Sherin Mathews was three years old when she died in Richardson, Texas, in October 2017, months after a forensic child abuse pediatrician told Texas CPS that fractures found on her body were most likely the result of ongoing abuse in her adoptive home. CPS closed the case anyway in April 2017, concluding the abuse "may have happened prior to her adoption." Seven months later, her adoptive father, Wesley Mathews, reported her missing; her body was found in a drainage culvert two weeks later. He later confessed to force-feeding her milk and to disposing of her body after she died.

Background: Wesley and Sini Mathews, originally from Kerala, India, adopted Sherin (born Saraswati Kumari) from a Bihar orphanage in 2016 through Holt International, despite not sharing her language. Wesley worked in finance at Citigroup; the family was stable, emplo ...