Months before missing Texas toddler Sherin Mathews was found dead, a pediatrician reported signs of abuse to Child Protective Services. Testimony Wednesday revealed the child was seen for broken bones, possible joint and muscle infections and other injuries over the course of a few months.

Sherin’s parents, Wesley and Sini Mathews, said she was pushed off the couch or had fallen on the playground to explain her injuries, according to testimony Wednesday. A Dallas doctor, however, notified CPS after becoming concerned that the injuries were inflicted by her parents.

“It involved me calling the hotline to make a report based on concerns that the child had sustained physical injuries at the hands of her parents,” Suzanne Dakil, a pediatrician at the Referral and Evaluation of At Risk Children Clinic testified Wednesday, according to the Dallas Morning News. “At that point, I didn’t have any other good explanation. I tried, actually, very hard to find another good explanation and I didn’t have one.”

Three-year-old Sherin was found dead in a culvert in October. Her parents had originally reported her missing after saying her father left her outside in the middle of the night as punishment for not drinking her milk. Once her body was found, however, Wesley Mathews changed his story, saying Sherin had choked on her milk and that he removed her body from the home. His story changed once again, when he told authorities he became “impatient” with Sherin for not drinking her milk and left her at home while he went to dinner with his wife and their other daughter.

Wesley Mathews remained behind bars on felony charges. Sherin’s mother was also arrested earlier in the month on felony charges of abandoning or endangering a child. The child’s cause of death had not yet been released.

Sini Mathews would not answer questions at Wednesday’s hearing, repeatedly pleading the Fifth when asked about Sherin’s injuries. The parents adopted the toddler from an orphanage in India two years prior to her death.

CPS Commissioner Hank Whitman said it was unclear how Sherin’s case was not better investigated but that the situation broke his heart. Whitman said the organization could have done a “much better job” and that it was “not acceptable.” He vowed to find out why the case slipped through.

“It’s that big disappointment I have,” he told WFAA-TV. “I’m gonna tell you right now, it is my mission, it is my passion that we get better at this.”

RELATED STORIES