Wesley Mathews, a 37-year-old adoptive father from Richardson, Texas, was arrested after a child's body was discovered on Sunday. [Courtesy of Richardson Police Department]
A Texas girl, Sherin Mathews, went missing two weeks ago after her adoptive father Wesley Mathews, a 37-year-old man from Richardson, Texas, allegedly sent her outside of their home at night. Mathews claimed that he ordered her to stand outside by herself as a punishment after she refused to drink milk.
The Richardson Police Department used all of their resources and power to search for the missing child to no avail.
There was finally a breakthrough after the authorities combing through the area. Richardson PD search dogs detected scents and police found a child's body in a little channel near from the girl's home on Sunday.
A day after the discovery, Mathews was arrested on Monday and charged with the first-degree felony, causing injury to a child. If he is convicted, he faces 99 years in prison.
After the arrest police said the reason for the arrest was that Mathews was changing his story after a child's body was discovered. However, the authorities did not provide additional details of how the adoptive father changed his story.
Sherin was adopted from India last year. She has developmental issues and has limited verbal communication skills.
The remains of a child were not identified yet, however, the authorities said it is "most likely" the body of Sherin Mathews.
Wesley Mathews was previously arrested for child abandonment and endangerment charges but he posted $ 250,000 bail and was released with the condition that he was required to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet to be tracked at all times by the authorities and to surrender his passport.
After the initial arrest, Mathews' biological 4-year-old daughter was placed in foster care. Mathews and his wife, Sini Mathews, attended the court hearing on Monday to determine if they could regain custody of their daughter. The postponed the hearing until November 13 so Mathews can hire a lawyer to represent them.
It was reported that Mathews' wife was sleeping at the time of punishment and was not aware of what happened.
Kwak, Min Jung = abiel@ajunews.com
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