The search for a missing 6-year-old Texas boy who hasn't been seen since October is now a death investigation, police said Thursday, while vowing to find his body.
Texas authorities issued an endangered missing person alert late last month for Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez of Everman, a city in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area.
After conducting interviews with families and investigating stories they believe his mother allegedly told to cover for his disappearance, including that she had sold him, "it has led to a very unfortunate, unimaginable, devastating conclusion that Noel is likely deceased," Everman Police Chief C.W. Spencer said at a press briefing Thursday.
In this image posted to the Twitter account of the Texas Department of Public Safety, Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez is shown.
Texas Department of Public Safety
Noel was last seen alive around the birth of his twin sisters in October, "appearing unhealthy and malnourished," according to Spencer. In early November, his mother, Cindy Rodriguez-Singh, applied for passports for all of her children except for Noel, the police chief said.
Around that time, Rodriguez-Singh "began trying to explain the disappearance of Noel ... through various stories," including reportedly telling people he was with his biological father in Mexico, with his aunt in Mexico or that Noel was sold to another woman in a Fiesta Market parking lot, Spencer said.
"Investigators have been able to disprove each one of these stories," Spencer said.
Family members reportedly told police that Rodriguez-Singh was abusive and neglectful toward Noel, including allegedly withholding food and water "often" and on one occasion striking him in the face with a set of keys, Spencer said. She also "referred to him as evil, possessed or having a demon in him," the police chief said.
Rodriguez-Singh, her husband Arshdeep Singh and her six other children are currently in India, Spencer said. Warrants have been issued for the couple's arrest on the felony charge of abandoning and endangering a child, according to the police chief.
"We want these fugitives arrested and extradited back to the United States so we can seek answers for the disappearance of Noel," Spencer said.
Everman Police Chief C.W. Spencer holds a press conference on April 6, 2023.
WFAA
Investigators are now conducting recovery operations and organized searches to find Noel's body, the chief said.
"Nobody is more committed, more determined or more eager to locate Noel than this investigative team," Spencer said.
