Mother charged with murder of 6-year-old Noel, boy missing from Everman, Texas, for a year
READ MORE
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.
Expand All
The mother of a missing 6-year-old North Texas boy was indicted Monday on charges including his murder while the search for the child’s body continues a year after he was last seen, police announced.
A Tarrant County grand jury indicted Cindy Rodriguez-Singh on one count of capital murder of her son Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez, two counts of injury to a child, and one count of abandoning a child without intent to return, Everman Police Chief Craig Spencer said at a news conference Monday evening. Authorities expect the new charges to help with the process of apprehending Rodriguez-Singh and extraditing her from India, where she fled with her husband and six other children.
Because Noel’s body has not been found, his mother is charged with killing him by unknown means, Spencer said. In order to get the indictment, investigators provided the grand jury with evidence that ruled out any other potential outcomes of what happened to the child, he said, leaving only the conclusion that he was murdered. Investigators also presented evidence showing a history of neglect and abuse, including an incident when a family member said Rodriguez-Singh beat Noel with her car keys because he drank water, Spencer said.
Noel, who had mental and developmental disabilities, was never enrolled in school even though he qualified for early admission and special programs. He was described by people who knew him as happy, fun and loving, a boy able to bring a smile to anybody around him.
Police say he went missing, and they suspect was killed, shortly after the birth of twin half-siblings. This week marks one year since investigators can confirm Noel was last seen alive.
Investigating Noel’s disappearance
The investigation has found that Noel disappeared around October 2022 and was first reported missing in March, when Texas Child Protective Services received an anonymous tip that the boy hadn’t been seen since the fall. An Amber Alert was issued March 25.
Authorities transitioned the search to a death investigation April 6, saying evidence indicates the boy is likely dead.
Police obtained warrants earlier this year to charge Noel’s mother and stepfather with endangering and abandoning a child, and authorities said they were trying to extradite the couple from India, where they fled with six other children days before the Amber Alert was issued.
Warrants for Noel’s mother and stepfather were turned over to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, according to police.
There has been no update regarding the mother’s and stepfather’s location after fleeing the country, police said, but they believe additional charges will help with the effort to find Noel’s parents and extradite them back to the United States.
Noel’s disappearance captured the attention of the community for weeks before it seemed the trail ran cold. Cadaver dogs alerted to places in the back yard of the home in which the family lived and to an outdoor carpet, leading investigators to believe the child died and may have at one point been wrapped up in the carpet or inside a shed that was later torn down, police have said.
Noel’s mother and stepfather planned their escape from the U.S. months before authorities even knew the 6-year-old boy was missing, police said in April.
For more than a month, police followed and ruled out tips and stories ranging from Noel being sent to live with his father in Mexico to a claim his mother made to her family that she sold Noel to someone outside a Fiesta Mart grocery store.
When investigators began searching for a body, they scoured hundreds of acres.
Spencer said investigators have continued to follow up leads, though they have been less frequent, and have since searched another estimated 100 acres including smaller areas inside the city and in unincorporated Tarrant County land.
Fleeing the country
Noel’s mother, Cindy Rodriguez-Singh, went with six of her children to apply for passports on Nov. 1, shortly after the birth of her twin daughters and after Noel was last seen, authorities said. The stepfather, Arshdeep Singh, stole $10,000 in cash from his workplace to fund their trip and bought plane tickets to India via a connecting flight from Dallas-Fort Worth Airport to Istanbul, Turkey, according to Everman police, who are leading the investigation.
Singh used his credit card to purchase the plane tickets, according to police.
Spencer said the family left on a flight to Istanbul then took a connecting flight there to get to New Delhi, India.
American authorities have been working for months to secure the extradition of Rodriguez-Singh and Singh, Spencer said, but Everman police do not know for certain whether the couple has been located within India.
On Monday, Spencer said he is not aware of any evidence suggesting the couple or any of Rodriguez-Singh’s children have left India since their arrival.
While the extradition efforts have been ongoing for months, Everman police believe the new indictments on murder, two counts of injury to a child and one charge of abandoning a child could make that process easier.
“I can’t wait till they catch her and bring her back,” Spencer said.
Noel’s mother and stepfather
According to public records, 37-year-old Rodriguez-Singh graduated high school in Fort Worth in 2003. There was no information immediately available on where she lived before that, but property records indicate she had lived in Tarrant County since her high school graduation.
About 10 years ago, Rodriguez-Singh moved into the home of Charles Parson, an elderly man in Everman, according to Parson. Police said early on he was cooperative with investigators and they confirmed Monday that he was still willing to help investigators.
Parson said Rodriguez-Singh was sleeping in a car outside his house with her children and he invited them to use his two spare bedrooms. It’s not clear whether Rodriguez-Singh was employed.
Rodriguez-Singh had 10 children in total, and the oldest three lived with her mother. In 2020, Rodriguez-Singh lost custody of at least some of her children and was put on probation after an incident in which she was drunk and driving a vehicle with her kids in the car, according to court records.
Noel was sent to live with foster parent Patricia Parris, who described Noel as a caring, fun and lovable child.
But based on interviews with witnesses, investigators said Rodriguez-Singh didn’t see him that way. In 2021, Rodriguez-Singh was able to reacquire custody of all her children living with her.
According to police, Noel’s mother told people she thought he was evil, demon possessed and jealous of her newborn twin daughters. She feared Noel, who was physically and developmentally disabled, would hurt the newborns, according to a search warrant affidavit. Relatives told investigators she abused the 6-year-old boy and would refuse to feed Noel or give him anything to drink because she didn’t want to change his diapers.
In one instance, Spencer said witnesses told investigators that Rodriguez-Singh hit Noel in the face with a set of keys because he drank water.
After she married Singh about two years ago, the family built a shed in Parson’s back yard to expand living space. The shed, essentially one room with curtains to divide part of it, had electricity and air conditioning but no plumbing, so the family still used some rooms in Parson’s house.
Singh, 35, was born in India. It’s unclear exactly when he moved to the U.S.
‘Lived in squalor’
Parson said Singh always gave the impression of a father figure who wanted to spoil his children. Singh bought them an outdoor play set and trampoline and always made sure they had more clothes than they needed, Parson said.
But police said that appearance wasn’t the whole story. The family “lived in squalor,” Spencer said at an April 25 news conference.
Authorities now believe Singh conspired with Noel’s mother after the 6-year-old boy went missing, stealing money from his employer to pay for their escape from the country.
Singh worked at a convenience store chain, AGHA Enterprises, and had access to the company’s financial records and even safes in stores.
His employer, Mohammed Khan, told the Star-Telegram that Singh was hired about two and a half years ago to manage purchasing merchandise for stores and help with banking. Like Parson, Khan never would have imagined Singh would be involved in anything criminal. He described Singh as a happy person, and a hard worker who would do anything he could to help the business succeed.
Even in the months immediately after Noel went missing, Khan said he hadn’t noticed or been told about any changes in Singh’s behavior or personality.
“It’s shocking,” Khan said. “I still feel like it’s a Hollywood movie or a bad dream.”
Lies and suspicious actions
Police said combining Noel’s abuse with suspicious activity of Singh and Rodriguez-Singh have supported the belief that the boy was killed.
In 2022, Rodriguez-Singh used tax return money to build a patio onto Parson’s house, to which her family had no claim of ownership, according to Spencer. The contractor who built the patio told investigators that Rodriguez-Singh wanted it done quickly but frequently changed her mind about certain things. For instance, she at one point told the contractor she wanted one portion of the patio to be thicker than the rest.
While searching for Noel’s body earlier in the investigation, police tore up the patio because a cadaver dog alerted to the area, but the child’s remains were not found. The patio was rebuilt for Parson by the city.
Right before they boarded a plane to flee the country, Spencer said, Singh disposed of an indoor-outdoor carpet that was also alerted to by cadaver dogs. He didn’t try to get rid of any of the other “squalor” in which the family lived, he said.
Witnesses said that before they fled the country, Rodriguez-Singh told them different stories about where Noel was including that he was living with his biological father in Mexico, was with family in the United States and that she sold him to someone at a Fiesta Mart.
Investigators have been able to disprove those theories, according to police. There is no evidence that Noel was sold at all, and especially not at a Fiesta Mart, Spencer said. They also proved Noel was not with his father and were unable to find any evidence that Noel or any of his family had been near the Mexican border around the time of his disappearance.
When his mother was interviewed by police during a welfare check in March, after someone told authorities they were concerned because they hadn’t seen Noel, she told police that he was with his father in Mexico.
Spencer said the timeline of Noel’s disappearance grew longer and longer the more they investigated. Eventually, they determined he was last seen alive in the last week of October 2022.
Continuing the search
Spencer said the grand jury indictment against Rodriguez-Singh is heartbreaking but “rewarding” because it means that other people in Tarrant County have, in a way, confirmed the investigative efforts of Everman police and validated their efforts.
“I’ve had tears in my eyes since I got that call earlier today,” Spencer said. “I would be more than happy to be wrong about this. The last thing I want is to be right about a mother murdering her 6-year-old son.”
He believes a jury will convict Rodriguez-Singh of the new indictments, but said that doesn’t mean his department should stop searching for Noel’s body.
“Just because we have this indictment doesn’t mean we stop investigating,” he said.
Spencer said his department is determined to find Noel’s body, not just because it would help with proving what happened to him but because it would bring closure to a case that has taken an emotional toll on both the community and police in Everman.
This story was originally published October 30, 2023 at 3:17 PM.
