UPDATE
Oct 31, 2023 2:45 PM CDT
The mother of a missing 6-year-old Texas boy has been indicted by a grand jury on charges including capital murder. Cindy Rodriguez-Singh fled the country with her husband and six other children in March, around the time an Amber Alert was issued for Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez, who is now presumed dead. Craig Spencer, chief of police in Everman, Texas, says the indictments "will significantly support our effort to apprehend and extradite Cindy back to the United States," USA Today reports. Witnesses say Rodriguez-Singh severely abused and neglected Noel, who had disabilities including chronic lung disease. Spencer says that while the boy's body may never be found, it doesn't "preclude the DA's office from being able to push this case forward and get a murder conviction."
Apr 8, 2023 9:30 AM CDT
A sad update to a missing child case out of North Texas, after police announced this week that they no longer think 6-year-old Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez, whose family boarded a flight to Turkey without him, is alive. Interviews and other investigative work "has led to a very unfortunate, unimaginable, devastating conclusion that Noel is likely deceased," Everman Police Chief CW Spencer said at a Thursday press conference, per ABC News. He noted that the Endangered Missing Persons Alert for Noel—who was last seen looking "unhealthy and malnourished" in October, around the time his twin sisters were born—has been switched over to a death investigation.
Spencer said that Noel's mother, Cindy Rodriguez-Singh, applied for passports in November for her six other children, but not for Noel. He noted that a warrant has been issued for her arrest, as well as for her husband, Arshdeep Singh, both for the felony charge of abandoning and endangering a child. The family is now said to be in India, where Arshdeep Singh is from. The news comes amid disturbing finds made by cops during their probe, including interviews Spencer said police had with family members who indicated Cindy Rodriguez-Singh had abused and neglected Noel, and that she would call her son "evil, possessed, or having a demon in him," per KENS.
story continues below
Relatives say Cindy Rodriguez-Singh would "often" deprive Noel, who had health issues that required supplemental oxygen, of food and water, and that one time she even smacked him in the face with a set of keys, Spencer said, per ABC. Spencer revealed during the presser that Noel had last been seen by a doctor in July, and that the mother had concocted various stories to try to cover up why Noel had vanished, including that she'd sold him. "We want these fugitives arrested and extradited back to the United States so we can seek answers" for Noel's disappearance, Spencer said. (More missing boy stories.)