Family of missing 6-year-old left Texas on international flight before Amber Alert issued
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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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In an update, police said the child is still missing. Read the latest details on the investigation here.
The family of a 6-year-old boy missing since November left the U.S. on a Turkish Airways flight without him just two days before an Amber Alert was issued, Everman police said at a news conference Sunday.
Police issued an Amber Alert just after midnight Saturday morning and replaced it with an Endangered Missing Persons alert around 9 p.m. Saturday.
Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez, who has serious disabilities including a chronic lung disease that requires medical treatment and occasional oxygen treatment, is still missing.
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. When they began investigating, Everman police and Child Protective Services found that other family members hadn’t seen Noel or his siblings.
When Everman police spoke with Cindy Rodriguez-Singh, Noel’s mother, she told them the 6-year-old was in Mexico with his father, according to police.
But investigators with CPS spoke to Noel’s biological father, who told them he’d never had the opportunity to meet Noel because he was deported before his son’s birth. The Department of Homeland Security confirmed his statement.
On March 23, police and CPS investigators learned that Noel’s four siblings, aged 7 to 11, had been absent after the mother contacted their school in Everman ISD to ask about unenrollment, according to police. Noel was not enrolled in school, according to police. His mother had custody of all seven of her children, including Noel’s half-siblings, who are 5-month-old twins.
Rodriguez-Singh could not be reached again by police or CPS and seemed to be avoiding authorities, prompting an investigation into Noel’s whereabouts.
Police said Sunday they are unable to release specific details about CPS investigations, but could confirm that there had been prior investigations and actions against Rodriguez-Singh. She also had an extensive criminal history involving alcohol-related offenses.
The Amber Alert for Noel was issued just after midnight on Saturday morning, but when police learned that Rodriguez-Singh left the U.S. with her husband and all her children except Noel on a March 23 flight to Istanbul, Turkey, the alert was changed to Endangered Missing Person. The mother’s 2012 Chevrolet Silverado truck was found at DFW Airport, police said.
Everman Police Chief Craig Spencer said Sunday that police “do not have any physical evidence related to Noel’s status as a missing person.”
“What I do know is that a 6-year-old, severely disabled boy cannot be accounted for and is missing, the mother has not been willing to cooperate with investigators to help us simply assure the child is safe and we desperately need the public’s help,” he said.
Police are asking anybody with information on Noel’s whereabouts to contact them by calling 817-293-2923.
Police are expected to give another update around 3:30 p.m. Monday. On Monday afternoon, police were seen searching in the back yard at the family’s home on Wisteria Drive, which is a smaller home in the yard behind another house. Children’s bikes and a toy car were outside. Authorities towed a vehicle that was in the driveway.
Police also had a cadaver dog at the house Monday afternoon but it did not alert to any evidence of a body during the search, according to Spencer, who was at the home with other officers.
Spencer said after the news conference that investigators are staying optimistic about Noel’s well-being. They have no evidence that he has been harmed, and hope that he is with friends or a family member they have not yet found who don’t realize he is considered missing and in danger.
Police, CPS and the Department of Homeland Security are working together to try to find out if Rodriguez-Singh and the rest of the family stopped in Turkey, or if their flight connected to India, where Rodriguez-Singh’s husband is from. Spencer said they don’t know of any official connections to the Turkish government that could aid in locating or detaining Rodriguez-Singh for questioning.
An arrest warrant has been issued for the mother on a charge of filing a false report with police.
There is no evidence to suggest any of the other children are in danger and no reason to connect Noel’s stepfather to the Amber Alert, Spencer said. Investigators are working to get access to Noel’s medical records to determine the last time he received medical treatment for his disabilities.
Spencer emphasized that if he does not get medical attention regularly for his chronic lung disease, Noel could die.
For that reason, he said if anybody has ever had so much as a conversation with anybody from Rodriguez-Singh’s family, no matter how long ago it was, they should call Everman police.
“We want to learn everything about this family we can,” Spencer said. “Anything can help at this point.”
Star-Telegram staff writers Emerson Clarridge and Harriet Ramos contributed to this report.
This story was originally published March 26, 2023 at 2:13 PM.
