FBI helping Everman TX police search for missing child Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez
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The search for missing Everman, Texas, child Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez
Here is what’s known about the investigation and the events that police have pieced together so far.
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The FBI has joined the agencies assisting Everman police with the search for missing 6-year-old Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez, police said at a news conference Tuesday.
The investigation so far has not found any physical evidence of where Noel is or what happened to him, police said. Texas issued an Endangered Missing Persons Alert for Noel when authorities discovered his mother, stepfather and six siblings had left the country on an international flight without him. An Amber Alert was initially issued on Saturday for Noel, who authorities say has serious disabilities and has not been seen since November. The family was not stopped at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport because they left two days before the Amber Alert was issued, police said.
At a press conference in Everman, Police Chief Craig Spencer said specialists from multiple agencies across the state are helping with the case. Experts and investigators have formed a ”kind of task force” in the search for Noel, who has a lung condition and requires regular treatments.
Detectives continue to comb through documents found in the family’s home and truck and talk to relatives and friends, Spencer said. Noel’s mom, Cindy Rodriguez-Singh, has custody of four of her other children between ages 7 and 11, and 5-month-old twins with her husband, 35-year-old Arshdeep Singh. All of them lived inside a large shed that was converted into a living space behind another house on Wisteria Drive. Members of the family lived at the property for about nine years, and the shed was built in the last couple of years, Spencer said.
The man who lives at the house, Charles Parson, is cooperating with police. Spencer said it appears Parson “truly was just a generous guy trying to help someone out.”
Police have scrutinized tips and leads coming in from across the state about the boy’s disappearance.
While no physical evidence has been found, circumstantial evidence has raised suspicions about Noel’s disappearance: The family flew to from Dallas-Fort Worth to Turkey and then India three days after police conducted a welfare check at the home, and the mother initially told police that Noel was with his father in Mexico.
Authorities determined Noel was not with his biological father, who has been helping police with the investigation, Spencer said.
Homeland Security verified that there is no record of Noel crossing the border into Mexico, Spencer said.
Some family members told police they had seen Noel recently, but Spencer said Tuesday that police believe those statements were not true and relatives may have been coached to say them by Noel’s mother.
Police have talked with relatives on both sides of the family and friends of the family, Spencer said. But police have not ruled out the possibility that Noel could be with a family member they haven’t spoken with yet.
Many neighbors and friends talked highly of the family, Spencer said.
Detectives also talked with a passenger who was on the plane with the Rodriguez-Singh family to Turkey. Spencer said he could not discuss what the person told police specifically, but encouraged anyone else who saw the family on a flight or at an airport to contact police. From Istanbul, the family caught a connecting flight to India, which is Arshdeep Singh’s home country, police confirmed
Spencer said Rodriguez-Singh has not provided police with answers about where her son is. He said authorities cannot rule out any possibilities about where he might be and they don’t know whether he’s alive or dead. Rumors have spread about human trafficking, and investigators also are looking into that, Spencer said.
“There’s a lot of holes within the answers that we’ve been getting as part of this investigation that we’ve just got to continue to fill,” he said. “So I’m just not ready to speculate just yet on what I think happened to Noel. I am still very optimistic.”
Spencer said authorities are concerned that the family might not return to the U.S. to answer questions. They issued warrants for Rodriguez-Singh on a misdemeanor charge of filing a false report and on a probation violation. She was sentenced to 10 years of probation in 2020 on a repeat offense of driving while intoxicated, according to Tarrant County court records.
It’s unlikely that authorities would try to extradite the mother back to the U.S. on those charges, Spencer said. If the investigation leads to more serious charges, federal authorities could help with extradition, he said.
Rodriguez-Singh has a total of 10 children, three of whom are not in her custody and live with her grandmother, apparently through a voluntary agreement, Spencer said.
Spencer said Noel’s disappearance has been “absolutely insane” for the community to comprehend. Everman is a tight-knit community with a population of about 6,000. Spencer said he and residents “are shocked that it happened here.”
“Come back and tell me what the heck’s going on,” Spencer said. “I don’t understand, it makes no sense... We’re trying to check on the welfare of a child while we’re getting no information.”
Investigators are “not working on a clock” and will continue looking for Noel until they find out what happened to him, the police chief said.
The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, Alliance for Children and National Center for Missing and Exploited Children also are helping with the investigation.
Timeline of Noel’s case
An investigation into Noel’s whereabouts started on March 20 when Texas Child Protective Services received an anonymous tip that Noel hadn’t been seen since November 2022. CPS had prior involvement with the family.
Everman police conducted a welfare check at the home on Wisteria Drive on March 20 and spoke with Rodriguez-Singh. That’s when the mother told police the boy was with his father. Police did not see any signs in the home to indicate that any of the children were in danger, Spencer said.
On March 23, investigators spoke to Noel’s biological father, who told them he’d never had the opportunity to meet Noel because he was deported to Mexico before his son’s birth. The Department of Homeland Security confirmed his statement.
Investigators tried to contact Noel’s mother again on March 24 but could not reach her and they began the process of issuing statewide alerts.
On March 25, authorities found a pickup truck that belongs to Noel’s mother at DFW Airport. Inside the truck, police found a travel visa for one of Rodriguez-Singh’s other six children who lived with her. The visa, obtained by the family on March 21, was for travel to India with a stop first in Turkey.
Police said they had no significant updates to release on Wednesday or Thursday. “Please rest assured that as soon as we have something substantial to update, we will happily do so,” the department said in a Facebook post.
Police urged the public to share any information, no matter how small the detail or how long ago they saw the family. Tips can be called in at 817-293-2923. Everman police also have set up an email address for tips at tips@evermantx.net
This story was originally published March 28, 2023 at 3:25 PM.
