An autopsy performed on late three-year-Indian toddler Sherin Mathews revealed that maggots had eaten her internal organs when the body reached the morgue, the doctor has told jurors in Dallas, Texas.
Wesley Mathews, the IndianAmerican foster father of Sherin, was sentenced to life in prison by a judge in Dallas on Wednesday for the death of the Indian toddler in 2017.
The forensic pathologist, Elizabeth Venturawho performed Sherin’s autopsy in October 2017, testified on Tuesday about her conclusions in the toddler’s death.
Ventura said that she could not determine how Sherin died as the body was too decomposed to get an official cause of death.
She told the Jury of eight men and four women that maggots had eaten Sherin’s internal organs away as her body was discovered in a trash bag in a culvert two weeks after her death.
Ventura said that due to the decomposition of the child’s vital organs like the heart and lungs, she was unable to perform an internal autopsy and determine her cause of death.
Complicating the issue of finding out how Sherin died was the lack of other evidence, including the clothes that Mathews washed before calling to report his daughter missing.
Sherin’s body was too decomposed to determine any other medical conditions at the time of her death, she said.
She ruled the manner of Sherin’s death “homicidal violence” due to the circumstances surrounding the case, Ventura told the jurors.
Ventura also did not agree with the claim of Mathews that Sherin chocked to death on milk.
“It’s not a cause of death that I have run across,” said Ventura. “We have yet to have a case where a child died from drinking milk,” she told the jury.
Authorities testified that there were a lot of red flags surrounding Mathews, that made them believe Sherin was murdered.
According to Suzanne Dakil of the Referral and Evaluation of At Risk Children Clinic (REACH), Sherin was deficient in Vitamin D, had scurvy, and showed signs of physical abuse. The toddler even had five broken bones within eight months.
Authorities said Mathews’ uncaring and casual attitude, coupled with other information and evidence, was enough for them to charge him with capital murder.
