Tag Archives: toddler

Texas father changes story about toddler’s death: police

By Bernie Woodall

(Reuters) – The Texas father who told police his 3-year-old daughter disappeared after he sent her outside at 3 a.m. as punishment for not drinking milk has now told police she died from choking on the drink, according to an arrest warrant issued on Tuesday.

Wesley Mathews reported that his daughter Sherin went missing on Oct. 7 from the family’s home in Richardson, Texas, outside Dallas. Her body was found on Sunday and has been positively identified by the local medical examiner, police said on Tuesday.

Mathews, 37, changed his story about the incident during a meeting on Monday with his attorney and detectives, according to police documents.

He told detectives that the child, who was born in India and adopted by the family, would not obey his instruction to drink the milk while they were in the family’s garage but eventually complied with his help.

She then “began to choke. She was coughing and her breathing slowed,” the affidavit said. “Eventually, Wesley Mathews no longer felt a pulse on the child and believed she had died.”

The suspect admitted moving her body from the home, the affidavit said.

Mathews was charged on Monday with injury to a child, a first-degree felony that carries a maximum punishment of 99 years in prison, police said.

Sergeant Kevin Perlich of the Richardson Police Department said in a phone interview on Tuesday that investigators were seeking answers to many questions, including why the two were in the garage as the child was asked to drink milk.

“By no means do we consider this investigation completed,” Perlich said, adding there could be additional charges and arrests.

Mathews’ attorney did not return a call on Tuesday requesting comment.

Mathews previously was charged with suspected child endangerment after telling police that he punished the child for not drinking her milk by making her stand next to a tree by an alley near their home.

At the time, he said he checked on her 15 minutes later and she was gone. Police said that he reported her disappearance about five hours later.

Sherin Mathews was identified by dental records after officers using search dogs found her body in a culvert under a road, police said.

(Reporting by Bernie Woodall in Fort Lauderdale, Fla; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Peter Cooney)

Father of Toddler killed at Disney Resort says two alligators were involved

Lane Graves, a 2-year-old boy who was grabbed by an alligator in a lagoon at Walt Disney World, is seen in an undated picture

(Reuters) – The distraught father of a 2-year-old boy dragged off and killed by an alligator at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida last month has said he was attacked by a second alligator as he fought to save his son.

Matt Graves, whose son Lane was killed in the Seven Seas Lagoon at Walt Disney World’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa after being dragged off in shallow waters, gave details about the attack to a fire captain, the Orlando Sentinel reported on Sunday.

The disclosure came via email messages obtained by the newspaper from the Reedy Creek Fire Department, in which Captain Tom Wellons relayed the father’s account from the day after the incident to his supervisors, the newspaper reported.

Graves was en route to a hospital for treatment on injuries he sustained while trying to save his son when he shared “the horror that he experienced” as his son was being pulled into the water and “how another gator attacked him as he fought,” Wellons wrote in the email, according to the report.

Assistant Chief Stan Paynter forwarded the email to Orange County officials to alert them about a second alligator.

The Sentinel also reported that sheriff’s office spokesman Angelo Nieves had said on Sunday a witness also said he had seen a second alligator attack the father.

Trappers killed and opened up five alligators the day after the attack before the boy’s body was found underwater and recovered intact.

Walt Disney Co has had more than 240 “nuisance” alligators captured and killed over the past 10 years at its Florida theme park property, according to state records.

Florida has an estimated 1.3 million wild alligators, or about one for every 15 residents, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

(Reporting by Chris Michaud; Editing by Paul Tait)