Sometimes the sum of the story is just this: Jesus Effing Christ. A missing toddler in suburban Dallas apparently did not wander off, but died in front of her father by choking, and he then dumped the 3-year-old’s body in a culvert, authorities say.
Wesley Mathews reported his daughter, Sherin Mathews, missing on Oct. 7. He told police she wandered off. But after dogs found her body Sunday, Mathews changed his story and said she choked to death on milk, according to the Associated Press.
At this point, police in Richardson, Texas, say the cause of the little girl’s death is unknown.
Mathews was arrested Monday after he went in to the police station with his lawyer to give a revised statement on what happened to the little girl.
Wesley Mathews was initially charged with abandoning or endangering a child when he first reported Sherin missing. Police charged him Monday with first-degree felony injury to a child. He was being held on $1 million bond.
AP reports that Mathews initially told police that he had punished the girl because she refused to drink her milk and sent her to stand outside at 3 a.m., and that at about 3:15 a.m., he discovered her missing. He then said he did laundry until daylight, at which point he was going to look for her. In his revised statement Monday, he said that the girl choked on the milk and he removed her body from the home after he believed she had died.
Mathews told police that Sherin had developmental disabilities, according to the report. He and his wife, Sini Mathews, adopted Sherin from India in June 2016. Police say they do not believe that Sini Mathews was aware of her husband’s actions.
At about 8 a.m., Wesley Mathews called police to report Sherin missing. However, police said that they believe one of the family’s cars left the house between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m.
After Sherin was reported gone, the Mathewses’ 4-year-old biological daughter was placed in foster care.
Read more at WSVN-TV.