Tips lead police to field in search for missing Richardson girl

RICHARDSON, Texas - The search for a missing 3-year-old girl from Richardson appeared to have a new level of intensity on Tuesday.

Police searched fields on and near the Richland College campus in Northeast Dallas, not far from where Wesley Mathews reported his daughter, Sherin, missing more than a week ago.

Richardson Police Department spokesman Sgt. Kevin Perlich said there were actually more searches happening Tuesday than just the one that could be seen from SKY 4.

The video from the helicopter showed officers working with drones in a field and scanning a creek near Walnut Street and Greenville Avenue across from Restland Cemetery. At one point, police appeared to zero in on a small wooded area. Investigators took pictures and collected articles of interest from some bushes, but it's unclear what was recovered.

"We are doing some very specific searches of the areas that throughout the course of this investigation we have gotten leads or tips that lead us to believe that these particular areas are of importance," Sgt. Perlich explained.

Sherin was last seen on the morning of Oct. 7 at 3 a.m. Her adoptive father told police he left her by a tree in the alley as punishment for not drinking her milk. When he returned about 15 minutes later he said she was gone.

Mathews didn’t report Sherin missing until 8 a.m. that morning. He admitted to doing laundry and police said his SUV also left the house before he called for help. He has since been charged with abandoning or endangering a child.

Richardson police asked the public to help provide surveillance video that might show where the SUV went between 4 and 5 a.m. the day Sherin disappeared. On Monday the department said its detectives were actively looking through video collected from the Mathews' neighbors and area businesses.

"The process of reviewing evidence both digital and physical, as well as witness statements is a time-consuming process and we ask for patience as we make progress," the department said in a statement.

Members of the community also conducted a public search for Sherin Tuesday afternoon.

With police tips continuing to come in, investigators are still trying to put them together.