When three-year-old Sherin Mathews went missing from her north Texas home, her adoptive father initially told police he had put her outside as punishment at 3am.
According to affidavits, Mathews claimed he had left his daughter outside by a tree on October 7 for not drinking her milk. When he returned 15 minutes later, Sherin was gone.
Mathews assumed his daughter would return, but notified authorities five hours later about her disappearance when she did not show, the BBC reports.
Sherin’s body was discovered in a culvert nearby the family’s Dallas home on Sunday after days of searching. The body was confirmed as the missing girl via dental records provided by her adoptive mother, Sini Mathews. Her cause of death is still pending.
But now, Mathews has changed his story. According to Fox 4, the father reportedly arrived at Richardson Police Department and told police his daughter choked and died while she was trying to drink milk in their garage. He has since been booked into Dallas County and was charged with injury to a child.
According to the police warrant, Matthews had been trying to get his daughter to drink milk at around 3am.
“Eventually the 3-year-old girl began to drink the milk,” the police warrant states.
“Wesley Mathews then physically assisted the 3-year-old girl in drinking the milk.”
However, the three-year-old allegedly started coughing and her breathing slowed.
“Eventually, Wesley Mathews no longer felt a pulse on the child and believed she had died,” the warrant reads.
The warrant also states that Mathews admitted to removing the body from their home.
Currently booked in jail, Matthews has been placed on suicide watch as investigations continue.
