The owner of the orphanage where three-year-old Sherin Mathews lived before she was adopted by a couple from Texas, United States, said on Wednesday that the child had no eating problems, as her adoptive father had claimed.

Wesley Mathews had reported Sherin missing from near Dallas on October 7. He had told the police that his daughter went missing after he told her to stand outside their house at 3 am as punishment for not drinking milk. He had claimed she was malnourished when she was adopted, and they had to put her on a special diet that included feeding her whenever she was awake.

After Sherin’s body was found in a culvert close to their home in Richardson on Sunday, Wesley Mathew changed his story and told the Texas Police he was with Sherin in the garage trying to get her to drink her milk and saw her die after choking.

The owner of the orphanage Babitha Kumari, however told American TV station WFAA that Sherin had no disorder, “whether it was drinking milk or eating.” Kumari, who owned the Nalanda Mother Teresa Anatha Seva Ashram said the Mathews had appeared “loving”, and that the father had called often before the adoption was processed.

However, Holt International – the agency that oversaw Sherin’s adoption in the US – had referred to her eating problems in its reports submitted to India’s Child Adoption Resource Authority, PTI reported. The reports submitted since her adoption in July 2016 said that while Sherin Matthews was “adjusting well” and appeared to be “secure and comfortable”, feeding her had become a challenge.

In an interview to Rediff.com, Kumari said she had received a notice from the Social Welfare Department in Bihar requesting her to close Nalanda Mother Teresa Anath Seva Ashram by September 15. She said she was asked to transfer the eight children she had in her custody to another facility.

Mathews was arrested again after he changed his story. He is being held for causing felony injury to a child, which carries a maximum penalty of life in prison. He was transferred to the Dallas County Jail on Wednesday and is on suicide watch.