After Sherin Mathews’ body was discovered on October 22 in a culvert less than a mile from the Mathews’ family home, her 35-year-old mother, Sini Mathews, held a private burial service, which was attended by relatives and a gathering of family friends, the Asian Age reported. According to reports by a number of news agencies, the exact location where the Indian-American toddler was buried was a closely guarded secret, attributed to the level of social media attention and “intense press,” the Age relayed.
The location of where the three-year-old was buried was reported by WFAA on December 8.
According to the news station and its “sources close to the family,” they wanted the Headstone to arrive before letting the public know where Sherin is buried. Her family reportedly stated that they are “now comfortable” disclosing that her burial site is in the Dallas, Texas, and southwest in the cemetery of the Turrentine-Jackson-Morrow Funeral Home.
Toddler’s parents still held in Dallas County Jail
Her mother and 37-year-old father, Wesley Mathews remain in custody at Dallas County Jail. Sini Mathews is being held on $100,000 bond for alleged felony child abandonment or endangerment. Her father’s bail is set at $1 million. He is accused of felony injury to a child and, if convicted, could be sentenced up to 99 years in prison.
Sherin was born in India in 2014. She was abandoned by her birth mother, tossed in some bushes, and received by an adoption organization on February 14, 2015. She was adopted from a now-defunct, non-governmental organization, Mother Teresa Anath Seva Sansthan, by Sini and Wesley Mathews on June 23, 2016.
After reporting daughter missing, father tells different tales of disappearance
At 8:12 AM on October 7, Wesley Mathews called a non-emergency police telephone number and reported his toddler daughter missing. He originally claimed that she disappeared within 15 minutes after he took her outside at 3 AM and punished her for refusing to drink some milk, so he made her stand by a tree approximately 100 feet from the backyard fence of the family’s home.
He left her alone outside in the pitch-dark, he said. He also mentioned that had has seen coyotes in the area earlier.
After roughly two weeks of volunteers and police searching for the missing toddler, police resumed searching with cadaver K-9s on the morning of October 22, following a rainstorm the previous night. Sherin’s body was discovered in a culvert during the search. The next day, Mathews went to the Richardson Police Department voluntarily and with an attorney. He asked to be interviewed by detectives and was Mirandized.
Mathews, then, told police that he had taken Sherin into the family’s garage and assisted her in drinking milk. She choked. He thought she was dead and he removed her from the family’s home.
Police stated, during a Child Protective Services (CPS) custody hearing concerning Sherin’s sister that Mathews put the toddler’s body in the culvert with the intention of returning and, then, burying her.
Father worded little girl’s headstone
The inscription on the toddler’s headstone bears her legal name: Sherin Susan Mathews. The wording was reportedly selected by Wesley Mathews, WFAA noted. “Moment In Our Arms,” the headstone reads, “Lifetime In Our Hearts.”
The Richardson Police Department is still awaiting the outcome of the autopsy on Sherin Mathews conducted by the Dallas County Medical Examiner’s office. Depending on those findings, the police have previously stated that charges may be modified.
