Father claims three-year-old daughter choked on milk and died before removing her body

The father of the three-year-old Texan girl who went missing on October 7, changed his statement of events and told police he watched his daughter die.

Three-year-old Sherin (pictured left) is missing after her father Wesley Matthews (pictured right) locked her outside. Source: Richardson Police Department

Wesley Mathews claims he watched his three-year-old daughter choke on milk and die before removing her body, according to a statement of events told to the police.

Mathews originally told Richardson Police he left his daughter outside at 3am in the morning after she refused to drink her milk and after checking up on her she went missing.

But after the body of Sherin Mathews was found on October 22 in a culvert at Spring Valley Road, Richardson - north of Dallas - Mathews changed his statement of events.

He now alleges he "physically assisted" his daughter to drink the milk before she began to choke.

"She was coughing and her breathing slowed. Eventually, Wesley Mathews no longer felt a pulse on the child and believed she had died," the Warrant of Arrest document reads.

Wesley admitted to removing the body of his daughter from the home and had been subsequently arrested accused of injury to a child.

Texas police confirmed they found the body of Sherin Mathews less than a mile from her home, according to The Washington Post.

Police are still waiting for a positive identification and for an autopsy to determine what killed the child.

Mathews was previously taken into custody after reporting the incident to authorities and had been released on bail, according to police.

"Mathews said he directed his daughter to stand near a large tree at approximately 3am (on Saturday local time) because she wouldn't drink her milk," an arrest affidavit said.

The father told police he checked on her about 15 minutes later and she was gone, the affidavit said.

About five hours after sending her outside Mathews called police to report her missing, a police spokesman said.

Mathews told police he had seen coyotes in the alley near where he told his daughter to stand, the affidavit said.

Sherin was born in India and had been adopted by Mathews' family.

She suffered from malnourishment before arriving in the United States and is on a special diet, Sergeant Kevin Perlich, a spokesman for the Richardson Police Department, said.

- with Reuters