EVERMAN, Texas — Everman police said Thursday they believe that a 6-year-old boy who hasn’t been seen by family since October is likely dead, more than 10 days after an amber alert was issued in late March.
“Based on the totality of the circumstances, along with the evidence available to us at this time, it has led to a very unfortunate, unimaginable and devastating conclusion that Noel is likely deceased,” chief Craig Spencer said at a news conference.
Outside the city’s civic center, where the conference was held, a marquee showed the face of the boy, Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez, with a police phone number and email and a message above in capital letters that read, “WHERE IS NOEL?”
The update comes more than two weeks after Child Protective Investigations requested a welfare check for Rodriguez-Alvarez, after receiving a report the boy – who lived with his mother, stepfather, four biological siblings and twin half-siblings – had not been seen in months.
Spencer said the search for Noel is now a death investigation. Officers have spent close to two weeks searching for the boy, and several federal agencies, including the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, have joined the case.
Noel’s mother, 37-year-old Cindy Rodriguez-Singh, had told varying stories to people about the disappearance of the boy in early November, including that he was with his biological father or his aunt in Mexico or that he was sold to another woman in a Fiesta Market parking lot.
“Thanks to technology, interviews, search warrants, and the assistance of authorities in Mexico, investigators have been able to disprove each one of these stories,” Spencer said.
Authorities began investigating Noel’s disappearance March 20 when CPI received a tip from a family member that Noel had not been seen for an extended amount of time, according to a search-warrant affidavit obtained by The Dallas Morning News. Officers did a welfare check at his residence in Everman, a city of about 6,000 people a little more than 30 miles southwest of Dallas.
According to an affidavit, Rodriguez-Singh told police the same day that Noel was living with his biological father in Mexico, an assertion they later disproved after the father told authorities he was deported to the country before Noel was born and never saw him in person.
Two days after police spoke with Rodriguez-Singh, she and her husband Arshdeep Singh took six of her children with them and boarded an airplane to Istanbul, Turkey, a warrant said. Police said in an affidavit the final trip was India, Arshdeep Singh’s native country.
The tickets were a one-way trip, and authorities confirmed Noel wasn’t on the flight.
Last week, police held two news conferences and dug up a concrete patio at the Everman property the family lived in but found no evidence of the whereabouts of Noel.
Spencer said police believe the family is in India and are working with federal authorities to have them extradited back to the U.S.
Police have active felony warrants for Rodriguez-Singh and Arshdeep Singh, who face second-degree felony charges of abandoning and endangering a child, Spencer said.
“We want these fugitives arrested and extradited back to the United States, so that we can seek answers for the disappearance of Noel,” Spencer said.
From their investigation, Spencer said police have established a timeline of events based on when Noel was last seen. Authorities believe he was last seen by a professional for speech therapy July 21, Spencer said.
Several other appointments were missed during this time, which led to warning letters from the Texas Department of State Health Services. Spencer said investigators also learned Rodriguez-Singh asked an acquaintance of hers if she could borrow her son for a doctor’s appointment to continue to receive government benefits for Noel. At that time, she told that person Noel had COVID-19, Spencer added.
Police believe the last known appearance of Noel through interviews was mid-to-late October. Spencer said authorities confirmed Noel was alive in early October when Rodriguez-Singh gave birth to twins. He was also seen in mid-October after they left the hospital.
Then on Nov. 2 – more than four months before the family left the country – police said Rodriguez-Singh applied for passports for her six children. All but Noel.
A search-warrant affidavit said Rodriguez-Singh and Arshdeep Singh have lived at a home in Everman for several years. The property owner told authorities that Rodriguez-Singh stayed in “the large maroon building in the rear of his property.”
He told police he had not seen Noel since Thanksgiving Day, but Spencer said at the news conference that investigators can’t find any evidence this is true.
In Noel’s last public appearance that authorities have confirmed, Spencer said he was described as appearing unhealthy and malnourished.
Witnesses told officers that leading up to the birth of the twins in October, Rodriguez-Singh referred to Noel as “evil, possessed or having a demon in him,” Spencer said. The witnesses also told authorities that Rodriguez-Singh believed Noel was going to harm the newborn twins.
Relatives have told police that Rodriguez-Singh was “abusive and neglectful” to Noel, Spencer said. They said food and water was often withheld from Noel because Rodriguez-Singh didn’t like changing dirty diapers. A relative also witnessed her striking Noel in the face because he drank water, Spencer said.
An affidavit said Noel is diagnosed with several illnesses, including speech delay, esotropia (when eyes turn inward toward the nose) in both eyes and chronic lung disease, among others.
Despite believing that Noel is likely dead, police have not located him. Spencer said investigators are working toward identifying potential locations and conducting recovery operations.
Some organized searches have already begun and are expected to continue in the coming days, he added. Spencer said the primary locations that have been searched thus far have been around Everman.
“Investigators are still working to determine the exact locations, but we’ll continue to search,” Spencer said. “Right now, we believe that those are all within the general area of North Texas.”
Everman police are also working with federal agencies to extradite Rodriguez-Singh and Arshdeep Singh. Spencer said he doesn’t know what the status of that is and whether federal authorities have contacted any government in India.
“I’ve never had to go after somebody in a foreign country, and this is obviously new territory for me,” Spencer said. “So I’m just not experienced in that. I don’t know what all that entails.”
A candlelight vigil will be held for Noel on Monday at Everman Civic Center, Spencer said.
He implored the public that police still need tips from anybody who has any information related to Noel’s disappearance. Spencer called the investigation the hardest case he’s worked on.
Asked how he feels about going home every day knowing the boy is still missing, he said, “Really, the days don’t end.”
