Authorities searching for missing 6-year-old Texas boy last seen in November
Rachel Schilke
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Texas authorities are searching for a 6-year-old boy not seen by many in months. Officials are eyeing his mother, who left the country earlier this year, in his disappearance.
The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services asked police to conduct a welfare check on Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez on March 20, according to Everman police. Family members told investigators that Noel had not been seen since November.
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The boy’s mother, Cindy Rodriguez-Singh, “provided what we now know as misinformation that Noel was staying with family in Mexico,” Police Chief Craig Spencer said last week via NBC News. “We are truly concerned about Noel’s physical and medical well-being.”
Rodriguez-Singh, her husband, and her six children, without Noel, boarded a plane to India on March 22, Spencer said.
The couple had no outstanding warrants that would have prevented them from leaving the United States to go to India, per police.
Police obtained warrants for Rodriguez-Singh and her husband, Arshdeep Singh, on charges of abandoning or endangering a child, Spencer said, and the whereabouts of Noel remain unclear.
Noel’s father, who lives in Mexico, has spoken to investigators and is “concerned for the whereabouts of Noel,” Spencer said.
Spencer said investigators dug up a newly poured concrete porch at the home where the family had been staying as part of the search, but no evidence was discovered pointing to Noel. Investigators focused on the porch because Rodriguez-Singh paid for it despite not owning the property, he said, and though ground-penetrating radars flagged an anomaly, police found nothing.
“I want to be very clear: To this day, we don’t have any evidence that would suggest Noel’s deceased,” Spencer said. “I just want to be clear there that we are still pursuing every avenue possible with this investigation.”
The FBI and other federal agencies are assisting with the investigation, Spencer said.
On Wednesday, police addressed a rumor circulating in the media related to statements contained within an obtained search warrant. One of the statements referred to alleged comments that Rodriguez-Singh made to family members that she “sold Noel to someone [at] a ‘Fiesta Market’ store.”
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“At this point in the investigation, investigators have not found any evidence to support that Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez was sold,” Everman police said in a release.
Police plan to hold another press conference on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. Central time to provide updates on the case.