Everman Police Chief Craig Spencer offers a media update on missing Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez on March 28, 2023. (City of Everman and Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office)
The case of a North Texas boy missing since last November will likely become a criminal investigation soon, police said on Tuesday.
Disabled and only 6 years old, Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez has not been seen in months, according to Everman Police Chief Craig Spencer. When initially contacted by law enforcement, Cindy Rodriguez-Singh said her son had been living with his biological father in Mexico since November 2022. Detectives later learned that was not true.
Days later, an AMBER Alert was issued, but the day before that alert was filed, the Sing family took a flight to India, according to police.
“It is swinging more towards a criminal investigation,” Spencer said during a press conference on Tuesday afternoon. “We do have supporting circumstantial evidence and things that are leading us in that direction. So, we’re certainly taking that path.”
“The physical evidence hasn’t been present. There’s certainly a significant amount of circumstantial evidence. When we talk about the circumstances surrounding this case, everybody’s suspicion arises.”
After an initial tip from child protective services 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 was 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 p.m. that day.
Law enforcement later learned the family boarded a Turkish Airways flight with a layover in Istanbul on March 23 – final destination: India.
“One of the tipsters that called in was actually on the flight with the family,” Spencer said, calling on anyone else who was on the flight to contact law enforcement, stressing such information was crucial.
Investigators are currently combing through documents obtained from the family’s residence and their truck found parked at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport over the weekend to try and reconstruct the timeline of his disappearance, the police chief said.
“There is a lot of holes within the answers that we have been getting as a part of this investigation that we have got to continue to fill,” Spencer said on Tuesday in Everman, a small town 11 miles south of Fort Worth. “We’ve got no leads on where he could be. I’m not convinced he’s dead.”
The police chief said Rodriguez-Singh has 10 children that police know of – seven of whom lived with her, and three who live with their grandmother. The police chief suggested a warrant is currently out for her arrest.
But, Spencer said, that warrant would be for filing a false report regarding a missing child and is a misdemeanor in Texas. Such a warrant wouldn’t help local authorities with federal help – much less result in extradition from India or any other country.
“There’s also a probation violation warrant,” Spencer said on Tuesday. “There’s other things that are moving this forward.”
Everman investigators believe it is too early to begin a search for the boy with the community’s help.
“If we find a lead on where he may be, absolutely,” Spencer said in response to a question from a reporter, audibly uncomfortable with the implication of the question.
“I think, again, we’re steering towards that he might be deceased,” he said. “And I’m not convinced that he’s deceased yet. Of course, if we get information that points us in that direction, absolutely, we’ll be more than happy to organize searches.”
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Warrant out for mother of Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez