‘Noel was my baby’: Foster mother who cared for missing Everman, Texas, child speaks out
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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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Patricia Paris knew Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez.
She knew his personality. She knew what he liked. She knew what he needed and how to help him get through unpleasant but necessary visits to the doctor.
Paris was Noel’s foster mother in 2020 and into 2021, according to media reports and her Facebook page. For 15 months, she learned everything she could about the boy, at the time 4 years old, who has been missing since November and is now presumed dead.
Noel’s disappearance wasn’t known to authorities until extended family reported it to the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services in March. Police said his mother, Cindy Rodriguez-Singh, told them lies about where Noel was and then, after police disproved the lies and just before an Amber Alert was issued, fled the country with Noel’s stepfather and six of her other children on an international flight.
Authorities are working to get the mother and stepfather extradited from India on charges of child abandonment and endangerment.
Paris, who also fostered two of Noel’s siblings, described Noel in a Facebook past as “lovable and always in a happy mood.” He was excited about the Paw Patrol movie and cared about his “little friends,” hugging and kissing them and bringing them their baby bottles when they cried, she wrote.
Paris told KXAS-TV that because of Noel’s physical and developmental disabilities, namely a chronic lung disease, he had to have regular doctor appointments that he didn’t enjoy. She said she could always ease the anxiety by staying calm herself and assuring Noel she would get him a Happy Meal from McDonald’s afterward.
Police last week said evidence forced them to transition their investigation from a search for an endangered missing child to a death investigation. Everman Police Chief Craig Spencer said that according to police interviews with witnesses, Noel was abused and deprived of food and water by his mother, who told people she thought Noel was evil and possessed by a demon who was going to hurt her newborn twin daughters.
“He didn’t deserve what happened to him,” Paris told KXAS-TV. “You know, she could have given him back to us. We would have taken him. My prayer is that they find him. So we can put him to rest. Noel was my baby. I didn’t have him, but because I’m so attached to little kids, he was part of our family. He knew that. Even as a preemie, he overcame a lot of obstacles that he had to face in life. We want justice for Noel.”
Noel’s mother reportedly regained custody of Noel in late 2021. Charles Parson, who owns the home where Rodriguez-Singh was staying in Everman, told the Star-Telegram that she had lost custody for a while after she crashed into a pole with the children in the car. She was convicted of driving while intoxicated in 2020 and received 10 years of probation, according to Tarrant County court records.
New leads in the search for Noel came Monday when human remains detection dogs alerted to an area in the back yard of the home where Rodriguez-Singh and her family had been staying on Wisteria Drive. That led investigators to believe Noel’s body may have been inside a shed that was removed from a spot where contractors built a concrete patio paid for by Rodriguez-Singh about a month ago. A large carpet that was thrown away hours before the family fled the country had served as the floor of that shed. Dogs also smelled traces of human remains on the carpet, which police recovered from a dumpster, according to Spencer.
Authorities said in a Tuesday news release that the new leads were found with the help of detection dogs provided by TEXSAR, a search and rescue group with specially trained volunteers.
On Wednesday, investigators were making plans of where to conduct additional searches later this week.
This story was originally published April 12, 2023 at 8:40 PM.
