DALLAS _ The Indian government has suspended the U.S. adoption agency involved in placing Sherin Mathews with a Richardson, Texas, family, three months after the 3-year-old was found dead.
Sherin Mathews, who was adopted from India in 2016, died from homicidal violence in October, according to the Dallas County medical examiner's office. Her adoptive parents both face criminal charges in the case.
Maneka Gandhi, India's Women and Child Development minister, made the decision to suspend Holt International from operating in India, according to The Hindu.
The nonprofit adoption agency could not immediately be reached for comment, but the organization's website says applications for adoptions from India are no longer being accepted.
According to the agency's website, it has placed more than 1,480 Indian children in adoptive homes since 1979.
Both of Sherin's adoptive parents are in jail.
Wesley Mathews originally told police Sherin disappeared after he put her outside as a punishment for not drinking her milk. Police said he changed his story after her body was found on Oct. 24, saying he removed her body from the home after she choked on her milk.
He told authorities he put Sherin's body in his car with a bag of trash. Her body was later found in a culvert just miles from her home.
His wife, Sini Mathews, was arrested on a charge of child abandonment or endangerment based on Wesley Mathews' admission to police that he and his wife took Sherin's sister out to dinner and left Sherin home alone the night before the girl died.
The couple's biological daughter remains in CPS custody. Their parental rights will be determined in a civil trial.
