With both adoptive parents of Indian toddler Sherin Mathews now booked into a Dallas jail, police say they are waiting for the autopsy report and details from laboratories to determine the cause of her tragic death.
Wesley Mathews and his wife Sini Ann Mathews have been arrested by police in the Texan city of Richardson weeks apart in connection with the mysterious death of 3-year-old Sherin, who was adopted by the Indian-American couple last year.
Sherin was found dead in a culvert nearly 1km from her home in suburban Dallas, weeks after Wesley informed the police that the toddler was missing. Wesley initially said he sent Sherin outside to an alley near their house about 3 am as punishment because she refused to drink her milk.
Wesley, 37, was arrested on October 26, hours after a cadaver dog found Sherin's body in the culvert. He has been charged with injury to a child, a felony charge. He is now in the Dallas County Jail with a USD 1 million bond. The crime is punishable with up to 99 years in prison.
Sini, 35, the foster mother of Sherin, was arrested on November 17 after the police alleged that the couple, hailing from Kerala, left Sherin in the kitchen alone and went out for dinner with their 3-year-old biological daughter October 6, the night before the toddler was reported missing by Wesley.
Sini, has been arrested and charged with with abandoning or endangering a child, a state jail felony in Texas. -- PTI