Washington, Nov. 17 (IANS): The foster mother of Sherin Mathews, a three-year-old Indian girl who was found dead in a ditch last month in the US states of Texas, has been arrested on the charge of child endangerment.
Police said Sini Mathews and her husband Wesley Mathews left the child home alone while they went to dinner on October 6, the night before she was reported missing by her foster father.Sini Mathews, 35, surrendered to the Richardson police on Thursday and was being held on $250,000 bond in the state jail on the felony charge, the US media reported.
In a statement, Richardson police said detectives learned Sini and Wesley Mathews took their 3-year-old biological daughter to dinner and left their adopted daughter, Sherin, alone at home, placing her in “imminent danger of death, bodily injury, or physical or mental impairment”.
According to an arrest warrant affidavit, detectives used cellphone records to show that the couple went to a North Garland restaurant on the evening of October 6. Wesley Mathews told detectives in an interview on October 23 that he and his wife had left Sherin Mathews at home while the rest of the family went out. He said he left the child after growing frustrated when she refused to drink her milk. Wesley Mathews remains jailed on a charge of felony injury to a child and is being held on a $1 million bond. He initially said he sent Sherin Mathews outside to an alley near their house about 3 a.m. because she refused to drink her milk.
Sini Mathews was in court earlier this week asking for custody of the couple’s biological child to be returned to her, but that hearing was rescheduled for November 29. The couple’s surviving child was put in foster care shortly after her sister’s disappearance.
