Search teams checked fields, creeks and wooded areas Tuesday for any sign of missing 3-year-old Sherin Mathews, more than 10 days after she was last seen.
Search teams checked fields, creeks and wooded areas Tuesday for any sign of missing 3-year-old Sherin Mathews, more than 10 days after she was last seen.
Richardson police officers and firefighters were joined by officers from Johnson County and the Mansfield Police Department in the search, using a drone to search by air and K-9 teams to search on the ground for the missing girl.
Police said they developed information that has led them to the areas they searched Tuesday.
At one point during the search, officers in a vehicle marked "Crime Scene Investigator" pulled up to a grove of trees being guarded by officers near the intersection of South Greenville Avenue and Walnut Street. The investigators put on gloves, removed something from beneath the trees and placed it in the back of their vehicle.
Officials later said they found "objects of interest," though they didn't specify what the objects were or to which case they may be related.
A number of police officers were then seen walking the field, about 10 feet apart, conducting a grid search.
The search area near Richland College is located about a mile from the child's last known location, outside her Richardson home on the 900 block of Sunningdale.
While Richardson police are not asking for the general public's help in their search efforts, the department did reach out to a search and recovery K-9 team for help.
MarK9, based in Dallas-Fort Worth, brought three dogs trained to find missing people.
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The dogs are also trained to be cadaver dogs.
"Just to assist our law enforcement, that is, they just need help, so we provide trained K-9s and trained individuals to help them," said Chris Holmberg, president of MarK9.
Police stopped searching late Tuesday evening.
The department would not reveal how many items were found, what they are or if they have been positively linked to the girl's disappearance.
The child was reportedly last seen by her adoptive father, 37-year-old Wesley Mathews, who told police he made his daughter stand by a tree about 100 feet from their house at 3 a.m. Oct. 7 as punishment for not drinking her milk.
He told police he came back outside about 15 minutes later and she was gone.
Mathews told police he searched for his daughter before returning home, where he hoped she would return on her own. Police said he told detectives he did a load of laundry and then called 911 to report the girl missing at 8:12 a.m.
Mathews was arrested Oct. 7 and charged with child neglect. He posted $250,000 bond and was ordered to surrender his passport and wear an ankle monitor.
The Mathews family adopted the girl from an Indian orphanage one year ago and told police she was malnourished and that they had been trying to get the girl to put on weight.
In the days since the her disappearance, the FBI and police searched the family’s home and yard and removed phones, computers and the family's three vehicles.
The car belonging to the girl's mother, who has not been charged in the case, was returned last week.
