Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 114, No. 84, Ed. 1 Wednesday, October 25, 2017 Page: 3 of 22
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STATE
3A
Denton Record-Chronicle
Wednesday, October 25, 2017
Body found is missing toddler; father says she choked
ment on what
happened to
the girl. His at-
torney, Rafael
De La Garza,
did not imme-
diately return
a phone call
Tuesday.
Mathews
initially told police he had sent
the girl to stand outside at 3 a.m.
near a tree across an alley from
the family’s fence because she re-
fused to drink her milk. In his re-
vised statement Monday, he said
the girl choked on the milk and
that he removed her body from
the home after he believed she
had died.
Richardson police spokes-
man Sgt. Kevin Perlich said
Tuesday the investigation is con-
tinuing, despite the revised
statement.
“This by no means completes
our investigation. It is possible
there would be additional ar-
rests or modifications of the
charges as the investigation pro-
ceeds,” he said.
“Eventually the 3-year-old
girl began to drink the milk.
Wesley Mathews then physically
assisted the 3-year-old girl in
drinking the milk,” according to
the affidavit.
Mathews told police that She-
rin began to choke, she was
coughing and that “her breathing
slowed.” He said he eventually felt
no pulse and believed the child
had died. Investigators wrote that
he “then admitted to removing
the body from the home.”
The affidavit does not say
whether Mathews told police he
administered any medical aid to
the child.
Perlich said Mathews previ-
ously told police that the girl had
developmental disabilities and
was malnourished when they
adopted her from India. The
couple described a special diet
regimen that required her to eat
whenever she was awake, in or-
der to help her gain weight.
Mathews said that after pun-
ishing her for not drinking her
milk, he went outside where he
made her stand to check on her
at 3:15 a.m. and discovered she
was missing. Mathews said he
decided at that point to do laun-
dry while he waited for daylight
to look for the girl or for her to
return.
He called police and reported
her missing about 8 a.m. Police
had also sought surveillance
camera footage from neighbors
and local businesses, saying they
believed one of the family’s
cars— a maroon Acura SUV-
had left the house between 4
and 5 a.m.
State Child Protective Servic-
es removed Wesley and Sini
Mathews’ 4-year-old biological
daughter from their home soon
after Sherin was reported miss-
ing. A judge said Monday that
the girl will remain in foster care
until a custody hearing in No-
vember.
A spokeswoman for the state
agency said family members in
Fort Bend County, outside
Houston, have expressed inter-
est in taking care of the girl, but
that a judge will decide where
she is placed.
By Claudia Lauer
Associated Press
DALLAS — The father of a
missing toddler whose body was
found in a culvert under a road
in suburban Dallas now says the
girl choked to death on milk in
the family’s garage after earlier
claiming she wandered off in the
middle of the night when he sent
her outside as punishment for
not drinking her milk, authori-
ties said.
Wesley Mathews reported 3-
year-old Sherin Mathews miss-
ing on Oct. 7 and searchers with
cadaver dogs found her body
Sunday. Richardson police said
Tuesday that the Dallas County
medical examiner’s office used
dental records to identify the
body as that of the child.
Police said the medical ex-
aminer has not yet determined a
cause of death, and an autopsy
hasn’t been released.
Mathews, who adopted She-
rin from India in June 2016 with
his wife, Sini Mathews, was ar-
rested Monday after he volun-
tarily revised his police state-
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Ashley Landis/DMN file photo
People gather at a memorial Sunday for 3-year-old Sherin
Mathews at a tree behind her home in Richardson.
aware of her husband’s alleged
punishment of the girl and that
she was asleep at the time. She
cooperated with police to identi-
fy Sherin’s body, he said.
According to an arrest affida-
vit filed Tuesday by Richardson
police, Wesley Mathews said
Monday in an interview that he
had been trying to get the girl to
drink her milk in the garage.
Police on Monday charged
Mathews with first-degree felo-
ny injury to a child, punishable
by up to life in prison, and he
was being held on $1 million
bond. He was initially charged
with abandoning or endanger-
ing a child after reporting the
girl missing.
Perlich previously said police
believe Sini Mathews was un-
Court clears way for teen to get abortion
BRIEFLY
ACROSS THE STATE
of a so-called sponsor, such as a
relative in the United States, so
she could obtain the abortion
outside government custody.
On Tuesday, the full appeals
court overruled the panel’s deci-
sion and returned the case to
Chutkan, saying she was “best
suited” to set new dates. Chut-
kan responded with an order
saying the teen should be taken
for counseling and the abortion
“promptly and without delay.”
The teen had been allowed
under an order from Chutkan to
attend a counseling session last
week.
Austin
50 arrested for violating
child support orders
Travis County and Hays
County constables have arrested
50 parents for violating child
support orders, the Texas attor-
ney general’s office reported
Tuesday.
The law enforcement effort
provided Texas children
$48,256 in collected child sup-
port. The attorney general’s
child support division investiga-
tors assisted by locating missing
parents.
Delinquent parents arrested
on civil warrants face up to six
months in jail. Cash bonds post-
ed by delinquent parents seek-
ing release from jail are paid to
the custodial parents and chil-
dren who are owed back child
support.
Parents who have fallen be-
hind on their child support pay-
ments — but are not subject to
warrants for their arrest
should immediately contact the
attorney general’s child support
division at 1-800-252-8014 or
visit http://bit.ly/2xBTGU4 to
make payment arrangements.
— Staff report
Austin
Man accused of plotting
ex-girlfriend’s death
By Jessica Gresko
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Afederal
appeals court on Tuesday
cleared the way for a 17-year-old
immigrant held in custody in
Texas to obtain an abortion.
The full U.S. Court of Appeals
for the District of Columbia Cir-
cuit ruled 6-3 in favor of the teen.
The decision overturned a ruling
by a three-judge panel of the
court that at least temporarily
blocked her from getting an
abortion. The Trump adminis-
tration could still appeal the deci-
sion to the Supreme Court.
Later Tuesday, in a separate
order, a judge said the teen
should be quickly taken to ob-
tain required counseling and the
abortion. Under Texas law, a
woman seeking an abortion
must have a counseling session
24 hours before the procedure
with the doctor who will per-
form the abortion.
The teen, whose name and
country of origin have been
withheld because she’s a minor,
is 15 weeks pregnant. She en-
tered the U.S. in September and
learned she was pregnant while
in federal custody in Texas.
She obtained a state court or-
der Sept. 25 permitting her to
have an abortion. But federal of-
ficials refused to transport her or
temporarily release her so that
others could take her to have an
abortion.
Lawyers for the Department
A 62-year-old Austin man
has been charged with solicit-
ing capital murder after police
said he tried to hire an ex-Ma-
rine acquaintance to kill his ex-
girlfriend for dating a black
man.
istlcel
I
i
ft
An arrest affidavit says Keith
James Cote offered the man
$10,000 to kill the woman and
an extra $15,000 of he could
“watch him put a bullet in her
head.”
1. Scott Applewhite/AP file photo
Activists demonstrate Friday in support of a pregnant 17-
year-old being held in a Texas facility for unaccompanied im-
migrant children to obtain an abortion, outside of the Depart-
ment of Health and Human Services in Washington
But Susan Hays, legal direc-
tor for the Texas group Jane’s
Due Process, which is assisting
the teen with obtaining an abor-
tion, said the teenager will likely
need to undergo a new counsel-
ing session with the doctor who
would perform an abortion.
That counseling session could
be scheduled for as soon as Tues-
day afternoon, with the abortion
on Wednesday, Hays said.
The Department of Health
and Human Services didn’t im-
mediately comment on the rul-
ing. The Justice Department
said it is reviewing the order and
declined to comment.
The would-be hit man in-
formed police of the offer and
played along with Cote for inves-
tigators.
Cote was arrested Monday
and booked into in the Travis
County Jail with bail set at $1
million.
If he is convicted of the
first-degree felony, he could be
sentenced to life imprison-
ment.
of Health and Human Services,
which is responsible for shelter-
ing children who illegally enter
the country unaccompanied by
a parent, said the department
has a policy of “refusing to facil-
itate” abortions and that re-
leasing the teenager would re-
quire arranging a transfer of
custody and follow-up care.
The teenager’s lawyers have
said all the government needed
to do was “get out of the way.”
An attorney appointed to
represent the teen’s interests
said she could transport her to
and from appointments neces-
sary for the procedure, and the
federal government would not
have to pay for it.
A federal judge, U.S. District
Judge Tanya Chutkan, had sided
with the teen and set dates for
the procedure last week, saying
it should take place Friday or
Saturday, but the government
appealed and the three-judge
panel of the appeals court
blocked the abortion from oc-
curring then. The panel ruled
2-1 on Friday that the govern-
ment should have until Oct. 31 to
release the teen into the custody
The ex-girlfriend told investi-
gators that Cote had abused her
during their relationship of sev-
eral years but hadn’t seen him
since 2015.
— The Associated Press
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Parks, Scott K. Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 114, No. 84, Ed. 1 Wednesday, October 25, 2017, newspaper, October 25, 2017; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1131860/m1/3/: accessed May 22, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .