Everman Police Chief Craig Spencer talks to the press about the investigation into the presumed death of Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez, inset, on April 10, 2023. (Everman Police Department; Screengrab via CBS News)
The mother of a long-missing, 6-year-old special needs boy paid for a new concrete patio to be poured last month in the backyard of a home she didn’t own, police say. Weeks later, she and her family fled the country for India. On Tuesday, cadaver dogs signaled the presence of human remains directly underneath that patio.
Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez, who suffers from a host of ailments, has not been seen in months, according to the Everman Police Department. When initially contacted by law enforcement, Cindy Rodriguez-Singh said her son had lived with his biological father in Mexico since November 2022. Detectives later learned that was not true.
Late last week, Everman Police Chief Craig Spencer said that recent events had led authorities to the “very unfortunate, unimaginable, and devastating conclusion that Noel is likely deceased” and noted that the search for the boy had shifted to a “death investigation.”
New leads in the case led investigators to the recently-constructed patio, which police in Everman called “unpermitted and suspicious.”
Early in the investigation, police learned the boy’s stepfather, Arshdeep Singh, “had disposed of a large indoor/outdoor carpet” in a dumpster near the residence they shared with property owner Charles Parson, the police wrote in a press release late Tuesday. That carpet was thrown away the night before the Singh family boarded the Turkish Airways flight that took them out of the country.
On Monday, while working with TEXSAR – a professionally trained volunteer first responder organization that deploys throughout the Lone Star State for search and rescue operations – multiple dogs trained to detect human remains alerted to the carpet, police said.
“Investigators learned that this carpet was previously used as the base and flooring (directly on top of the ground) to a ‘makeshift’ shed that was previously built where the current backyard patio sits,” police said. “Investigators secured a search warrant to remove the entire patio.”
Crews spent some 20 hours meticulously removing the patio, piece by piece, and cross-sections of dirt underneath the structure. The work began at 3 p.m. Central Standard Time on Monday, police said.
The dogs alerted police to something in the soil directly under the concrete but nothing lower.
Investigators believe human remains were stored inside the makeshift shed before the patio was installed.
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“Although this search revealed minimal physical evidence, it has certainly provided additional guidance,” police said.
The property owned by Parson was shared with the Singh family, police said. The landlord is not considered a suspect or person of interest in the case and has been cooperating with law enforcement from the beginning, Spencer said.
The family was invited to live on the property after Parson saw Rodriguez-Singh sleeping in her car on his street one day almost 10 years ago. The large family of two adults and, most recently, seven children stayed in two bedrooms inside the main house and a large, purple converted shed in the backyard, which is not the shed referenced in Tuesday’s press release.
“City crews will be working today to clear out debris from the backyard of the residence,” police said. “The City will then work with a registered contractor to repair/replace the patio with the proper permits and plans.”
The boy was confirmed alive in October 2022 when he was seen at the hospital where his twin sisters had just been 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.”
Persistent rumors have plagued the case that Rodriguez-Alvarez had been sold as the victim of human trafficking. Law enforcement believes that was one of many stories told by Rodriguez-Singh as a form of misdirection until she could secure the documents necessary to flee with her surviving children.
In late March, a warrant was issued for the mother’s arrest on misdemeanor charges. She and the boy’s stepfather have since been charged with felony counts of abandoning and endangering a child. Authorities are currently working on extraditing the couple to the United States.
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Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez’s body presumably stored in a shed