Noel’s mom planned escape in fall; stepdad stole money before they fled, Everman police say
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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 mother of missing 6-year-old Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez started planning her escape from the country on Nov. 1 and the boy’s stepfather stole $10,000 from his employer around the time that the couple bought plane tickets in March, Everman police said at a news conference Tuesday.
Noel has not been seen since last fall but wasn’t reported missing until March. The evidence has led police to conclude the boy is dead, and investigators continue to search for his remains.
A weekend ground search of more than 200 acres turned up some items that investigators are testing to determine if they are connected to Noel’s disappearance, Everman Police Chief Craig Spencer said.
“We have successfully searched and cleared numerous tracts of land totaling over 500 acres,” Spencer said at the news conference. “These searches have included nearby wooded areas, creeks, ponds, drainage culverts, construction sites, and more.”
Spencer said police are not releasing details of what items were found because it’s not yet known whether they’re connected to the case.
“One thing to keep in mind is that these searches were off of some busy roadways, so it’s very possible that they may not even be associated with the case,” Spencer said about the items. “Nevertheless, these items have been collected by crime scene technicians and are being processed in a lab for confirmation as to not cause any sort of undue speculation on the case.”
Police also continue to comb through large amounts of data.
“Even when minimal or no physical evidence is located, each and every search is valuable and successfully moving this investigation forward,” Spencer said. “At this time, investigators are continuing to analyze data to determine if and where any additional searches may be conducted.”
Investigators recently uncovered additional details in the timeline of the case, Spencer said Tuesday. The latest information is that Noel disappeared around the last week of October, about a week after his mother, Cindy Rodriguez-Singh, brought her newborn twin daughters home from the hospital.
On Nov. 1, Rodriguez-Singh had photos taken of herself and six of her other children to apply for passports. Noel was not included in the passport application, Spencer said.
Evidence shows that Rodriguez-Singh began researching trips to India on Nov. 6, Spencer said.
Her husband, Arshdeep Singh, used his credit card to buy plane tickets for himself, Cindy and the six kids in March, according to financial records obtained by police. The couple obtained electronic visas for the trip to India on March 21, one day after police conducted a welfare check at their home after receiving a tip that Noel was missing.
Arshdeep Singh worked for a chain of North Texas convenience stores making deliveries, Spencer said. The investigation found that he altered the company’s financial records to cover up his theft of $10,000 in cash from a safe. He deposited $8,000 of that money into his personal account on March 22, hours before the family left from Dallas-Fort Worth Airport on a flight that connected to India, Spencer said.
Prior to going to a bank to make the cash deposit into his account, Arshdeep visited one of his places of employment, according to police. He had access to the safe belonging to the company he worked for as part of his job responsibilities. Investigators learned he fraudulently “altered the company’s cash deposit records likely in order to prevent detection” and removed the money.
Police have now obtained a warrant for Singh’s arrest on a felony theft charge, after previously obtaining felony warrants charging him and his wife with endangering and abandoning a child.
Family members have told police that Rodriguez-Singh abused Noel, who was born with physical and developmental disabilities, and withheld food and water from him because she didn’t want to change his diapers.
Asked why they didn’t flee the country sooner, Spencer said he could only speculate that they may have grown comfortable during the months when Noel’s disappearance seemed to have gone unnoticed. The mother told relatives and friends false stories that Noel was with relatives in Mexico or that she had sold the boy to someone, according to police.
The FBI is working with Indian authorities to try to extradite the couple back to the U.S. There was no update Tuesday on progress toward finding and extraditing them.
The Everman Police Department has yet to hear back from Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport regarding a request for surveillance video, Spencer said in the news conference.
Investigators are working to determine if there are going to be additional ground searches and if so, when and where they will occur, Spencer said. Cadaver dogs alerted to the smell of human decomposition in an area in the family’s yard where Rodriguez-Singh paid to have a patio built in February, but the child’s remains were not found there, police have said. Investigators haven’t searched landfills because they would need specific information to determine where to look, Spencer said.
Tuesday marked one month since an Amber Alert was issued for Noel.
“Since then, this investigative team has spent thousands of man-hours on this case; followed more than 70 leads; issued more than two dozen search warrants, arrest warrants and subpoenas; and conducted countless interviews,” Spencer said. “This investigation has taken us across state and country borders. Investigators have worked to compile a mountainous amount of information, data and evidence in this case.
“Each and every single day, we get closer and closer to the answers that we all seek,” the police chief said. “Although it has been a month, and we have not yet found Noel, rest assured that we have not stopped the fight — not even close. We will continue to fight for Noel until we have the answers that we need.”
This story was originally published April 25, 2023 at 2:16 PM.
