In a major development in the disappearance of 3-year-old Indian-American girl Sherin Mathews in Texas, the police have now found that a vehicle from the Mathews' household was absent from the house, just an hour after Sherin is said to have gone missing.
In an official update, the Richardson Police Department has said that Mathews' 2013 maroon Acura MDX SUV was absent from the house between 4 am and 5 am.
According to Sherin's father Wesley Mathews' version of the events, his adopted daughter with special needs went missing at 3.15 am on Saturday. At 3 am, he asked her to stand near a tree outside the house as punishment for not drinking milk. If Wesley's statement to the police is to be believed, the car from the Mathews' household was absent from the house, just minutes after Sherin went missing.
The police are now on the look out for any possible video footage that might have captured the movement of the vehicle.
"We are asking for residents and business owners within an area where this vehicle could have traveled within that hour to review and preserve any video possibly containing this vehicle," the police said in a release.
Needle of suspicion on the father
37-year-old Wesley Mathews, a native of Kerala, was the last person to have seen Sherin, before she went missing in the wee hours of Saturday- according to his own admission.
After he told the police that he had indeed sent Sherin out of the house at the odd hour, the Richardson police arrested Wesley and charged him for abandoning or endangering the child. However, he was later let off on bond.
According to reports, the police have confiscated Wesley's passport and have made him wear an electronic ankle monitor to track his movements.