US Police have shared new details about the mysterious death of Indian adopted toddler Sherin Mathews, alleging that her Indian-American foster father bundled her "stiff and cold" body in the back of his car with a bag of trash and hid her corpse in a culvert.
These details emerged during the custody hearing of Wesley and Sini Mathews' 4-year-old biological daughter who was taken away by US Child Protection Services (CPS) after Sherin's disappearance.
Dallas News reports Richardson police detective Jules Farmer testified that 37-year-old Wesley Mathews’, the foster father told them that Sherin died choking on milk that he forced her to drink.
According to court testimony, Wesley forced her to drink milk from a bottle while she was in the garage and he said that she was standing when she choked.
The detective said he questioned Wesley how she could choke while standing up. Wesley Mathews told police that he held Sherin as she died, the detective testified. As the girl became stiff and cold, her father "was trying to warm her up," Farmer said.
The detective told the court that Wesley Mathews couldn't offer police a good explanation about why he hadn't woke up his wife, a nurse, for help or called emergency for help.
He then admitted to moving her body from the home. He reportedly turned off the location tracking on his phone when he is believed to have taken Sherin's body to the culvert.
"He put Sherin in the back of the car with a sack of trash and went to a shopping center nearby," Farmer was quoted as saying by fox4news.com.
"Went to a shopping center where he disposed of the trash, and then drove around a little more until he put Sherin in the culvert where we found her body," he said.
The Judge on Tuesday blocked Sherin Mathews' parents from having contact with their surviving child after prosecutors argued that they failed to protect Sherin.
"They have each failed to protect the children in their home," Dallas County prosecutor Denise Hale said at a custody hearing. "The father has told many lies."
David Kleckner, an attorney for Wesley Mathews, argued in court that the Mathewses are not bad parents and that the focus should stay on their treatment of Sherin's sister.
"If anything, they took her to dinner that night," he told the court. "They didn't leave her home."
State District Judge Cheryl Lee Shannon ruled that the couple subjected their biological daughter to "aggravated circumstances" that should keep them from being able to see her.
In the meantime, CPS has custody of Sherin's sister, who has been temporarily placed with relatives while the couple remains jailed.
Sini Mathews, Sherin Mathews' foster mother. Source: Richardson Police
Wesley's bond is set at $1 million and faces up to life imprisonment if convicted of the first-degree felony.
Sini's bond is set at $100,000 and faces up to two years in a state jail if convicted of child abandonment or endangerment.
