Americans and Indian Americans alike have been following the saga of Sherin Mathews, the sweet baby girl, that went missing from the home of her adopted parents in Dallas-Fort Worth.
Today, the media is reporting that
Police have found a body in the search for a three-year-old girl who went missing after her father reportedly sent her out of the house at 3am as a punishment.
Sherin Mathews has been missing since October 7 after being left in an alley by her home in Dallas, Texas, for refusing to finish her milk.
Police said the remains of a child had been found yesterday in a tunnel around half a mile from the family’s home. Officers said the body was “most likely” that of the missing toddler and efforts to officially identify it are underway today.
Wesley Mathews a native of Kerala in India and his wife Sini adopted the toddler’s from India. She was reportedly malnourished when the Mathews adopted her and police suspect that the little girl also had disabilities, which made it difficult for her to communicate. The three-year-old was last seen when her father reportedly took her outside at 3 AM and made her stand near a tree behind the family’s house as a type of punishment for not drinking milk.
Sherin Mathews saga does not end here, but rather raises more questions:
- About parenting: The area behind the house is wooded and infested with wild coyotes. What would possess a parent to leave a three-year-old near the house at 3 AM “as a type of punishment for not drinking milk” ?
- About adoption: Adopting a child is hard enough (link). Will stories like this make it harder for innocent parents to adopt children from abroad?
- About Indian-Americans: Incidents like these throw a spotlight on the South-Asian, Indian-American and NRI community. Not all the media attention will be positive.
Links:
Check out our earlier blog NRIs have a hard time adopting a child. Maybe this is why
GaramChai.com – Adoption, Adopting, children and Indian Social Links
Dallas News: Missing Richardson girl was dumped in bushes before adoption brought orphan to U.S.
Indian Express: Adopted Indian girl missing in US: Police recovers a body in tunnel, ‘most likely’ to be of Sherin Mathews
Blasting news: Grandparents, adoption agency in India speak of Texas toddler Sherin Mathews
blog.garamchai.com 