Wesley Mathews, in huis first police interview told detectives that he had sent little Sherin outside as a punishment. He changed his story while talking to detectives with his attorney on Monday, a day after investigators found the little girl’s body, according to Richardson Police Department.
The 37-year-old dad said he was trying to get his developmentally disabled daughter to drink milk in their garage about 3 a.m. October 7.
“Wesley Mathews said she wouldn’t listen to him,” according to the warrant. “Eventually the 3-year-old girl began to drink the milk. Wesley Mathews then physically assisted the 3-year-old girl in drinking the milk. The 3-year-old girl began to choke.”
At that point, Mathews said, the girl’s breathing slowed.
“Eventually, Wesley Mathews no longer felt a pulse on the child and believed she had died,” the warrant reads. “Wesley Mathews then admitted to removing the body from the home.”
Sherin Mathews previously declared missing, allegedly killed by her and her father,
At the beginning of the ‘girl-vanishing’ saga Two weeks ago, Wesley Mathews reported his daughter missing, telling authorities he had sent the 3-year-old to the back yard of the family’s Sunningdale home about 3 a.m. on October 7. He asked her to stand next to a tree near an alley outside their home because she would not drink her milk. He said he returned 15 minutes later,
Wesley said that when he checked on her 15 minutes later, she was gone. He didn’t call police until five hours had passed. He alleged the alley was frequented by coyotes and even tried to suggest she could have been taken by coyotes, a theory debunked by police findings.
Investigators discovered Wesley did laundry while Sherin was missing, while Sherin’s mother, Sini, said she was asleep during the ordeal.
Investigators also 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.
Police and FBI agents investigating the little girl’s disappearance, had earlier confiscated a number of items, including a vacuum cleaner, trash bags, hair fibers, cellphones and laptops, during a search of the Mathews home, Oct. 10, according to the Houston Chronicle.
Mathews was later arrested and charged with abandoning or endangering a child before being released on $250,000 bond.
The body of a small child was found by police Sunday in a culvert not far from Mathews’ home. Detectives notified the Mathews family by telephone, according to the arrest warrant affidavit.
Police on Tuesday announced that the Dallas County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed that the child’s body found was identified as Sherin Mathews by using dental records. The cause of death is still pending.
Mathews and his wife, Sini, adopted Sherin two years ago from an orphanage in India.
Mathews told police Sherin was malnourished and had to be on a special diet to gain weight. She had to be fed whenever she was awake, and wasn’t cooperating when her father tried to feed her, according to Richardson police.
“So that was the frustration [Mathews] was experiencing that night,” police sources said.who said they were working to verify all those claims.
The couple also have a 4-year-old daughter who has been removed from the home by Child Protective Services and placed in foster care.
Mathews was arrested Monday and charged with injury to a child, a first-degree felony. Bond was set at $1 million. If convicted he faces life or from five to 99 years in prison.
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