Authorities in Texas discovered the body of 3-year-old Sherin Mathews Sunday, who disappeared in the early morning hours of October 7. Her body was identified using dental records, police confirmed Tuesday.
The little girl’s adoptive father, Wesley Mathews, was arrested Monday night and faces a felony charge of injury to a child after telling police Sherin died after she choked on milk, and that he moved her body afterwards.
He is being held on a $1 million bond.
The investigation is ongoing and an exact cause of death is pending an autopsy.
Read on for more information and photos to remember Sherin by:
Disappearance Of #SherinMathews : Who Is Responsible? t.co/OKVav7btlb
Richardson Police Sgt. Kevin Perlich, a spokesman for the Richardson Police Department, said that Wesley and his wife, Sini, “adopted Sherin about two years ago from an orphanage in India.”
A Facebook page dedicated to the darling girl, “Where is Sherin Mathews,” posted photos of an orphanage that Sherin is thought to be from:
Many have taken to social media to post their emotions on the case.
“Love you…Will remember you forever baby.. Cute little angel may your soul rest in peace. See you in the paradise,” @SheebaSinto tweeted:
#SherinMathews Love you.. Will remember you forever baby.. Cute little angel may your soul rest in peace. See you in the paradise.
“I’m sorry, you weren’t loved in this world, many people love you now and pray that your soul rests in peace?? #SherinMathews,” @alesha_amin wrote:
The admin of the the Facebook page made in Sherin’s honor told Heavy:
I myself was abandoned when I was a baby in an empty house and was found and then I wasn’t adopted until I was 6-years-old…and so I was very drawn to this story which is why I made the page.
She also lives very close to me and I have worked with runaways and missing person in the past…I felt she was so close that I felt I could try and do something to help her. The more we learned about her, her background and how tragic her short little life was…the more drawn I was to her story. It’s definitely a story that people can look back on and hopefully if everybody is held accountable, then maybe this type of child abuse can be prevented in the future. From what I know, people who knew the family saw the abuse…witnesses I spoke to witnessed the abuse. People knew about it and did nothing to help her and that’s atrocious. A lot of times people are scared to report things. Maybe people will realize…look what happens when nobody does anything. If someone in the family’s circle would have reported something then she may still be alive today.
Several photos were posted to the page in the weeks from when Sherin went missing to after the beautiful child’s body was tragically found:
The community came together only hours after Sherin’s body was found and hundreds of people gathered for a vigil in her honor:
“We love you…Will remember you forever…,” Jyothik Thankappan captioned the photo below:
Rest in peace, Sherin Mathews.