Sherin Mathews: U.S. Adoption Agency Suspended By India After Death Of Toddler Revealed To Be ‘Homicidal’
Less than a week ago, authorities revealed that the death of Richardson, Texas girl, Sherin Mathews, was due to homicide. Days after the announcement, the Indian government suspended operations with an American agency that oversaw Sherin’s placement in the United States.
The Dallas County Medical Examiner’s office confirmed last week that Sherin died of “homicidal violence,” according to NBC 5 Dallas. Richardson Police Department revealed the news, saying the girl’s autopsy indicated her death was caused by homicide, and her manner of death was homicidal violence.
On Friday, India suspended operations with Holt International because it found “gross negligence” on the part of the American agency, according to The News Minute.
The CEO of the Central Adoption Agency Authority (CARA), Deepak Kumar, told The News Minute that in all four reports Holt International submitted to the Indian government, the agency stated Sherin was “adjusting well with her adoptive parents.” He added that it was recently revealed that “a state (US) health department official had in fact written to Child Protective Services (CPS) that Sherin had multiple fractures seven months ago.”
Kumar further noted that none of Holt’s follow-up reports to the government included this information. He said the American agency either hid this information from India or is guilty of “sheer gross negligence,” according to The News Minute.
India has suspended the U.S. agency involved in Sherin Mathews' adoption https://t.co/59A6nDkcSE pic.twitter.com/DD4RMk5x0E
— Intl. Business Times (@IBTimes) January 8, 2018
Although Sherin was found dead months ago, the Indian government allegedly delayed taking any action against the U.S. agency due to a visit by Ivanka Trump to India in November, reports The Siasat Daily. A “top government official” told the news media outlet that the Indian government was “treading cautiously” because it did not want the relationship between the U.S. and India to be “impacted.”
Both of Sherin’s adoptive parents, Sini and Wesley Mathews, are jailed in connection with Sherin’s case. Just weeks ago, a judge denied them access to their biological daughter, who was removed from the home by CPS shortly after the investigation into Sherin’s disappearance began.
Slain AMBER Alert toddler Sherin Mathews died from ‘homicidal violence’ according to autopsy reporthttps://t.co/dSjW1SUz3p
— Nancy Grace (@NancyGrace) January 3, 2018
The custody hearing ruling was due in part to the testimony given by a physician who testified she worried Sherin had been injured by her parents and reported her concerns to CPS.
Sherin’s lifeless body was found by a cadaver dog on Sunday, October 22, in a culvert not far from her family’s home. Wesley was arrested the next day and charged with Injury to a Child, a first-degree felony for which he could face 5 to 99 years behind bars if convicted. He is being held on $1,000,000 bond.
Sini is charged with child endangerment and is being held on a $100,000 bond. She is accused of leaving Sherin, 3, alone at home while she and her husband, Wesley, went out to dinner with their biological daughter. The outing reportedly took place on October 6, the night before Sherin was reported missing, according to the Dallas Morning News.
Three-year-old Sherin's body was found more than two weeks after her adoptive father had reported her missing, initially saying he ordered her to stand outside at about 3 a.m. for not drinking her milk https://t.co/UKZCKoWtye
— NBC Los Angeles (@NBCLA) January 3, 2018
Wesley told police on October 23 that Sherin was left at home because she wouldn’t drink her milk and he became “impatient” with her, reports the Dallas Morning News. He said Sini agreed to leave Sherin behind and was not “coerced” into doing so. He told police when the family returned home about an hour later, Sherin was still in the kitchen.
An arrest affidavit for Wesley states he told police that on October 7, he and Sherin were in the garage of the family home where he was trying to get her to drink milk, which she ultimately did. He said he then “physically assisted” her as she drank, subsequently observing that she was choking, coughing, and breathing slowly. Wesley stated that “eventually” he couldn’t feel a pulse on Sherin and believed the little girl was dead. He also admitted moving her body from the family home.
Sherin was adopted by the Mathews in the summer of 2016 from India.
