adoptee Sherin Mathews case-Child death UPDATED
This will be an archive of heinous actions by those involved in child welfare, foster care and adoption. We forewarn you that these are deeply disturbing stories that may involve sex abuse, murder, kidnapping and other horrendous actions.
From Richardson, Texas, “Sherin Mathews, [an adopted child from India] was last seen at 3 a.m. Saturday by her father, Wesley Mathews, who told investigators that he told the child to stand outside after not drinking her milk, police said.”
“An attorney representing the mother of a missing 3-year-old girl in Richardson said Wednesday that the woman is “distraught” over the disappearance of her daughter.
Attorney Kent Starr met with Sini Mathews at the family’s home and then briefly addressed reporters outside.
Starr said Mathews has spoken with Richardson police and is cooperating with police. He said all she wants is for her daughter back and is “very hopeful that her daughter will be returned.”
The father reported the child missing about five hours later, police said.
Wesley Mathews was arrested Saturday on a child endangerment charge, and he was released Sunday evening on bond.
Police have said the girl’s mother was asleep and is not facing charges.
Speaking as to why Sini Mathews has hired an attorney, Starr said everybody has a right to legal council and the fact the Wesley Mathews may be accused of a crime is not indicative that his wife is involved.
“There has been no accusations of wrongdoing against Ms. Mathews,” Starr said.
An FBI Evidence Response team worked through the night Tuesday to process the family’s Richardson home.
The search for the adopted girl has also expanded beyond the immediate neighborhood.
The FBI Evidence Response team arrived at about 7 p.m., shortly after Richardson police knocked on the door with a search warrant. The team could be seen combing for clues in the front and back yards.
Richardson police would not elaborate on what prompted the search, only saying it is where the “natural progression of the investigation” led them.
Police confirmed the girl is still considered missing and said no arrests have been made in her disappearance.
An Amber Alert was discontinued Monday afternoon because there had been no new information in the case, but authorities said the alert could be re-activated in the future.
A criminal defense attorney spent about an hour at the home late Tuesday afternoon, but left without answering questions from the media.
Meanwhile, Richardson police provided Tuesday a more detailed timeline of the disappearance of the girl and the time that elapsed before she was reported missing by her father, 37-year-old Wesley Mathews.
According to police, the girl’s father told detectives he directed the girl to stand next to a tree behind the fence at their home after she wouldn’t drink her milk at about 3 a.m. Saturday. The tree is across an alley and about 100 feet away from the home.
A police affidavit said Mathews returned to get his daughter about 15 minutes later, but he discovered that she was gone. He set out to try to find her, but was unable to.
Mathews then went inside his home, hoping she would return on her own, according to police Sgt. Kevin Perlich. Mathews then did a load of laundry and wanted to wait for daylight to search for her again.
The father didn’t notify police that his daughter was missing for about five hours, Perlich said, adding that the delay in reporting the matter “is certainly concerning to us.”
“That does not seem like a normal response that one would do if you have a missing child,” Perlich said.
The girl’s father was arrested Saturday on a charge of abandoning or endangering a child. He was released from jail Sunday night on a $250,000 bond.
Police said the girl’s mother was reportedly asleep during the entire incident. She does not face charges at this time.
Officials with Texas Child Protective Services removed the toddler’s 4-year-old sister from the family Monday and placed her in protective custody as police continue to search for the missing child.
CPS would only say they have had “contact” with the Mathews family before, but “details are confidential.”
Police said Wesley Mathews told detectives he knew coyotes were seen in the area where he left his daughter, but investigators say there’s no indication one may have dragged the girl away.
The search for the girl has expanded beyond the neighborhood and include making contact with sex offenders in the area and businesses that could potentially have useful surveillance video.
“We don’t have any other indication or evidence that she was forcibly abducted from that area,” Perlich said.
Sherin Mathews is described as 3 feet tall and 22 pounds with black hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing a pink top, black pajama bottoms and pink flip-flops.
Police said the toddler has “developmental issues and has limited verbal communication skills.” The Mathews family adopted the girl two years ago at an orphanage in India.
Sherin was malnourished when the couple took her in, and Mathews told investigators it wasn’t unusual for the girl to wake up late at night to eat so that her weight would increase, Perlich said.
Investigators have seized three vehicles, cellphones and laptops from the family in an effort to find out what
became of Sherin, Perlich said. Footage from surveillance cameras in the area also is being reviewed.
“I don’t know what happened,” said Philip Mathew, Sherin Mathews’s great-uncle.
Mathew and others arrived at the family’s home on Monday evening, but no one answered the door.
Mathew insists the girl’s parents are good people.
“They’re nice people. The parents are believers in Christ,” he said.
Meanwhile, members of Emmanuel Bible Chapel in Irving, where Sherin and her parents are members, printed fliers with the girl’s description and posted them in and around the Richland Meadows neighborhood over the weekend. Joanna Cherian walked around to any post she could find and taped fliers.
“I can’t believe I have to do this right now,” she said in disbelief. “I never thought this day would come that the cutest baby in our church has gone missing.”
Church elder Jose Cherian was asked about the allegations surrounding the girl’s father.
“I can’t say anything about that,” he responded.
Cherian did speak about the girl’s mother, who police say is not facing any charges at this time.
“She’s very much worried and depressed,” he said. “If anyone have in possession baby Sherin, please bring back and report to police, to Richardson police. Those who, any of you who brings the baby God will bless you. God will reward you,” he said.
Anyone with information about Sherin Mathews or her location was asked to contact the Richardson Police Department at 972-744-4800.”
Attorney Says Mother of Missing Richardson Girl ‘Distraught’
[NBC 10/10/17 by Maria Guerrero]
REFORM Puzzle Piece
Update:“Authorities in Richardson, Texas, said Sunday they believe they have found the body of Sherin Mathews, the adopted 3-year-old girl who disappeared in the early hours of Oct. 7.
The Richardson Police Department said investigators discovered a body around 11 a.m. Sunday in a culvert beneath a road and believe it to be Mathews; however, police won’t identify the body until there is a positive identification by proper officials.
The location where the body was found is close to the Mathews’ home, according to Dallas News.
Mathews, who has a developmental disability, vanished two weeks ago after her father, Wesley Mathews, left her outside at 3 a.m. in an alleyway — allegedly frequented by coyotes — because she didn’t drink her milk.
Wesley, 37, said when he checked on her 15 minutes later, she was gone. He didn’t call police until five hours had passed.
Sherin’s father reportedly did laundry while Sherin was missing, while Sherin’s mother, Sini, said she was asleep during the ordeal.
Investigators found that on the morning Sherin went missing, someone had driven the family’s SUV away from their home in Richardson and didn’t return until an hour later. It was after the SUV returned that Wesley reported Sherin missing.
As they continued to investigate the 3-year-old’s disappearance, law enforcement had searched the Mathews’ home and took a number of items, including a vacuum cleaner, trash bags, hair fibers, cell phones and laptops.
Attorney Bree West, a former Dallas County assistant district attorney who’s not involved in the case, said that while most of the items collected at the Mathews home were pretty standard, some confiscated items — a blue string, dark hair-like fibers, vacuum contents, two yellow gloves, dish scrubber inside two grocery bags and the washer and dryer — had stood out to her.
Police had also taken DNA swabs, receipts, grass and other debris from three vehicles belonging to the Mathews family.
Wesley was charged with child endangerment but was reportedly released from jail on bond.
The Mathews had adopted Sherin in June 2016 after she was abandoned in her native country of India, the Dallas News reported.”
Body of Sherin Mathews, 3-year-old Texas girl missing for weeks, believed found, police say
[MSN 10/22/17 by Fox News]
Update 2: Holt was the placing agency.
“The father of a 3-year-old Texas girl, who had initially declared his daughter missing, has admitted to forcing milk down his daughter’s throat until she started choking and later died, police said Tuesday.
Wesley Mathews came clean about what he said really happened to his daughter Sherin on the morning of Oct. 7, according to a Richardson police report. The alleged admission on Monday came days after authorities said they believe they found her body.
The father first told police Sherin vanished about 3 a.m. after he instructed her to go stand by a tree outside as punishment for not drinking her milk. He changed his story Monday to say he was frustrated after the toddler refused to drink her milk in the garage.
Mathews told police his daughter “wouldn’t listen to him,” according to a police report. After she began to drink the milk on her own, Mathews “physically assisted” her until she “began to choke,” authorities said.
“She was coughing and her breathing slowed,” the police report said. “Eventually, Wesley Mathews no longer felt a pulse on the child and believed she had died.”
Mathews then allegedly said he removed his daughter’s body from the home, according to police.
Authorities on Tuesday confirmed the body they found Sunday in a culvert about half a mile from Sherin’s home was Sherin’s. Mathews turned himself into police Monday and gave an “alternate statement of events” about what happened to his daughter, police said. Mathews was then charged with injury to a child, a first-degree felon and was being held in jail with a $1 million bond Monday. Mathews was initially arrested for abandoning or endangering a child, but he had posted bond.”
Father Admits to Force Feeding 3-Year-Old Milk Until She Choked and Died: Police
[Time 10/24/17 by Melissa Chan]
“ Sherin Mathews, the three-year- old Indian girl whose adoptive father claimed that she choked while drinking milk, was “adjusting well” at her new home in the US but feeding her was becoming a challenge, according to reports submitted to the nodal adoption agency in India.
The authorised foreign adoption agency which was overseeing her case in the US, Holt International, submitted four follow-up reports to the Child Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) in India since her adoption on July 8, 2016.
These reports describe her progress and repeatedly mention she was “adjusting well” in her new home and appeared to be “secure and comfortable” in her the surroundings. The reports also describe her as a child with “pleasant disposition”, someone who “was more stoic when we first met but her personality is starting to develop and she is more animated now”.
One of the reports quotes her mother as saying that the child was “perfect for the family”.
However, these assessments also note that she displayed “eating concerns”.
Sherin had gone missing on October 7 and the police in the Texan city of Richardson had earlier this week confirmed her death after over a fortnight of searches.
Her father Wesley Mathews, 37, was re-arrested on Monday and charged with first-degree felony injury to a child due to a conflicting statements to police.
He was earlier arrested for suspected child endangerment for the treatment of his daughter. He was released on bond. The social worker who visited Sherin Mathews’ family for follow-ups records that “eating has become more and more challenging for the family”. “She likes to eat food outside but not at home”.
The fourth, and the last report before Sherin’s death, notes, “We discussed several different strategies that may be helpful” and that “additional mealtime strategies are needed to break this cycle and avoid more serious long term eating concerns”.
The social worker also recommended “webinars and other resource for feeding issues in adopted children that may be helpful in developing different strategies for Saraswati’s (as she was known before her adoption) feeding concerns”. According to CARA CEO Lt Col Deepak Kumar, “The child was undernourished right from the time she was adopted. She weighed less for a girl her age. There were concerns about her eating habits and her parents wanted to look into that.” Her father also told the police the girl was malnourished when she was adopted and needed to eat whenever she was awake to help her gain weight. Sherin was about three-feet tall and weighed just 22 pounds (10 kgs).
The girl was born on July 14, 2014 and was surrendered by a parent in Gaya, Bihar. She was sent to an orphanage, Nalanda Mother Teresa Anaath Seva Ashram, which is now shut, the CARA CEO added.
He also said that due procedures of law were followed during the adoption of the child and the adoption agency in the US the case submitted timely and detailed reports. “Apart from Sherin’s eating habits, there were no concerns. The post-adoption follow up was carried out properly,” he told PTI.
There are certain commitments which a receiving country and a sending country have to give as per the Hague Convention and in this case the US has been fulfilling those requirements, he added.
“There can be aberrations but that doesn’t mean there is anything faulty in the system.”
He said the reports submitted to the CARA were detailed and spread over 5-6 pages, each of them carrying 4-5 photos of the child.
The four reports submitted recorded the girl’s one-month, three-month, half-yearly and annual progress after she was placed with the adoptive family in the US.
These were submitted to CARA on September 17, 2016, October 21, 2016 and then January 11 and July 13 this year. Each of these reports were notarised by the state of Texas. As per CARA’s adoption regulations, the country receiving the child has to submit four reports in the first year after the adoption and two reports in the second year.
Mr Kumar told PTI that the authorised foreign adoption agency had the recognition of the nodal body for adoption there — the US Central Authority for Hague Adoption.
The agency was also accredited under the Hague Convention and was vetted by the Indian Embassy in the US.
The submissions also describe how Sherin went on holidays with her extended family in Houston and spent some time in Dallas. The photos in the fourth report also show her cutting a cake at a party.
Her adoptive parents are overseas citizens of India. The nationality by birth of the father, Wesley Mathews, is Qatari and that of the mother, Sini Mathews, is UAE. They are both US citizens.”
‘Sherin Mathews Was Adjusting, But Had Eating Issues’, India Was Told
[NDTV 10/17/17 by PTI]
“The death in Texas of a three-year-old girl adopted from India a year ago has prompted renewed calls for an end to international adoptions, which campaigners say put vulnerable children at risk of abuse.
The girl’s adoptive father, Wesley Mathews, was charged on Monday with injury to a child, a first-degree felony that carries a maximum punishment of 99 years in prison, Texas police said.
The body of Sherin, who was born in India, was found in a culvert under a road. Mathews has admitted to moving her body from the family’s home in Richardson, Texas.
The toddler’s death has attracted wide coverage in India, where campaigners called for an immediate end to intercountry adoptions, which they say fail to protect children.
“Intercountry adoptions have become a lucrative market where children are effectively sold,” said activist Sujata Mody.
“It is a fallacy that these children are better off abroad; we should stop intercountry adoptions immediately,” said Mody, who has studied adoption agencies in India.
India’s top court last year ordered the government to draw up strict guidelines for screening and tracking adoptions after a charity alleged the existence of rackets involving both Indian and foreign adoption agencies.
In the 1970s, when there was no law in India to regulate adoptions, thousands of children were given away in intercountry adoptions.
The government began to regulate adoptions after a Supreme Court judgment in 1984, and became a signatory to the Hague convention on intercountry adoption in 2003.
It has since followed the guidelines “diligently” to prevent any abuse, according to the head of the government’s Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA).
“This was an aberration; the conditions now are very stringent, particularly for intercountry adoptions,” said Deepak Kumar, CARA’s chief executive.
Sherin was a special-needs child, and the credentials of the adoptive parents were thoroughly checked by the U.S. adoption agency, Kumar said.
The agency carried out follow-up visits after she arrived in the United States in 2016 as mandated, and sent detailed reports, he said.
“There was nothing that was out of the ordinary or a cause for alarm,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
There were about 4,000 adoptions in India in the year to March 2017; nearly 600 were intercountry adoptions, data showed.
India has no way of ensuring the safety of a child in a foreign country, said Arun Dohle, director of advocacy group Against Child Trafficking.
“It is much better to help children where they are, and end intercountry adoption,” said Dohle, who was adopted from India as a child by a German family.
“The death of this child is proof the system does not work.””
Death of toddler adopted from India prompts calls to end intercountry adoptions
[Reuters 10/26/17 by Rina Chandran]
Update 3:“An orphanage in India is demanding answers after the death of a three-year-old girl who had been adopted by a Texas couple.
The adoptive father of Sherin Mathews said she died by choking on her milk after he “physically assisted” her drinking it late at night.
Her body was found two weeks after she was reported missing by Wesley Mathews who initially said he had made her stand outside as punishment for not drinking her milk, before changing his story.
The Indian orphanage where she lived before the adoption has said they want answers as to why the “happy and cheerful” child died, as reported by the Washington Post.
“We loved her laughter,” Babita Kumari, who managed the Mother Teresa Orphanage and Children’s Home in the city of Nalanda in eastern India’s Bihar state.
Sherin had lived at the orphanage since she was an infant and at the time was named Saraswati, after the Hindu goddess of wisdom.
“She was a smart child,” Ms Kumari said.
She was then puzzled to hear what happened to the toddler and how Mathews, who adopted her last year, was jailed.
Mathews told police Sherin was drinking milk in the middle of the night because she needed to have meals at odd hours as part of a special diet because she was malnourished.
“Look at the photos of the child. Does she look malnourished?” Ms Kumari asked.
“I have so many questions about what happened to her,” she added.
Mathews had reported his daughter missing on 7 October after he said he sent her alone into an alley near their home in Richardson, Texas, as punishment.
He reported her missing several hours after the initial disappearance raising questions.
Then more than two weeks later, after police found a body, Mathews “voluntarily arrived at the Richardson Police Station with his attorney and asked to speak to detectives”.
He told police that he had been “trying to get the three-year-old girl to drink her milk in the garage” but she wouldn’t listen to him, according to court documents,
He said he “physically assisted” Sherin in drinking her milk and that the girl choked on the drink.
“She was coughing and her breathing slowed. Eventually, Wesley Mathews no longer felt a pulse on the child and believed she had died,” the affidavit said. Mathews then admitted to removing her body from the home.
Dental records were used to identify the body as Sherin after officers and search dogs found the body in a culvert less than a mile from the family’s home.
A cause of death is yet to be confirmed.
Mathews told police three-year-old had developmental disabilities and had to eat every time she was awake to help her gain weight.
But the child was said to be eating solid food and drinking milk from a cup when she left the orphanage and Ms Kumari told the Associated Press that she squinted in one eye but was otherwise fine when adopted by Wesley and Sini Mathews in June 2016.
“Why did they have to make her eat or drink anything at that hour? Why was he forcing her?” Ms Kumari asked.
“If someone is forcing a drink into the mouth of someone who is crying and sobbing, then even an adult can choke.”
As reported by the Post, Wesley Mathews’s attorney, Rafael De La Garza, did not respond to requests for comment.
The attorney representing the girl’s mother, Sini Mathews, however, Mitch Nolte, said in a statement this week that the mother was not involved in Sherin’s death or the removal of her body and wants privacy to mourn her child.
Indian foreign minister Sushma Swaraj said on Twitter that passports for children adopted from India will now be issued only with the ministry’s approval.
She also asked the Consulate General of India in Houston to investigate the child’s death.”
[Independent 10/29/17 by Natasha Salmon]
Update 4:“The father of a three-year-old girl whose body was found in a drain near their suburban Dallas home about a year after she was adopted from an Indian orphanage was indicted Friday on capital murder.
Wesley Mathews, 37, was also charged in Dallas County with abandoning a child and tampering with evidence.
Prosecutors said the capital murder charge, which could carry the death penalty, was filed after an autopsy determined his daughter died from ‘homicidal violence.’
The child, Sherin Mathews, disappeared in early October, sparking a broad search involving numerous law enforcement agencies before her body was found later that month.
District Attorney Faith Johnson said evidence in the case was still unfolding Friday, but that there was no indication anyone else was involved in the death.
Mathews had already been charged with felony injury to a child.
Mathews initially told police that his daughter disappeared after he punished her by sending her out in the night to stand by a tree near their home.
He later told investigators the girl had developmental disabilities and was malnourished.
He described a special diet regimen in which she had to eat whenever she was awake in order to gain weight.
Mathews said he had been trying to force the girl to drink milk in the garage of their home, according to an arrest affidavit filed by Richardson police.
Mathews told police that Sherin choked and coughed and eventually he felt she had no pulse and believed the child had died.
Investigators wrote that he ‘then admitted to removing the body from the home.’
The indictment released Friday alleges Mathews caused his daughter’s death on Oct. 7 using a deadly weapon that ‘is unknown to the grand jury.’
Mathews was being held at the Dallas County jail on a $1million bond.
His wife, 35-year-old Sini Mathews, also was being held on a charge of abandoning a child.
An attorney for Wesley Mathews, Rafael de la Garza, did not immediately return a call for comment Firday.
An attorney for Sini Mathews has previously said she played no role in Sherin’s death.
[Daily Mail 1/12/18 by AP]
Update 5:“The Indian-American adoptive parents of Sherin Mathews, the girl found dead in a culvert in Dallas, have forfeited their parental rights to their 4-year- old biological child, who now has to live with family members with both her parents in jail ahead of their sentencing.
Wesley and Sini Mathews signed relinquishment paperwork for their biological child on Friday during their scheduled final Child Protective Service (CPS) hearing, according to US media reports. CPS officials had removed her from the Mathews’ Richardson home October 9, two days after her sister Sherin was reported missing. Sherin’s decomposed body was found two weeks later in a culvert close to her home. An autopsy concluded Sherin died of homicidal violence, but how she died could not be determined by the Dallas Medical Examiner’s Office due to the decomposition of the body. Wesley, 37, has been charged with capital murder in Sherin’s death. Sini, 35, was arrested on a charge of child abandonment or endangerment based on her husband’s admission to investigators that they went out to dinner and left Sherin alone the night before she died. The Dallas County capital murder indictment against the father says he killed Sherin “by a manner and means unknown to the grand jury,” court records show. If convicted, Mathews could face the death penalty, should prosecutors choose to pursue it, or an automatic sentence of life without parole. Wesley was arrested in October on a felony injury to a child charge after the girl’s body was found.
Sherin’s sister to live with family of foster parents
[Orissa Post 1/28/18 by PTI]
Update 6:“Following the death of an adopted Indian toddler, Sherin Mathews, in the USA, the nodal adoption agency in India has decided to make mental well-being of prospective parents an important criterion to determine their eligibility to adopt.
The Central Adoption Resource Authority (CARA) has urged all its global partners to undertake a psychological evaluation, to gauge the parents’ stress and frustration tolerance, by a licensed practitioner.
Three-year-old Sherin was adopted from an orphanage in Bihar in 2016 by Indian-American couple Wesley Mathews and Sini Mathews. In a police complaint, Wesley said that Sherin went missing on October 7, after he made her stand outside their suburban Dallas home at 3 am when she refused to drink milk.
When the child’s body was discovered from a culvert on October 22, he said Sherin died from choking when he ‘helped’ her drink milk. A doctor testified in court that the child’s body had broken bones and injuries in various stages of healing.
Wesley now faces lifetime in jail.
CARA asked Authorised Foreign Adoption Agencies (AFAAs) and Central Authorities (CAs) — both playing key roles in foreign adoptions — to assess the psychological health of prospective parents when they meet them to prepare their Home Study Reports (HSRs).
“We would request that for ensuring the best interest of the child being placed in adoption, all HSRs being prepared for prospective adoptive parents should incorporate assessment related to psychological profiling, details pertaining to non-family stakeholders and any other relevant feedback on these aspects in order to have better suitability checks of the prospective adoptive parents (PAPs),” the circular signed by Lt Col Deepak Kumar, CEO, CARA said.
A social worker meets and collects information about the social, economic and health status of prospective parents as part of preparing the HSR.
“A psychological evaluation will include a detailed interview by a psychologist for 30-45 minutes. The interview should be focused on PAPs’ motivation for adoption, their temperament, stress tolerance, frustration tolerance, emotional stability, decision-making and future plans,” the circular said.
The Ministry of External Affairs has also made its passport norms more stringent for adopted children. Parents who apply for a passport for an adopted child will have to procure a “conformity certificate” from the CARA”
Post Sherin Mathews episode, parents’ mental health to be criterion for adoption
[New Indian Express 12/25/17]
“Wesley Mathews, accused of killing his adopted three-year-old daughter Sherin, and his wife Sini, who is charged with felony child endangerment for abandoning the child, did not appear in court March 22, as previously scheduled.
The Indian American couple, residents of Richardson, Texas, each has their own attorney. Both attorneys appeared in court March 20 to reset a date for the hearing. Sini Mathews – who is being held in Dallas County Jail on a $250,000 bond – will appear in court April 19; she faces two to 20 years in prison.
Wesley Mathews, who is also being held at Dallas County Jail on bond of $2.2 million, is also scheduled to appear that morning. Wesley Mathews faces the death penalty, tampering with evidence, and felony child endangerment.
Dallas County court records indicate that both cases have been transferred out of the county to another jurisdiction, but no further information was provided.
Sherin Mathews, adopted by the Mathews 16 months before her death from an orphanage in Nalanda, Bihar, was found dead in a culvert about a half mile from her home. She had been missing for about three weeks. Wesley Mathews initially told police he had put his daughter outside their home at 3 a.m. in the morning as a punishment for not drinking her milk. He later recanted, after Sherin’s body was found, telling police he “assisted” his daughter with drinking her milk, watched her choke to death, and then disposed of her body.
A grand jury indictment revealed that Mathews used a deadly weapon to kill his daughter. Sherin’s autopsy report is unlikely to be released before the trial, according to local media reports.
On the night before Sherin’s death, the couple took their biological child out to dinner, leaving the little toddler at home alone in the kitchen for at least 90 minutes. Texas currently has no laws against leaving a child at home alone.
However, a group of local residents have started a movement for new legislation which would make it a felony to leave a child under five at home or elsewhere unsupervised. The proposed legislation – known as Sherin’s Law – would also make it a felony not to report a child missing for more than an hour.
Wesley Mathews waited at least four hours before reporting his daughter missing, and did a load of laundry in the meantime. Sini Mathews claims she slept through the event.
The couple has lost custody of their biological daughter, who is believed to be living with Sini’s relatives, who may eventually have the ability to adopt her.”
Justice Delayed, Again: Wesley and Sini Mathews’ Court Appearance Continued to Next Month
[India West 3/29/18 by SUNITA SOHRABJI]
According to to Dallas County Court Records,Wesley should be sentenced on 5/17/18.
Update 7:“In a new twist in the Sherin Mathews’ case, US child protection authorities say they have found “insufficient evidence” if the deceased Indian toddler was physically abused by her adoptive mother and blamed “an unknown perpetrator” for her injuries, prior to her adoption.
Ms Sherin, 3, was found dead in mysterious circumstances in a culvert in Richardson, in suburban Dallas, Texas, on October 22, two weeks after her Indian-American foster parents reported her missing.
Her adoptive father, Wesley Mathews originally told police he had left Ms Sherin outside the home at 3 am to punish her for not drinking her milk. Then he changed his statement and said Ms Sherin had choked on her milk while he tried to feed her in the garage.
He also admitted the family had gone out to dinner that night and left Ms Sherin home alone.
An autopsy report released in January this year revealed that Ms Sherin died of “homicidal violence.”
The couple from Kerala had adopted Ms Sherin from an orphanage in Bihar in 2016.
While Mr Wesley was indicted on charges of capital murder and tampering with evidence, his wife, Ms Sini was indicted on a charge of abandoning a child.
A Child Protective Services (CPS) report released on Tuesday detailed the agency’s investigation into allegation that Sherin’s adoptive parents abused her months before she died, WFAA, an ABC-affiliated television station reported.
The report detailed a CPS investigation from March 2017.
The CPS said it found “insufficient evidence to determine if the deceased child was physically abused by her mother.”
“An unknown perpetrator was confirmed for the physical abuse…which may have happened prior to her adoption,” the report said.
“The allegation of physical neglect of the deceased child by her parents was not confirmed,” the report said.
Dr Suzanne Dakil, a pediatrician, testified during a custody hearing for Ms Sherin’s sister had said that she was the one who called the CPS in March last year with concerns that Ms Sherin was being abused by her parents.
“I tried, actually, very hard to find another good explanation, and I didn’t have one,” the doctor said in court, noting that she concluded Ms Sherin’s injuries had occurred after her time in India.
Ms Dakil’s clinic in Dallas had been treating Ms Sherin for her weight problems, the Dallas Morning News reported.
Ms Sherin was been hospitalised in February 2017 after her adoptive mother “noticed swelling around [Sherin’s] right shoulder,” the report said.
Ms Sini reported that Ms Sherin had fallen on a slide at the park, the report said. Doctors diagnosed Sherin with a skin infection and fractures on her shoulders, and X-rays revealed a previous injury, a fracture of her left leg, the report said.
“There were concerns that the child’s injuries were not consistent with the explanation given and that the child had been physically abused,” the report said.
The CPS interviewed Sherin’s parents, who “denied harming the child,” the report said.
Ms Sini said she had taken Ms Sherin to a park, where she fell and her mother tried to grab her arm to break the fall.
Mr Wesley told investigators that Ms Sherin slipped and fell while on monkey bars at the park, the report said.
When asked about Ms Sherin’s previous arm fracture, Ms Sini told CPS officials that Ms Sherin fell while jumping on the couch with her sibling, the report said.
The CPS contacted medical officials, who “stated there were no concerns about the previous injury because the story was consistent with the child falling off the couch.”
The medical officials said the fractures in Ms Sherin’s shoulder injury were “questionable,” the report said.
The report said “although there were no concerns regarding the child’s previous injuries, the new injuries were not consistent with the explanation given.”
The issue of Ms Sherin’s weight was also raised in the investigation.
Both parents said Ms Sherin had health problems when they adopted her from India, including being underweight.
Doctors who had treated Ms Sherin “denied having concerns about abuse and neglect while the child was with her adoptive parents” and that Ms Sherin “was in better health and at a better weight following her adoption,” the report said.
Law enforcement authorities investigated the report but did not file charges.“
“Insufficient Evidence” To Suggest Sherin’s Adoptive Parents Abused Her: Report
[NDTV 5/18/18 by PTI]
Update 8:“Dallas County Judge has lowered bond for the Richardson man jailed on capital murder and other charges for allegedly killing his adopted daughter last year.
38-year old Wesley Mathews has been jailed on 1-million dollars bond on murder and injury to a child charges — it was reduced to 500-thousand dollars. And, tampering with evidence bond was reduced to 100-thousand from 250-thousand.
He’s accused in the October death of his 3-year old adopted daughter
Sherin Mathews whose body was found in a culvert weeks after he reported her missing. Bond was lowered to give him a chance to be released while he awaits trial.[What? 
]
Mathews’ wife Sini is jailed on a charge of child abandonment. Both lost their parental rights to their biological daughter amid fallout from the murder case.”
Bond Reduced For Richardson Man Accused in Death of Adopted Daughter
[WBAP 8/2/18]
Update 9:“Sini Mathews, the adoptive mother of three-year-old Indian girl Sherin Mathews who was found dead in a ditch in Texas in 2017, has been released from jail after the child endangerment charges filed against her were dismissed due to insufficient evidence.
The Dallas County District Attorney’s office said in a news release on Friday that prosecutors could not make a case against Sini Mathews – but left open the possibility of refilling the charge, reported WFAA, an ABC-affiliated television station.”
Indian woman accused in adopted child’s death walks free
[Business Standard 3/2/19 by IAN]
Update 10:“Testimony is set to begin Monday in the capital murder trial of Wesley Mathews. The Richardson man is accused in the 2017 murder of his three-year-old daughter, Sherin Mathews. If convicted, he faces life in prison without parole.
The child was reported missing by her father on October 7, 2017 – setting off a massive search for the little girl. Her body was discovered two weeks later in a culvert, near the family’s home in Richardson.
Mathews initially told police Sherin went missing after he told her to stand by a tree behind the family’s home as punishment. Police say he later told investigators Sherin choked while drinking milk.
“We will continue to fight for justice for her and remember her forever,” said Shanna Poteet who runs a Facebook group called “Love & Justice for Sherin ‘Saraswati’ Mathews.”
“In many ways, people feel, we feel like we are her family,” Poteet said.
The group holds regular meet-ups and vigils for the girl.
“There was a huge outpouring, not just from Richardson, but nationwide and worldwide. A lot of people from India have really followed this story,” said Poteet.
The Mathews family adopted Sherin from India, where she was abandoned as a baby.
During the trial, prosecutors plan to present evidence pointing to broken bones and poor treatment of Sherin by Mathews before she went missing.
In a pretrial hearing earlier this month, Dallas County Assistant District Attorney Jason Fine said Sherin suffered five broken bones in a five month period, most of which were not immediately tended to and were not discovered until days or weeks later by doctors.
The state said on Feb. 1, 2017 Wesley Mathews acting alone, or with his wife, “caused injury to Sherin Mathews resulting in fractures to the bilateral humerus, femur and tibia.”
The Mathews, the state contends, did not disclose the injuries for at least one week. Furthermore, the history provided to doctors was not consistent with how the injuries happened, the state said.
Prosecutors will also be allowed to tell jurors that on Feb. 24, 2017, Wesley Mathews failed to keep a scheduled appointment with the Failure to Thrive Clinic at Children’s Hospital for Sherin.
Both parents, the state contends, failed to provide adequate nutrition to Sherin from September 2016 until the time of her death in October 2017.
The state said a significant number of messages and content were deleted from Wesley Mathews’ cell phone, which was seized by police on Oct. 7, 2017. All communications between Wesley and Sini were deleted on the cell phone, the state said.
A file named “Sherin log” was deleted off of the Mathews’ computer on Oct. 9, 2017, two days after Wesley Mathews reported Sherin missing.
All internet history between Oct. 6 and Oct. 7, 2017, was deleted off of the Mathews computer, the state contends.
Approximately 19 physical therapy appointments were cancelled by the Mathews, related to therapy for Sherin, between September 2016 and May 2017, the state said.
In March,prosecutors dropped a charge of child abandonment against Sherin’s mother, Sini Mathews. ”
Murder Trial Begins Monday for Dad Accused of Killing Adopted Daughter
[NBCDFW 6/23/19 by Diana Zoga]
“If he had a second chance to save his adopted daughter’s life, Wesley Mathews said Tuesday that he would handle things differently. But the Richardson father said crippling fear prevented him from seeking emergency help the night Sherin Mathews died.
During the second day of his trial, Mathews took the stand to describe his actions after the 3-year-old died in October 2017.
Mathews, 39, told jurors he raised his voice at his daughter while he was trying to get her to drink her milk in the garage. That startled her, and she began to choke on the milk.
He said he attempted CPR but when his attempts to resuscitate Sherin failed, Mathews said he was “too shocked by what had happened” to call 911 or call out for help.
“I could not absorb what had happened. I could not believe that in a very quick time my child had gone from me,” Mathews said. “I was really, really paralyzed.”
He said he tried to find someplace to put the toddler’s body where she would be “preserved.”
Sherin’s decomposing remains were found about two weeks later in a culvert less than a mile from the Mathews home.
Prosecutors argued that the real details of how Sherin died will never be known — a proper autopsy could not be performed because of the condition of her body. A medical examiner who ruled her death a homicide testified that it isn’t likely for a child to choke to death on milk.
Mathews pleaded guilty Monday to injury to a child by omission at the start of what was supposed to be his capital murder trial. He still faces life in prison and prosecutors urged the jury Monday to choose that sentence. The jury could decide on a lighter sentence.
During his testimony Tuesday, Mathews said fear prevented him from asking for help, even from his wife, a registered nurse. At first, he hoped Sherin would be revived if he prayed hard enough. For a second, he said, he wanted a venomous snake to jump from the culvert and bite him so he could be with the toddler again.
He said he acted alone because he was terrified that his wife or his other daughter would see Sherin lifeless and that Child Protective Services would get involved.
“I keep going over and over again back to that night and I keep asking myself why was I being driven by fear,” Mathews said. “I was just completely driven by fear, and I can’t imagine that level of stupidity I went to driven by fear.”
During the trial Tuesday, prosecutors argued that Mathews lied repeatedly to investigators. Richardson Detective Victor Diaz said Mathews was calm throughout the search for his daughter and didn’t appear concerned with her well-being.
Diaz said he already had doubts about Mathews from the moment he arrived at the family’s home to investigate Sherin’s disappearance.
Wesley Mathews had waited five hours to report that Sherin was missing, and when he finally did reach out to police, he called the department’s non-emergency line instead of 911.
“It sounded like someone reporting a missing item, and not a missing child,” Diaz told the jury Tuesday.
Diaz said Mathews didn’t have the same urgency to find Sherin as the officers who searched his home did.
“He just appeared to be following us rather than helping us actually look,” he said.
Concerned by Mathews’ behavior, police brought him in for questioning. The court watched footage Tuesday from two interviews Mathews had with detectives, which showed how his story changed over the two weeks before police found Sherin’s body.
In the first interview Oct. 7, 2017, the day Mathews reported Sherin missing, Mathews told detectives he put the girl outside as punishment for not drinking her milk. Sherin was small for her age, and doctors recommended the milk for her nutrition, he told police.
Mathews told police he had previously warned his children that coyotes were in the neighborhood and said he hoped fear of a coyote would be enough for Sherin to finish her milk. Instead, the child disappeared, he said.
Mathews gave a different account in his second interview Oct. 23, 2017, a day after Sherin’s body was found. He told detectives she choked on her milk as he forced her to drink in the garage. Sherin’s eyes rolled back and her hands became cold, he said.
“And that’s when I start to realize, ‘Oh, God, maybe she’s passed away,’ ” Mathews told Diaz in the interview. He said he placed Sherin’s body in a trash bag and drove around until he found the culvert, where he laid the girl’s body face-up and pushed her into a drainage pipe feet-first.
“He said he pushed her in until she couldn’t go anymore,” Diaz testified.
State attorneys also tried to show Tuesday that Mathews and his wife, Sini Mathews, failed to provide Sherin with adequate care after the couple adopted her from India in 2016.
A pediatrician testified that Sherin suffered multiple broken bones sometime after her adoption. The doctor couldn’t explain the specific causes for her injuries but said she made a referral to CPS in 2017.
Prosecutors also suggested that the couple didn’t care for Sherin as much as they did their biological child. An FBI agent testified that officials couldn’t find a single photo of Sherin in the family’s home, despite there being several photos of the couple’s biological daughter.
Police charged Sini Mathews with child abandonment in November 2017, after her husband told officials the couple left Sherin alone the night of her death while they went to dinner with their biological daughter. The mother’s case was dismissed in March after prosecutors said they couldn’t prove it beyond a reasonable doubt.
Rafael De La Garza, Wesley Mathews’ attorney, tried to debunk the characterization that his client didn’t care for Sherin. The attorney called on multiple people close to Mathews, including his brother, to testify that he had been a caring father and husband. De La Garza called assumptions made by the lack of photographs “pure speculation.”
The trial will resume Wednesday as Mathews’ attorneys will argue for a lighter sentence.”
Sherin Mathews’ father testifies he was ‘driven by fear’ when he put daughter’s body in Richardson culvert
[Dallas News 6/25/19 by LeVendrick Smith]
“A jury in Dallas County sentenced the father of a 3-year-old girl whose body was found in a culvert to life in prison, the Dallas district attorney announced on Wednesday.
Sherin Mathews’ body was found in October 2017, two weeks after her adoptive father, Wesley Mathews, 39, reported her missing.
On Monday, Mathews pleaded guilty to a charge of intentionally and knowingly causing serious bodily injury to a child. On Tuesday, he took the stand himself and spoke about the circumstances of her death, which had remained a mystery since her disappearance.
“Sherin’s little body was so badly decomposed, due to the actions of this defendant, the medical examiner could not determine an official cause of death, which could have dramatically changed the way we were able to prosecute this case,” lead prosecutor Jason Fine told jurors.
In 2017, Mathews originally said Sherin disappeared in the middle of the night, after he disciplined her outside their home for not drinking her milk.
“Mathews then led Richardson Police on a wild goose chase knowing where the child’s body was the entire time,” the Dallas District Attorney’s Office said in a statement.
Mathews later told police that Sherin choked to death while drinking her milk. But ultimately, two weeks later, her body was found in a bag in a culvert near the family home.
“I detest myself,” Mathews said Tuesday. “I detest myself for being untruthful to police officers.”
Sherin was adopted from an orphanage in Nalanda, a city in India’s eastern state of Bihar, in 2016. She had lived in the orphanage since she was an infant. At the time, she was named Saraswati.
Mathews testified that Sherin’s doctors told him that his daughter needed milk to gain weight, and he was afraid that doctors would contact Child Protective Services if her health didn’t improve.
“We’ve already been called out once by CPS and CPS investigated us for four months,” he said. “Doctor can say the parents are not feeding the child enough, so basically it falls on us.”
After over an hour of testimony on Tuesday, Mathews explained how he disposed of his daughter’s body.
“I refused to believe that my child had completely gone from this world,” Mathews said. “I believed that if I prayed hard and strong enough that God would bring my child back.”
When asked why he decided to take matters into his own hands and not seek help from authorities, he said he was in disbelief.
“I was being driven by fear. Fear of CPS, fear of how Sini is going to take this piece of news and fear of losing my house and family,” he said.
CNN has reached out to Matthews’ lawyer for comment.
Sini Mathews, Wesley’s wife, was arrested and charged with child endangerment in connection to Sherin’s death, but the charge was ultimately dropped due to lack of evidence, and she was released in March 2019.
“Our prayers continue to be with Sherin and we are glad that we were able to get justice for her,” the Dallas District Attorney’s Office said.”
Texas father sentenced to life in prison for the death of his 3-year-old adopted daughter
[CNN 6/26/19 by Alisha Ebrahimji]
“During his sentencing hearing, Wesley testified that Sherin had food aversions and was malnourished, so he wanted her to drink the milk so that Child Protective Services wouldn’t become involved with his family, WFAA reported.
Wesley told the jury that he didn’t bother to summon his wife, who is a registered nurse, because Sherin had already passed away and he didn’t want her to see the child’s body.
Instead, he wrapped Sherin’s body in a garbage bag and placed her in the back of his vehicle.
“I know I wanted to do something honorable, do something nice,” he said, explaining why he chose to conceal her in the garbage bag.
He claimed he “was not ready to give up on my child,” and that he believed that if he “prayed hard and strong enough,” Sherin would come back to life like the Biblical Lazarus.
Surveillance footage showed Wesley’s vehicle leaving his residence at 4:19 a.m., and returning approximately a half hour later.
Wesley said that he left the home to dispose of Sherin’s body in the culvert.
“I wanted it to be somewhere I could see by my house,” he told the jury.
He denied having “dumped” Sherin’s body, and claimed he put her in the culvert “to protect her body,” KTVT reported.
Wesley also took issue with Prosecutor Jason Fine referring to the bag he wrapped his daughter’s body in as a “trash bag,” according to KTVT.
Fine held up a blue plastic bag covered with recycling logos, which was identical to the bag Wesley previously admitted to having used.
“What do you put in this blue bag?” the prosecutor asked him during questioning.
Wesley refused to answer.
“What do you put in this blue bag generally, besides your daughter?” Fine demanded to know.
Wesley testified that he regrets having not done more to try to help his daughter, but that he was afraid that Child Protective Services would take away his four-year-old biological daughter if they learned what had happened, according to WFAA.
“It’s just not fair that my heart still beats like my child’s heart is not,” Wesley testified. “If I had applied common sense, my child would be with me…I failed my Sherin, and I failed my family.”
“I truly am sorry,” he said, according to KTVT. “I don’t have words to express how sorry I am to these fine officers, these fine people who were full of love and concern for my baby Sherin and they devoted a lot of time and effort and I could have easily stopped that.”
But prosecutors said that there was evidence indicating Sherin was being abused long before her death, including multiple broken bones.
A doctor also testified that it was impossible for Sherin to have died while choking on milk, KTVT reported.
“The [medical examiner] told…you it’s medically impossible for a child of 3-years-old, who is standing up, to die. It’s not possible,” prosecutor Sherre Thomas told the jury. “So, what does that mean to you as jurors? It means he is still a liar.”
Wesley could have been sentenced to probation. He said would accept whatever sentence the jury deemed was appropriate.
“Please, please find it in your hearts to forgive me,” Wesley begged the jury.
Wesley pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of injury to a child by omission, and has now been sentenced to life in prison.
He could be paroled in just 30 years, KTVT reported.
His wife, Sini Mathews, was initially charged with child endangerment in connection with Sherin’s death, according to KTVT.
Those charges were later dismissed due to a lack of evidence.
“The investigation surrounding the death of Sherin Mathews has weighed heavily on the members of our Department and our community,” the Richardson Police Department said in a statement after the verdict. “We feel justice has been served with today’s verdict of life in prison given to Wesley Mathews by a jury of his peers.”
Sherin Mathews’ Father Says He Was Doing Something Nice By Disposing Of Her Body
[Defense Maven 7/1/19 by Holly Matkin]
Update 11:“Wesley Mathews, the Indian-American foster father, sentenced to life after his 3-year-old daughter Sherin Mathews was found dead in a culvert in 2017, has filed a motion for a new trial, The Dallas Morning News reported, less than a month after he said he would accept any punishment jurors chose
Mathews, 39, pleaded guilty on June 24 to a lesser charge of injury to a child in Sherin’s death. He was charged with capital murder by authorities in Texas after they discovered Sherin’s decomposed body after a search that lasted 15 days.”
Slain Indian kid’s foster dad seeks new trial
[Times of India 7/19/19 by PTI]
Update 12:“Wesley Mathews, who was convicted earlier this summer in connection to the 2017 death of his adopted daughter Sherin Mathews, 3, was denied a motion for a new trial Thursday morning.
Mathews’ defense claimed the jury in the June trial should never have been shown photographs of the child’s dead body, or photos that detailed a history of injuries prior to her death.
The defense team for the Richardson father filed a motion for a new trial last month, arguing that “photographs of the remains of the decedent, both where her body was discovered and in the autopsy suite” were so prejudicial as to deny Mathews a fair trial.
Based on the above, Mathews’ defense filed a motion for a new trial. That motion was denied Thursday and now his team is expected to file an appeal.
Mathews pleaded guilty on the day his trial began to the lesser charge he faced, which was felony injury to a child. He admitted in court to not calling 911 and instead disposing of his daughter’s body after he said she choked on milk in the family’s Richardson garage.
Sherin Mathews was initially reported as being missing in October 2017 the morning after her father claimed he forced her to stand outside, alone overnight as punishment for not drinking her milk. Her body was found 15 days later.
Upon the discovery of Sherin Mathews’ body, Wesley Mathews changed his initial story to the one he presented at trial – the she had choked while he was assisting her in the drinking of milk late at night.
At trial, an investigator with the Dallas County Medical Examiner’s office claimed that the child’s body was too badly decomposed body by the time it was discovered to determine her ultimate cause of death. But the forensic examiner testified that neither she nor any member of her team had heard of a child choking to death on a liquid while standing.
Mathews is currently serving a life sentence and will not be eligible for parole until 2047, when he will be in his late 60s.
Mathews’ appeal attorney Brooke Busbee also states that jurors were shown evidence that Sherin suffered “fractures from before she died. There was no evidence” that linked Mathews to the injuries and “introduction of that evidence unfairly prejudiced the jury.””
Wesley Mathews, Serving Life for Death of Daughter, Denied New Trial
[NBC DFW 9/5/19 by Ben Russell]
http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Wesley-Mathews-Serving-Life-for-Death-of-Daughter-Seeks-New-Trial-559451201.html
Recent Comments