Police May Have Found the Body of a 3-Year-Old Who Disappeared After Being Sent Outside as Punishment

Texas police say they have found the body of a young child during the search for Sherin Mathews, a 3-year-old girl who went missing from a Dallas suburb two weeks ago after being sent out of her home in the middle of the night as punishment.

A child’s body was found on Oct. 22 in a culvert beneath a road in the suburb of Richardson, Texas. Police told reporters that the body is “most likely” that of Mathews, but stopped short of identifying it as the missing girl.

“The indications are that it is most likely her, however, we have not had positive ID” Sgt. Kevin Perlich told reporters. “So until we have a positive identification we are not going to say it is Sherin.”

The cause of death for the body has yet to be determined. No arrests have yet been made in connection with the discovery.

Sherin, who was adopted by Wesley Mathews and his wife Sini from an orphanage in India, was reported missing on Oct. 7 after her father made her stand outside their home at 3 a.m. as punishment for not drinking her milk, the Washington Post reports. He has said that when he looked outside 15 minutes later, she was gone.

Wesley Mathews reportedly waited until after sunrise before reporting Sherin’s disappearance to the police. He told authorities that his daughter was malnourished and had to be fed whenever she was awake. He was arrested on child abandonment and endangerment charges on the day Sherin went missing, but has since been released on bail.