The parents of a missing Texas girl have stopped cooperating with police, according to Fox News.
At 3-year-old Sherin Mathews’ home, police collected evidence this week, and they have searched the parents’ vehicles, phones, and computers. They also are looking at surveillance video from neighbors, officials said.
Wesley Mathews, the girl’s father, was arrested on child endangerment charges after he reported her missing Saturday, Oct. 7. He told police that he left her outside at 3 a.m. as a form of punishment for not drinking her milk, but according to local reports, he didn’t call police until five hours later.
Mathews told police that he went back inside thinking that the girl would return home.
“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 Richardson Police Department Sgt. Kevin Perlich. “He elected to call the police shortly after 8 o'clock.”
The mother told officials that she was asleep when the girl went missing.
The 4-year-old daughter of the couple is in the custody of a friend of the Mathews’s family.
Sherin, an adopted child from India, would wake up in the middle of the night, Mathews said. The family would feed the child in the day and night. The girl also suffered from developmental disabilities, making it difficult for her to communicate.
“So part of the feeding thing was to build some mass and put some weight on her so it wasn’t uncommon for her to have to be fed on a consistent schedule or as frequently as they could,” Sgt. Perlich was quoted as saying.
According to CBS Dallas, the mother and father have hired their own lawyers.
The lawyer added that the girl would wake in the night to drink her milk.
“Sherin did have a medical condition, and they have worked to get it under control,” the lawyer said. “Sherin did have an eating disorder.”
