New evidence found as search for remains of missing Everman boy Noel intensifies
The search for the remains of missing 6-year-old Everman boy Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez intensified Wednesday with new evidence found at his former family home.
Noel was last seen in 2022 and is presumed dead. Although the child’s body had not been found, his mother, Cindy Rodriguez-Singh, was indicted in 2023 on a capital murder charge.
At the request of the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office, officials with the FBI and local law enforcement agencies began digging up the home’s backyard on Monday.
On Wednesday night, the district attorney’s office confirmed that the search has turned up new evidence. “Clearly there was evidence found, but exactly what it is remains to be seen,” the DA’s office said in a statement.
About 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, crews began to focus their search on an area near where a concrete patio was ripped up in the previous search for Noel, according to aerial video footage from a KDFW-TV helicopter. Crews shifted folding canopies to cover the area as more law enforcement resources, including crime-scene investigators, began to arrive at the house in the 3700 block of Wisteria Drive.
About 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, a white van backed down the driveway. A KXAS-TV reporter saw several investigators carrying a tarp and loading it into the back of that van, when then drove to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Everman Police Chief Al Brooks said that Wednesday “appears to be the last search day.” He did not comment on what investigators have found but said that a statement may be released Wednesday night or Thursday morning. He said investigators will continue to keep the property secure. Crime-scene tape was used to block off the home on Wednesday.
In 2023, cadaver dogs alerted to topsoil near where the patio had been built in the home’s backyard, but as authorities dug deeper, the dog stopped picking up the scent, law enforcement sources said. Noel and his family lived mostly in a converted shed behind the home. A piece of an outdoor rug recovered in 2023 was also sent to an FBI lab for analysis.
Noel, who had physical and intellectual disabilities, was last seen in October 2022. Rodriguez-Singh was arrested in New Delhi, India, in August 2025 after being listed on the FBI’s Most Wanted list. With her husband and six of her other children, she flew from Dallas-Fort Worth to India when police began searching for Noel in 2023.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Brooks, the Everman police chief, described the search as a next step in the course of the investigation.
“It is that critical, that important, that we maintain the integrity of this whole circumstance for the benefit and for the justice we are seeking for Noel,” Brooks said.
Officials with the FBI’s Dallas field office said Tuesday that its agents were conducting the search at the request of the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office.
The home’s new resident, Amber Duffins, told KDFW that she had no idea the home was connected to an active federal investigation when she moved in over a year ago. Authorities gave Duffins, who has a young child, advance notice of the planned digging so that she and her family could stay in a hotel.
“Part of me doesn’t want a baby to be back there, and part of me does just so he can have the closure and everybody else who’s been following this case since it first happened,” Duffins said. “But I just hope that the baby gets the closure.”
The shed where Noel and his family lived is now unoccupied and just serves as a shed, Duffins said.
Asked about his thoughts on the case, neighbor Weldon Gaither told WFAA-TV, “Why run? If you didn’t want the child, would you not just give the child up for adoption? ... Give it to someone, there are women out here who want a child, who can’t have children. So why don’t you just give it to one of them?”
Last month, Rodriguez-Singh was found incompetent to stand trial in the death of her son.
Rodriguez-Singh was ordered to be admitted to a maximum security unit at a state hospital in an effort to restore her competency to stand trial in the future, officials have said.
Defendants’ needs vary, and any diagnosis made by the psychologist who examined Rodriguez-Singh on March 26 has not been made public because the resulting psychiatric evaluation report was filed under seal. The psychologist determined either that Rodriguez-Singh does not have sufficient ability to consult with her attorney with a reasonable degree of rational understanding or that she does not have a rational and factual understanding of the proceedings.
Competency restoration attempts usually involve medication management and counseling, according to two criminal defense attorneys familiar with competency matters.
Everman police have described Rodriguez-Singh as an abusive parent who deprived Noel of food and water because she did not like changing his diaper. At least once she struck him with a set of keys because he drank water, police said. Rodriguez-Singh called Noel evil and a demon, police have said.
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This story was originally published May 13, 2026 at 6:49 PM.
