Dad Leaves 3-Year-Old Outside Overnight As Punishment, She’s Still Missing

It’s been 6 days, and 3-year-old Texas girl, Sherin Mathews, is still nowhere to be found.  She went missing last Saturday at around 3:00 a.m. when her adoptive father forced her to stand outside the house as punishment for not drinking her milk.

The AMBER Alert that was issued on Saturday morning for this Richardson, Texas, girl, had to be canceled on Monday because the case was not going anywhere. However, Sherin is still missing, and the search efforts continue.

“We’re trying to pick up any type of scent, or items of clothing, or anything like that, that might give us a clue she was there,” said Richardson Police Sgt. Kevin Perlich to USA Today.

According to the Richardson police department, Sherin Mathews has developmental issues and limited verbal communication skills. The last person to see her was her adoptive father Wesley Mathews, who claims she was wearing a pink top and black pajama bottoms at the moment of her disappearance.

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According to Wesley Mathews’ arrest warrant affidavit, the 37-year-old adoptive father took Sherin outside in the middle of the night to teach her a lesson in obedience. He then instructed the little girl to stand in the backyard near a large tree that is behind the property’s fence. The tree is located across an alley near the house, close to some railroad tracks. Wesley went inside the house and after 15 minutes, when he went back out to check on Sherin, she was gone.

Mr. Mathews started looking for her, but only for a while. After that, he went back to the house and continued with his household chores, confident that Sherin would promptly return on her own. This, however, was not the case.

“While he was waiting he did a little laundry and hoped that the light would come around and he could do a better check,” said Sgt. Perlich to USA Today.

It took Wesley Mathews five hours after Sherin’s disappearance to alert local authorities. The police have said the delay is ‘concerning’. “That does not seem like a normal response that one would do if you have a missing child,” Perlich continued saying.

Mathews informed the police that he has seen coyotes in the alley where Sherin disappeared, but the investigators have not come across any signs indicating that an animal could have dragged Sherin away.

That same day, Wesley Mathews was placed under arrest and charged with child abandonment. He was released the next day on a $250,000 bond. According to the police, Sini Mathews – the girl’s mother – was asleep when Sherin got put outside and disappeared, and she is not being charged with any crimes at the moment.

Later that Saturday morning, police went door-to-door in the neighborhood, but no leads got picked up. On Sunday, police used dogs to search the area, but still to no avail.

The Mathews family is getting investigated as part of the normal procedure and a search warrant for the house was allowed. Investigators already confiscated two SUV’s, a minivan, cellphones, and laptops with the hopes of finding “any potential evidence.”

The police department claims it has exhausted all of its resources around the home, and that the investigation will expand into the city, where they hope they can look into nearby businesses and their cameras.

“Try to get some video there and maybe some area businesses that might have caught a glimpse of someone,” Perlich told the media on Monday.

If anyone has any information on Sherin Mathews’ location or anything that could help Richardson PD with its investigation, please contact them at the following number: (972) 744-4800.

This article was inspired by USA TODAY // Texas Girl Put Outside For Not Drinking Milk Still Missing. Here’s What We Know