He killed her...says the jury in my mind.

and he has stopped cooperating with police.

Where is the mother in this whole charade? I'm not sure I buy that she was sleeping but even if she was, I find it difficult to believe this is the first time dad has acted out. If she knows something, I hope she can find a safe space to tell her story.

Which of course, like many others, I don't think he is.

Lawyering up is probably the correct course of action. As well as lawyering up if he's lying.

Cops would be able to break him down easily if he was lying. And if he was being truthful they could get him to incriminate himself without knowing or realizing.

So I cannot fault him for lawyering up.

I can fault him for his original statements that make no sense and implicate in and of themself.

Why would any parent try to force a young child to drink milk at 3:00 am?

the child woke up thirsty, he brought her milk, and she decided she didn't want it.

I can't even count the cups of water I've brought at 3am to find the child asking for it already asleep again or just not wanting it after all.

No biggie, not the end of the world. Unless you are a psychopath like this guy.

but my children (two and only two) never woke up in the middle of the night asking for water. Not sure why, not sure if I did something right or something wrong, but I can only report that they never did so.

As a consequence, I've always been somewhat puzzled by such reports. However, I'm pretty sure if they'd been the kind of kids who wok up in the middle of the night asking for water, I'd have gotten it for them. I feel remarkably certain I'd never had put a 3 year old out under a tree at 3am, no matter what the provocation.

My 7 year old will go get herself a drink if she wakes up. The almost 3 year old will just come get me and ask for one. And the baby...well the baby has me and beverages are on tap.

I view lack of sleep as part of my job so while I sure miss 7-8 hours of uninterrupted sleep I don't get angry over it. They are little. They need me. And someday they won't. Time goes by fast and sooner than I like they won't need a cuddle before bed or in the middle of the night. And then I'll get my sleep but I know I'll miss those little voices that call out, "mama!" at 3am.

so they were feeding her more frequently/at unusual hours to attempt to help her put weight on.

This is a classic missing persons case. Except in 99% of other cases like this the parents / guardians call the cops immediately and get a search and rescue team on the problem. This isn't a 17 y/o runaway. This isn't even a 12 year old being rebellious. This is a small child disappearing. There's no "wait 24 hours" BS here. This is Amber Alert quality. The local community would have hundreds of volunteers in a few minutes walking the woods looking for her. Yes, even at 3AM (Amber Alerts will cause any cell phone in the vicinity to go off; that's waking up a lot of people).

I was not in any defending the father who (1) should not have made his child stand under a tree outside alone at 3 AM (2) didn't immediately call 911 when he went out 15 minutes later and could not find her.

Just stating the reason that was offered for why the 3:00 AM glass of milk.

That's why I think it's more concerning because they "apparently" cared about her enough to "fatten her up" and take the extra effort to wake her up to get more body fat / energy / muscle with "3AM feedings." Yet they (at least the husband) didn't freak the fuck out when she disappeared? It's really disturbing and unlikely.

On occasion one of my kids went "missing" for a brief time. I'm using the quotes because it was NEVER a serious case of gone missing. One time I couldn't find my younger child when I was doing a final house check before going to bed. I finally found him sound asleep on the floor of the laundry room.

That same child would often wander away from me when we were out shopping, and I'd have to go searching for him. I soon realized that he'd eventually return to the place he'd last seen me, so all was well.

My point here is that there are missing kids (like my son, not very serious) and there are missing kids (name any high profile case you want). There are substantive difference between those two. I'm genuinely grateful I never had the latter kind of missing kid, but I've had enough brief scares to get a sense of what the real thing might be like.

Losing a kid in a store or in the house isn't as concerning as losing a kid in the woods outside your house. Even if the kid was trained or knew to return home, they could get lost very easily. Be eaten by predators, be attacked by molesters. Who knows. It's the worst case scenario.

Lost my nephew once at the park. I usually keep a perfect eye on him but he suddenly disappeared. Too many kids with orange shirts on. I went absolutely nuts about it. Scanning everyone and every kid like a mad man. Turns out he was sitting down talking to another kid underneath the slide and I finally located him. But only after literally running the entire park looking in a panicked induced psychosis. It was probably my most scared moment of my life.

I simply cannot comprehend a missing girl at 3AM and not calling the police immediately and waking the entire family up and knocking on neighbors' doors. Going back inside and doing laundry and not contacting the cops for 5 hours is inconceivable to me.

How do you get to this point as a parent? If he did not kill her, and let's face it, he did, then he needs to be jailed as an accomplice. That child trusted her dad and that trust was utterly, horribly betrayed....no matter how this turns out.

knew she has been murdered and hidden.

A five hour window before he called the police. 2.5 hours to take her body somewhere and 2.5 to get back.

Let's hope they got cell phone pings and can either get him to confess or there's more evidence such as the CPS reports. Otherwise this guy walks. The Casey Anthony of guys.

But, you're right, it's difficult to impossible.

The story has never made any sense. First question is why is a little girl supposed to be drinking milk at 3 AM? The second question is why would you punish a child for not drinking milk? Is this the equivalent of my parents not letting me leave the table until I had finished my liver? Not a normal way of dealing with a developmentally delayed three year old. Or any three-year-old.

What is going to turn out to have happened is that this “father“ probably backhanded or punched her or something like that and managed to kill her when he did it. So, he came up with the American version of the dingo ate my baby.

The problem is is that the story makes absolutely no sense at all. Nothing fits. Why would you force a non-verbal child out to stand in the dark for 15 minutes? Then when she “disappeared” there is no reason that would be understandable to any parent for not waking up the entire household and going out and scouring the area for that child.

Unless he knew that she wasn’t going to be found. He has probably buried her somewhere and she will be discovered eventually.

I live in the area and it was reported that child protective services has been out of this house before. That is a very very bad sign indeed.

But that, of course, is confidential.

He most definitely is. His story does not stand up.

In getting the child back ?

Or suspect...

The police will be able to determine this...

Geez

At this point, I hope she did not suffer long.

What a horrid story with such an obvious set of lies.

She's in the woods somewhere buried deep.

Meredith Yeomans @YeomansNBC5
FBI Evidence Response Team preparing to enter Mathews home. Being told the missing 3yo's parents are not here. @NBCDFW

could it be any more obvious?

But, I am sure the FBI is highly suspicious and not trusting a word he is saying.

Someone had seen him near a lake so the police started looking there. He eventually confessed then plead guilty. He disclosed the child' s burial place to avoid the death penalty.

Hopefully he had his cell phone on him as he traveled to wherever he disposed of the body so that investigators can get a general area where he is based on what cell towers it was hitting.

Poor child.

they aren't saying how they knew the vehicle was missing .


<Richardson police say a vehicle was missing from the Mathews family's home at around the time 3-year-old Sherin Mathews disappeared Saturday morning.

Police are asking residents and businesses to check any surveillance video recordings from Saturday, Oct. 7, 2017, between 4 and 5 a.m. for any sign of a maroon Acura MDX.

Investigators removed three vehicles, including a maroon Acura MDX, from the family's home on Saturday evening for analysis.

Police are asking people to check their surveillance systems because detectives are working to retrace the path of the MDX. Police have not said who they believe may have been driving the SUV during that time frame, but the vehicle belongs to Wesley and Sini Mathews.

They wouldn't say how they know the SUV was missing during that time frame.>

Source: Vehicle Missing From Family Home on Morning of Girl's Disappearance: Richardson Police - NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Vehicle-Missing-From-Family-Home-on-Morning-of-Girls-Disappearance-Richardson-Police-450693353.html#ixzz4vNWSRZfF
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