Her mother Sini Mathews was arrested last week
The four-year-old sister of Sherin Mathews, the Indian American girl found dead in a culvert in Richardson, Texas, last month, was moved out of foster care to live with a relative on Monday, reported Dallas News.
The girl has been in foster care since October 9 — two days after Sherin Mathews went missing.
Last week, a family court judge in Dallas had ruled to move the child out of foster care. The girl’s father Wesley Mathews is charged with causing serious bodily injury to Sherin. He has been jailed and being held on $1 million bond in the case related to Sherin’s disappearance and death.
Her mother Sini Mathews was arrested last week after investigators said she and her husband left Sherin at home, without adult supervision, while they went to dinner with their 3-year-old biological daughter on Oct. 6.
Sini Mathews has been charged with abandoning or endangering a child. She had appeared in the court to take possession of the girl a few days before she was arrested. But the court decided to delay part of the custody proceedings because of “aggravated circumstances” in the case.
At the hearing held on November 13, the court ordered that the girl would be placed in the family member’s care if all the parties involved in the case were in agreement.
All the parties agreed to have the girl taken out of foster care and a home-study was completed of a relative’s home in the Houston area before the girl was moved out of foster care.
After Sherin Mathews went missing on October 7, her adopted father, Wesley Mathews, had told police that he had made the girl stand in the back lane of their house at 3 a.m. as a punishment for not drinking milk. Mathews said when he went to check after 15 minutes, she was missing.
The Richardson Police Department immediately started a search operation. The Child Protective Services also took the custody of Wesley Mathews and the Mathews’ 4-year-old biological daughter.
After two weeks, on October 22, the juvenile’s body was found in a culvert not very far from their home.
After the body was found, Mathews changed his previous statement given to the police and said he watched the girl die as she choked while drinking milk at their home.