Everman Police Chief Craig Spencer shares an update on the disappearance of Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez, inset, who is presumed dead, on April 6, 2023
The mother of a 6-year-old disabled boy who has been missing since last October allegedly told the boy’s grandmother that she sold him to another woman, police in North Texas wrote in a search warrant.
Law enforcement, however, say there’s no evidence to support the allegation that Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez has been sold. Rather, in a sad turn of events, police believe that the boy is dead.
“I am incredibly sad to share with you today that the search for Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez is now officially a death investigation,” Everman Police Chief Craig Spencer said at a press conference on Thursday evening. “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.”
On Wednesday, a search warrant spelled out the rumor that the boy had been sold – something the police chief addressed obliquely in an earlier series of press conferences about the disappearance.
More Law&Crime coverage: ‘Distinct possibility that he has been sold’: Family of long-missing 6-year-old disabled boy traveled to India just before AMBER Alert was issued
The warrant obtained by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram says an unidentified relative told Everman Police Department investigators that Cindy Rodriguez-Singh told her mother that she sold Rodriguez-Alvarez to a woman in the parking lot of a “Fiesta Market.” It’s a chain of Latin-American grocery stores prevalent throughout North Texas.
The date of the alleged transaction was not relayed to police, the paper reports. The alleged recipient of the child is said to have threatened to call child protective services on Rodriguez-Singh should the biological mother have any second thoughts about selling her son.
Those allegations were made in a warrant to search the house and converted shed where Rodriguez-Singh lived with her husband, Arshdeep Singh, and their seven children.
Additionally, the warrant contained allegations from relatives that Rodriguez-Singh was abusive to her presumed dead son.
In one instance, a relative said the mother told them not to give the boy water because she did not want to clean up after him if he wet his diaper. The relative’s wife said she gave the boy water anyway.
In another instance, a relative told police they had seen the boy’s mother hit him with car keys attached to a lanyard. The relative said they confronted Rodriguez-Singh about that incident, and she left their house. That relative says they never saw the family again.
On Thursday, the police chief relayed several additional disturbing allegations against the missing boy’s mother.
In July 2022, the boy attended his final, documented health check-up – a necessity due to his multiple disabilities. But those visits were also mandatory conditions for the boy’s mother to receive state benefits on his behalf. Several health appointments were subsequently missed, and warning letters about the benefits were sent.
“Investigators learned that near this timeline, Cindy even asked an acquaintance of hers if she could borrow her son for a doctor’s appointment so that she could keep the benefits,” Spencer said.
But the boy was still alive in October of 2022 – and was present at the hospital when his twin sisters were born.
“Leading up to the birth of the twins, Cindy had made several statements about Noel, referring to him as evil, possessed, or having a demon in him,” Spencer said. “Cindy believed that Noel was going to harm the newborn twins.”
On Nov. 1, 2022, the police chief said, Rodriguez-Singh obtained passport photos for all her children – except the young boy.
The next day she applied for passports for each child – again, except for the 6-year-old.
Later that month, Spencer said, the boy’s mother told at least three stories to account for his disappearance. All of those stories, the police chief said, have since been disproven.
All that, police believe, indicates that he has been killed.
“Although the course of this investigation has changed, our commitment to Noel has not,” Spencer said on Thursday. “We will continue to fight for Noel.”
More Law&Crime coverage: ‘Not convinced he’s dead’: Police say they received tip about long-missing disabled boy from a passenger on same plane as his family after they fled the country
On March 31, police filed felony charges of abandonment and endangerment of a child against the couple. The Singh family is believed to be in India. They allegedly fled the country when the investigation into the boy’s whereabouts was in its early stages.
On March 20, child protective services agents told police in Everman that Rodriguez-Alvarez had not been seen in months.
Rodriguez-Singh told responding officers that her son had been living with his biological father in Mexico since November 2022. Detectives later learned that was not true. After that initial tip resulted in Rodriguez-Alvarez’s mother allegedly lying to police, law enforcement followed up with his father and confirmed the 6-year-old had not traveled across the U.S.-Mexico border. Officers sought to contact Rodriguez-Singh again, but by then, the mother and the rest of her family were nowhere to be found.
After conferring with numerous local, county, state and federal law enforcement agencies, an AMBER Alert was issued for the boy. The Amber Alert was issued early Saturday morning and replaced with an Endangered Missing Persons alert around 9 that night.
Law enforcement later learned the family boarded a Turkish Airways flight with a layover in Istanbul on March 23 – final destination: India.
Police are working on extraditing the Singhs to the United States for questioning.
“I understand that this is not the news that we were all hoping for or praying for, but we all must continue to stand together as a community and fight for Noel,” Spencer said.
A vigil for the boy is scheduled for April 10.
Everman is a small town some 11 miles south of Fort Worth and part of the broader Metroplex region.
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez is now presumed dead