Sherin Mathews was left alone as she refused to drink milk

The foster mother of three-year-old Indian girl Sherin Mathews found dead last month in a culvert in Dallas has been arrested and charged with child abandonment, with police alleging that the Indian-American couple left the kid in the kitchen alone and went out for dinner. Sini Ann Mathews and husband Wesley Mathews, who was arrested last month, went out for dinner with their three-year-old biological daughter October 6, the night before she was reported missing by her adoptive father.

The couple from Kerala, allegedly left Sherin alone in the kitchen because she refused to drink milk, police in Richardson, Texas said on Friday. The 35-year-old mother was arrested on Friday after her attorney took her to the Richardson police station. She is being held in the Richardson jail on a charge of abandoning or endangering a child, a state jail felony. Bail has been set at $2,50,000, police said. Sini, a nurse who works at Children’s Medical Center Dallas, could face different or additional charges, police Sergeant Kevin Perlich said on the case which has been widely reported in the international media.

Sini appeared before a family court judge on Monday in an attempt to regain custody of her biological daughter, who is expected to be moved at some point out of foster care to live with an extended family member. A state jail felony in Texas is an offence that is punishable by confinement in a state jail facility from six months up to two years.“This all stems from this ongoing investigation with Sherin. It’s sort of a culmination of everything we’ve got so far,” Perlich said.