Found Deceased TX - Sherin Mathews, 3, Richardson, 7 Oct 2017 #2

[Gigglingtoes]

You're very welcome! I know the area quite well, just haven't driven in this neck of the woods for awhile. Richardson has older pockets (1950s ranch-style homes) and newer pockets--but many of the new neighborhoods still follow that alley-design, with a few odd homes here and there without rear alley access, and a few with front-entry garages.

It is a busy place, even though considered a 'bedroom community' to Dallas - there are several colleges that attract young adults (UTD, Richland, etc.) and the area also has had many businesses in the IT field. These college areas may be more apt to have security cams, but it's hard to tell (for me at least) which other centers would be using that technology. Guessing like any other city it would depend on the crime stats for a particular part of town. I'm really wondering if the driver of that Acura stopped to think about security cams, though. After reading and pondering some more today about that "whizzing" car, I've come to the conclusion that that departure at 4:00am may have been the driver simply getting the heck out of Dodge.' ASAP. And the fastest route out and away from that house and neighborhood would hands down be taking Centennial west to Central Expressway (a 5-6 minute drive at most, maybe less at that early hour).

Continuing that theory, once arriving at Central, he'd either fly north at 70mph-plus, or he'd go south.

So here are some options:

HEADING NORTH:

1) 75/Central Expy north, to McKinney and beyond
PRO: it's a straight shoot, no stopping until you get to the boonies
CON: it's a looong trip, even at that hour (McKinney is 22 miles north, and the boonies don't start until after that; familiarity with hiding spots?)

2) North a short while on 75/Central, then exit Pres Geo Bush Tnpk (going east or west)
PRO: fast, no stops on either road; terrain with some trees, woods, and creeks either direction
CONS: tolls cams/license plate cameras on Pres Geo Bush Tnpk both directions

OR SOUTH:

3) take 75/Central south to downtown Dallas; keep going south right on out of the city via another hwy
PRO: fast, no stopping
CON: takes you through dense, pricey, well-patroled University Park/Highland Park with some very bored LE; risky dumping until you're south of Dallas (and south Dallas carries its own risks in the middle of the night)

4) south a few miles on 75/Central then exit onto 635/LBJ going EAST:
PROS: Fast, no stopping; going east on LBJ takes you through terrain with lots of trees, woods, and creeks; eventually hooking up with 30E can take you out to more semi-rural areas just west of and including Lake Ray Hubbard
CONS: ? (familiarity with hiding spots?)

5) south a few miles on 75/Central, then exit 635/LBJ going WEST:
PROS: fast, no stopping; takes you right out the LasColinas/IRVING - it's a 16-mile (shorter) trip to familiar territory
CON: none, if you stay on 635W and don't merge onto the new "Interstate 635 TEXpress" (which has tolls) [COLOR=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.870588)]
[/COLOR]
After writing this out and seeing how relatively short the round trip to Irving would be, I'm really wondering. It's been reported that WM had contacts there (work and church), so he would likely have had some degree of familiarity with the route (more so than others).

I would also put money on the driver taking 75. Not mckinney though. I say he probably went toward Dallas. Since he works that direction.

Taking the toll roads would just be dumb.

 

[georgiajean]

For those interested in learning more about adoptions and India, I found this article from 2015 to be very interesting.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahom...doption-rates-plummet-50-cent-five-years.html
One thing is that adoption rates have plummeted in recent years, especially for states in the north eastern part of India. Adoptions in the southern tip of India have remained stronger. So that may be why they selected that region for their adoption--to take a child who had very little chance of being adopted.

While South Indian states such as Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala have still maintained a relatively high rate of adoption, states like Bihar, Jharkhand, Goa and Uttarakhand, along with the seven North-Eastern states, have recorded an abysmally low number of child adoption.

also

“The adoption rate of 800 to 1,000 per year in India, which has around 50,000 orphan children, is shameful,” she had noted, adding that she wants more and more children to be adopted per year failing which the worst performing adoption agencies will be shut down immediately.

Passports for out-of-country adoptions have made adoptions difficult.In the past, passports had to have a birth certificate, but many orphans have no birth certificate. So now passport officials have been directed to accept the orphanage/adoption agency's indicated date of birth. Which means (IMO) many children adopted may not be the age they are said to be. Interesting.

The MEA’s direction came after the Women and Child Development (WCD) ministry wrote to it, pointing out that some abandoned and orphan inter-country adopted children are facing difficulties in obtaining birth certificates, which is a mandatory requirement for obtaining a passport. "The matter has been examined in this ministry (MEA) and to mitigate the problems faced by such children, it has been decided that for the issuance of passports to abandoned, orphan inter-country children, passport authorities may either accept copy of birth certificate or the date of birth as recorded in the court order which should be accompanied by a copy of NOC of CARA bearing date of birth of the adopted child, as his birth proof,” the MEA circular said.

 

[Momma2cam]

There was a HUGE issue with cps not following up in Texas and for example, a young girl was beaten by her parents to death with a bamboo stick. Cps has been to the home but didn’t follow up. Other cases like that kept coming up so they “cleaned house” in the past year or so and are trying to do better after all the media coverage.

I would imagine that this would make them look really bad as well if the Dad is still out on bail and they gave their older daughter back. I don’t think they want that heat. Nor do judges.


Jmo

I agree with you that given the media coverage of this case, they are going to have increased scrutiny by leadership to ensure all policies and protocol are followed.

We've had similar issues in Michigan and the system was actually sued in the last decade as a result. Changes were made to reduce caseloads, increase training, etc but the sad reality is that no amount of training or oversight is going to prevent every case of abuse. Often workers don't have much control or choice if they visit a home and the child recants or doesn't disclose, the house meets standards, etc, which is not uncommon. I've heard CPS workers talk about "gut feelings" more times than I can count but no concrete evidence or statements to be able to take it to court for removal.

I know we don't know the details of what happened with CPS in the past with this family, but I'm wondering if there was suspicion of abuse but no proof. Sherin not being able to communicate would have been a barrier, too.

Sent from my SM-G935T using Tapatalk

 

[deepeaches]

Beautiful little cutie.

Her arm looks bruised and i see a scratch or cut near the elbow... Her little hand the fingers look swollen this just breaks my heart & i hope they find her soon.. I pray for her)

 

[MarisaS1985]

You're very welcome! I know the area quite well, just haven't driven in this neck of the woods for awhile. Richardson has older pockets (1950s ranch-style homes) and newer pockets--but many of the new neighborhoods still follow that alley-design, with a few odd homes here and there without rear alley access, and a few with front-entry garages.

It is a busy place, even though considered a 'bedroom community' to Dallas - there are several colleges that attract young adults (UTD, Richland, etc.) and the area also has had many businesses in the IT field. These college areas may be more apt to have security cams, but it's hard to tell (for me at least) which other centers would be using that technology. Guessing like any other city it would depend on the crime stats for a particular part of town. I'm really wondering if the driver of that Acura stopped to think about security cams, though. After reading and pondering some more today about that "whizzing" car, I've come to the conclusion that that departure at 4:00am may have been the driver simply getting the heck out of Dodge.' ASAP. And the fastest route out and away from that house and neighborhood would hands down be taking Centennial west to Central Expressway (a 5-6 minute drive at most, maybe less at that early hour).

Continuing that theory, once arriving at Central, he'd either fly north at 70mph-plus, or he'd go south.

So here are some options:

HEADING NORTH:

1) 75/Central Expy north, to McKinney and beyond
PRO: it's a straight shoot, no stopping until you get to the boonies
CON: it's a looong trip, even at that hour (McKinney is 22 miles north, and the boonies don't start until after that; familiarity with hiding spots?)

2) North a short while on 75/Central, then exit Pres Geo Bush Tnpk (going east or west)
PRO: fast, no stops on either road; terrain with some trees, woods, and creeks either direction
CONS: tolls cams/license plate cameras on Pres Geo Bush Tnpk both directions

OR SOUTH:

3) take 75/Central south to downtown Dallas; keep going south right on out of the city via another hwy
PRO: fast, no stopping
CON: takes you through dense, pricey, well-patroled University Park/Highland Park with some very bored LE; risky dumping until you're south of Dallas (and south Dallas carries its own risks in the middle of the night)

4) south a few miles on 75/Central then exit onto 635/LBJ going EAST:
PROS: Fast, no stopping; going east on LBJ takes you through terrain with lots of trees, woods, and creeks; eventually hooking up with 30E can take you out to more semi-rural areas just west of and including Lake Ray Hubbard
CONS: ? (familiarity with hiding spots?)

5) south a few miles on 75/Central, then exit 635/LBJ going WEST:
PROS: fast, no stopping; takes you right out the LasColinas/IRVING - it's a 16-mile (shorter) trip to familiar territory
CON: none, if you stay on 635W and don't merge onto the new "Interstate 635 TEXpress" (which has tolls)

After writing this out and seeing how relatively short the round trip to Irving would be, I'm really wondering. It's been reported that WM had contacts there (work and church), so he would likely have had some degree of familiarity with the route (more so than others).

Thanks for this!
My thought is it was unplanned and therefore frantic, whether it was a few mins to a few hours from the incident, I would imagine that the person was quite distraught and if this was Sherin being dumped, it would most likely be a route that the driver takes regularly, possibly daily or multiple times a day. We are creatures of habit even if we try not to be.
Now, if whatever happened was premeditated, whether it was murder or dropping her off for rehoming, every detail would likely be far more planned out and that would mean they more likely researched cameras and may have even done practice drives to see where there were obvious cams in the neighbourhood.
With how many crimes in the last 15 days alone in their general area, I imagine that a lot of people have cameras. I think the crime map someone posted upthread yesterday said 156 crimes in their area since October 1st, if that was my neighbourhood I would have cameras all over.

 

[georgiajean]

This case is so highly confusing to me. The other cases that have been receiving a lot of attention lately have included parents with a lot of issues, criminal records, and red flags. Where are the red flags here? All the videos and pictures of this girl show a very very cute and doted-upon child (The Find Sherin pages online). What went wrong?

Wanting to play devil's advocate here, to try and make sense of the facts as we know them. If (Big IF) the story that LE has been told is true, what does that mean? It means that A-- someone or B--something took Sherin, or C--Sherin wandered off and got into trouble.
A--If someone took her, it would have happened in the 15 minutes before the father came back out and found her missing.
If someone took her, They had to have traveled out of sight of any security cameras, or LE would have found evidence, or a neighbor would have found evidence. UNLESS the person who took her was a neighbor who has yet to be discovered. IF Sherin was put by the tree, and IF a neighbor took her, would there have been evidence? Would LE know if this did or didn't happen?
B--If something (like coyotes) took Sherin, there would have been evidence. The dogs would have picked up on something, because a coyote would have had to incapacitate her (or she would have screamed) and then drag her.
C--If Sherin wandered off on her own, the dogs would have picked up on her scent, correct?

This leaves me thinking that IF the father's story is true (Big IF), the only possible way it can be true is if someone in the neighborhood took her. Has a thorough search for RSO's in the area been done?

 

[nannymo]

I am catching us so please excuse if this has been discussed......Texas Equusearch does not come search unless there is a pretty specific area to be searched. They probably would be more useful if LE had a pretty good idea where her body was disposed and then they would come do a thorough search.

 

[Grouchymom]

I quickly googled Chad Ruback and it says he is an appellate attorney but I have a migraine and didn't look for more. Does this mean he is NOT a lawyer on this case and is only speculating to the news or does he work with the prosecution side? I don't recall hearing his name before but thought maybe he was speaking from the DA's stance.

Someone said above (can't figure out the multi-quote) something about Sherin's sister and how they doubt the mother or bio family will ever get her back. Is this based on how the state of Texas tends to work, something you have read or heard or the fact that the father has been charged with a pretty serious crime?

I know where I am CPS and the criminal courts don't always see eye-to-eye, meaning there are times a conviction occurs but the parent has cooperated and proved rehabilitated so visitation and possible custody is not necessarily out of the question, and on the flip there are times the parent is not convicted of any of the charges but because they refuse to admit or seek help via parenting classes/therapy etc they lose the right to their child(ren) permanently.

I also know for a fact that where I am that before a child is placed with extended family they do very intense and rather invasive home studies that last about 10 months while the child is in foster care. They do this because they are concerned that the abuse is a pattern that has run through the family and because they need to know that all rules regarding visitation and such are going to be fully obeyed and the child will be at extremely low risk.

As Katydid23 stated the primary goal with Social Services (DSS, CPS, DCFS) is reunification. However, most laws, rules, policies and procedures are set by each state with a few notable exceptions. Those exception are set federally. One of those exceptions would apply if and when it is proven that Sherin is deceased. Regardless of who may have killed her or how she died at this point the dad is admittedly guilty of child endangerment and neglect. Under federal law that would prevent him from having custody of any other child.

The mother would only be able to regain custody of the bio daughter if after she were to be cleared of any involvement or knowledge of the endangerment and neglect (a much stricter standard than reasonable doubt applys here) and the only if she were to cut all ties with the dad. This would make regaining custody of the bio daughter an uphill battle. Not impossible but extremely difficult, expensive and time consuming. There will be a lot of hoops to jump through as well as bureaucratic roadblocks. Is it fair? If she is completely innocent maybe not. But it is intended to protect current and future children from the same fate of a deceased sibling.

 

[kooky_nomad]

From their Facebook page

 

[nannymo]

All this discussion about rehoming little Sherin. If they were rehoming her, why report her missing? Just tell everyone, she is living with an Aunt or friend for awhile. I don't believe she was rehomed. JMO

 

[blue22]

As Katydid23 stated the primary goal with Social Services (DSS, CPS, DCFS) is reunification. However, most laws, rules, policies and procedures are set by each state with a few notable exceptions. Those exception are set federally. One of those exceptions would apply if and when it is proven that Sherin is deceased. Regardless of who may have killed her or how she died at this point the dad is admittedly guilty of child endangerment and neglect. Under federal law that would prevent him from having custody of any other child.

The mother would only be able to regain custody of the bio daughter if after she were to be cleared of any involvement or knowledge of the endangerment and neglect (a much stricter standard than reasonable doubt applys here) and the only if she were to cut all ties with the dad. This would make regaining custody of the bio daughter an uphill battle. Not impossible but extremely difficult, expensive and time consuming. There will be a lot of hoops to jump through as well as bureaucratic roadblocks. Is it fair? If she is completely innocent maybe not. But it is intended to protect current and future children from the same fate of a deceased sibling.

Yes, to all this.

IMO, this is also why local family may not be a long term solution in the eyes of CPS. Unless they have 100% confidence that the family will not facilitate access to the child.

 

[PoirotryInMotion]

This case is so highly confusing to me. The other cases that have been receiving a lot of attention lately have included parents with a lot of issues, criminal records, and red flags. Where are the red flags here? All the videos and pictures of this girl show a very very cute and doted-upon child (The Find Sherin pages online). What went wrong?

Wanting to play devil's advocate here, to try and make sense of the facts as we know them. If (Big IF) the story that LE has been told is true, what does that mean? It means that A-- someone or B--something took Sherin, or C--Sherin wandered off and got into trouble.
A--If someone took her, it would have happened in the 15 minutes before the father came back out and found her missing.
If someone took her, They had to have traveled out of sight of any security cameras, or LE would have found evidence, or a neighbor would have found evidence. UNLESS the person who took her was a neighbor who has yet to be discovered. IF Sherin was put by the tree, and IF a neighbor took her, would there have been evidence? Would LE know if this did or didn't happen?
B--If something (like coyotes) took Sherin, there would have been evidence. The dogs would have picked up on something, because a coyote would have had to incapacitate her (or she would have screamed) and then drag her.
C--If Sherin wandered off on her own, the dogs would have picked up on her scent, correct?

This leaves me thinking that IF the father's story is true (Big IF), the only possible way it can be true is if someone in the neighborhood took her. Has a thorough search for RSO's in the area been done?

I've run through these same questions to try to make the story fit (however absurd the laundry part of it). But the problem is the van.

He tells LE his strange story, then clams up and is 'uncooperative'...THEN police find out the family van was gone from 4-5am. While he has offered all kinds of odd or incriminating detail in his story, THAT big detail got left out. He could have put that into the story, too. "So I went out looking for her in the family car." But he didn't.

I'm afraid credibility is gone. (For me, at least.)

 

[katydid23]

This case is so highly confusing to me. The other cases that have been receiving a lot of attention lately have included parents with a lot of issues, criminal records, and red flags. Where are the red flags here? All the videos and pictures of this girl show a very very cute and doted-upon child (The Find Sherin pages online). What went wrong?

Wanting to play devil's advocate here, to try and make sense of the facts as we know them. If (Big IF) the story that LE has been told is true, what does that mean? It means that A-- someone or B--something took Sherin, or C--Sherin wandered off and got into trouble.
A--If someone took her, it would have happened in the 15 minutes before the father came back out and found her missing.
If someone took her, They had to have traveled out of sight of any security cameras, or LE would have found evidence, or a neighbor would have found evidence. UNLESS the person who took her was a neighbor who has yet to be discovered. IF Sherin was put by the tree, and IF a neighbor took her, would there have been evidence? Would LE know if this did or didn't happen?
B--If something (like coyotes) took Sherin, there would have been evidence. The dogs would have picked up on something, because a coyote would have had to incapacitate her (or she would have screamed) and then drag her.
C--If Sherin wandered off on her own, the dogs would have picked up on her scent, correct?

This leaves me thinking that IF the father's story is true (Big IF), the only possible way it can be true is if someone in the neighborhood took her. Has a thorough search for RSO's in the area been done?

I understand where you are going with this. But there are major hurdles for me, in thinking that A may have happened :

After Dad goes back to the tree, in 15 minutes, and his toddler is missing, why did he shrug and return home, to do laundry?

Why didn't he run around calling her name and knock on doors, to ask for help searching for her?

Where did he go from 4 to 5 am?

Why didn't he wake up his wife, and get some more much needed help?

Why wait for 5 hours to report her missing?


All of the above ^^^^ makes it very hard for me to accept that the danger she faced was from anywhere else but her father, that night.

 

[georgiajean]

Her arm looks bruised and i see a scratch or cut near the elbow... Her little hand the fingers look swollen this just breaks my heart & i hope they find her soon.. I pray for her)

Is that the arm that was in a sling, and that she had surgery on the elbow? I've seen other angles on the arm, and it looks like surgery scars/stitches/staples.

 

[Wish I Knew]

Every night....checking for an update....

 

[katydid23]

As Katydid23 stated the primary goal with Social Services (DSS, CPS, DCFS) is reunification. However, most laws, rules, policies and procedures are set by each state with a few notable exceptions. Those exception are set federally. One of those exceptions would apply if and when it is proven that Sherin is deceased. Regardless of who may have killed her or how she died at this point the dad is admittedly guilty of child endangerment and neglect. Under federal law that would prevent him from having custody of any other child.

The mother would only be able to regain custody of the bio daughter if after she were to be cleared of any involvement or knowledge of the endangerment and neglect (a much stricter standard than reasonable doubt applys here) and the only if she were to cut all ties with the dad. This would make regaining custody of the bio daughter an uphill battle. Not impossible but extremely difficult, expensive and time consuming. There will be a lot of hoops to jump through as well as bureaucratic roadblocks. Is it fair? If she is completely innocent maybe not. But it is intended to protect current and future children from the same fate of a deceased sibling.

I agree with all of the above, except for the final part, about it being a totally uphill battle to get her oldest girl back.

If he goes to jail for 10 to 20, and if she cooperates, and helps make that happen, then I think she will have a much better chance of reunification.

The police and CPS work together, hand in hand, quite often. And if she is totally cleared by LE, and helps them and the DA convict her husband, then I feel that she will have a good chance to have her child returned to her. JMO

 

[georgiajean]

I've run through these same questions to try to make the story fit (however absurd the laundry part of it). But the problem is the van.

He tells LE his strange story, then clams up and is 'uncooperative'...THEN police find out the family van was gone from 4-5am. While he has offered all kinds of odd or incriminating detail in his story, THAT big detail got left out. He could have put that into the story, too. "So I went out looking for her in the family car." But he didn't.

I'm afraid credibility is gone. (For me, at least.)

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I guess I wanted to take the parents' actions completely out of the picture, to see where that trail would lead, in case it provided some ideas. Yeah, the vehicle... Did someone steal it and return it without their knowledge? Did the nanny take it to get food for breakfast, unaware of what was going on with Sherin?

I don't know what to think about how the parents are responding to this situation. It doesn't match what I would expect. But I don't know them, nor their reasons for what they are doing. Maybe they are embarrassed and afraid. Maybe the father was so overwhelmed with guilt and shame to tell all the details. Maybe his English is good enough during times of low stress, but under stress he falls apart and says the wrong thing. Maybe they feel that their job is to stay out of the way. I don't know.

I just didn't want (myself) to miss a potential thread because I'm so focused on the father/household.

 

[Margo/Mom]

This case is so highly confusing to me. The other cases that have been receiving a lot of attention lately have included parents with a lot of issues, criminal records, and red flags. Where are the red flags here? All the videos and pictures of this girl show a very very cute and doted-upon child (The Find Sherin pages online). What went wrong?

Wanting to play devil's advocate here, to try and make sense of the facts as we know them. If (Big IF) the story that LE has been told is true, what does that mean? It means that A-- someone or B--something took Sherin, or C--Sherin wandered off and got into trouble.
A--If someone took her, it would have happened in the 15 minutes before the father came back out and found her missing.
If someone took her, They had to have traveled out of sight of any security cameras, or LE would have found evidence, or a neighbor would have found evidence. UNLESS the person who took her was a neighbor who has yet to be discovered. IF Sherin was put by the tree, and IF a neighbor took her, would there have been evidence? Would LE know if this did or didn't happen?
B--If something (like coyotes) took Sherin, there would have been evidence. The dogs would have picked up on something, because a coyote would have had to incapacitate her (or she would have screamed) and then drag her.
C--If Sherin wandered off on her own, the dogs would have picked up on her scent, correct?

This leaves me thinking that IF the father's story is true (Big IF), the only possible way it can be true is if someone in the neighborhood took her. Has a thorough search for RSO's in the area been done?

Early on there was a neighbor on a news report saying that the police spent a lot of time at his house--checking the garage and freezer. Seemed odd. But perhaps there was some reason to suspect him? I don't think he's an RSO--as the report suggested the family had 3 children. But, a lot of folks don't get caught until they have been engaged in activity for quite some time.

 

[georgiajean]

I understand where you are going with this. But there are major hurdles for me, in thinking that A may have happened :

After Dad goes back to the tree, in 15 minutes, and his toddler is missing, why did he shrug and return home, to do laundry?

Why didn't he run around calling her name and knock on doors, to ask for help searching for her?

Where did he go from 4 to 5 am?

Why didn't he wake up his wife, and get some more much needed help?

Why wait for 5 hours to report her missing?


All of the above ^^^^ makes it very hard for me to accept that the danger she faced was from anywhere else but her father, that night.

Agreed on the questions. It doesn't make sense. IF his story is true, I would question his mental fitness, and would consider him a horrible parent with incredible selfishness (his actions show indifference, pride, and concern for what others think, IMO).

 

[Hotbell312]

Ok I was looking at maps and I see a white rock lake near the house. Looks like within a half an hr distance. Maybe if I was in a panicked state, that seems like the closest largest body of water (Texans, correct me if I'm wrong). Would this be a area of people to search if the police are ok with it. I'm just throwing out ideas here.