Richardson Police Department announced today that Sherin Mathews has been positively identified as the child whose body was discovered and recovered on Sunday morning from a culvert near her family’s home. On the department’s official Facebook page, it is noted that the cause of the toddler’s death is pending.
Father told police different account of events leading to toddler’s disappearance
News of Sherin’s death is on the heels of her 37-year-old father, Wesley Mathews, voluntarily going to police on Monday afternoon, accompanied by his criminal defense attorney, Rafael De La Garza.
Mathews asked for detectives. When he also voluntarily asked that he be interviewed, officers Mirandized him.
He told police that he was in the family’s garage with his toddler daughter. He wanted her to drink milk, yet the little girl wouldn’t listen. He, then, “physically assisted,” the arrest warrant affidavit states.
At that point, his little girl started choking and coughing. According to him, her breathing slowed. He told police, according to the affidavit, that he could no longer feel Sherin’s pulse.” Mathews further stated to police that he “believed she had died.” He said that he removed Sherin’s body from the family’s home.
Toddler’s father re-arrested, charged with injury to a child
Mathews was re-arrested. He was charged with injury to a child under Texas Penal Code 22.04. He was taken into custody, where he remains. He is being held in Richardson County Jail on $1 million bond.
When police arrived at the Mathews’ residence, the original version he told police is that his little girl refused to drink milk at 3 AM.
He took her outside and made her stay alone by a tree roughly 100-feet from the fence to the family’s backyard.
He stated to police that when he returned to get his little girl approximately 15 minutes later, she was gone. Coyotes were sighted in the area, he also said. Though he claimed to have seen the coyotes, he left her in the dark and returned to the house.
He said that he believed she might find her way back home all by herself.
Little girl’s dad did laundry, waited hours to report child missing, father arrested
Since it was too dark to look for his little girl, Mathews’ said he washed a load of laundry while he waited for daylight so that he could look for his little girl. Hours passed before he called police at around 8:12 AM to report her missing.
Mathews was arrested the same day and charged with child abandonment or endangerment. After posting $250,000 bond, he was released and ordered to surrender his passport and wear an electronic monitor on his leg. CPS removed Sherin’s four-year-old sister from the Mathews’ home.
Police said Mathews and his wife, Sini, were not cooperating with law enforcement.
Sini Mathews allegedly slept through everything that led to her little girl’s disappearance until police arrived on-scene. She retained criminal defense attorney Kent Starr, who told media on October 11 that his client was “mourning” and that she wanted her daughter returned.
Police search leads to discovering a child’s body near family’s home
While police were searching with canine dogs on Sunday morning, they discovered a child’s small body in a culvert less than one mile from the Mathews’ home. Police notified the couple of the discovery and await the medical examiner to identify the deceased child. (Identified today as Sherin Mathews.)
Yesterday, the Mathews had a custody hearing in a Dallas County court respective of their older daughter.
Because Wesley Mathews didn’t have a civil law attorney, the judge postponed the custody hearing until November 13, granting the father time to retain a lawyer.
Following the court hearing, Mathews went to the police department with his defense attorney at 12:15 PM. He offered his revised account of what he now claims happened on October 7.
Richardson police stated yesterday that charges against Mathews can be modified, depending on the medical examiner’s report, FOX 4 relayed. Additional, the police said more arrests are possible.
