Who was Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez? What to know about Everman missing boy case

The search for Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez, a 6-year-old Everman boy missing since 2022, intensified this week with new evidence found at his former family home. On Thursday, authorities said they have found human remains. Meanwhile, the boy’s mother, Cindy Rodriguez-Singh, has been indicted on a capital murder charge and was captured in India after a years-long international manhunt.

Here’s what to know about the case, from the Star-Telegram’s previous reporting.

• Noel, who had physical and intellectual disabilities, was last seen in October 2022, and investigators found new evidence Wednesday during a search of the backyard at his former family home on Wisteria Drive in Everman, southeast of Fort Worth. Investigators on Wednesday loaded a tarp containing evidence into a van that drove to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office. The discovered human remains have not yet been officially identified.

• Police previously concluded Noel was likely dead based on circumstantial evidence, with his mother allegedly calling him “evil” and “possessed by a demon” and telling multiple false stories about his disappearance, including that she sold him to a woman at a Fiesta Mart.
• Cindy Rodriguez-Singh fled the U.S. on March 22, 2023, flying from Dallas-Fort Worth to Istanbul and then India with her husband and six other children, two days after Everman police came to check on Noel.

• The FBI arrested Rodriguez-Singh after she was placed on the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List in July 2025, with a $250,000 reward offered, and she faces charges of capital murder of a person under 10.

• Patricia Paris, who served as Noel’s foster mother in 2020 and 2021, described him as “lovable and always in a happy mood” and said he had a chronic lung disease that required regular doctor visits.
• In November 2023, Everman dedicated an inclusive playground at Clyde Pittman Park to Noel, featuring a wheelchair-accessible seesaw, a “cozy dome” for over-stimulated children and Rhapsody Vibra Chimes designed for sensory development.

• Witnesses told police Rodriguez-Singh withheld food and water from Noel because she didn’t want to change his diapers, and her brother said she struck the child with car keys after he drank water.
• Rodriguez-Singh, 40, is being held in the Tarrant County Jail on a $10 million bond and there’s also a federal hold in place to prevent her release. Everman Mayor Ray Richardson told the Star-Telegram “a lot of tears have been shed” over the case in his community.

• Rodriguez-Singh was found incompetent to stand trial last month and was ordered admitted to a maximum security unit at a state hospital. She remains in jail while waiting for space to open in the hospital.

The summary points above were compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists. The source reporting referenced above was written and edited entirely by journalists.