Police have found a body in the search for a three-year-old girl who went missing after her father reportedly sent her out of the house at 3am as a punishment.

Sherin Mathews has been missing since October 7 after being left in an alley by her home in Dallas, Texas, for refusing to finish her milk.

Police said the remains of a child had been found yesterday in a tunnel around half a mile from the family’s home. Officers said the body was “most likely” that of the missing toddler and efforts to officially identify it are underway today.

Sherin’s father, Wesley Mathews, was arrested soon after she was reported missing and has been since released on bail after admitting endangering his daughter’s life.

He told police he acted out of “frustration” with the toddler, whom he and his wife adopted from an orphanage in India two years ago. Sherin was severely malnourished when the family took her in and was on a special diet to gain weight.

Sgt. Kevin Perlich, a spokesman for the Richardson Police Department, said Sherin had to be fed whenever she was awake and wasn’t co-operating on the night she disappeared.