Authorities in Texas announced Thursday that evidence indicates that Noel Rodríguez-Álvarez, a 6-year-old Latino boy with a disability reported missing, may be dead.
Police in the town of Everman, in the Fort Worth-Dallas area, began the search for the little boy in March after some relatives alerted that they had not seen him since November 2022, according to NBC 5, an affiliate of NBC News.
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"Noel is probably dead
," Everman police chief Craig Spencer said at a news conference.
It is now a criminal investigation, he said, and arrest warrants have been issued for the boy's mother, Cindy Cecilia Rodríguez-Singh, and her husband, Arshdeep Singh, who along with their six children boarded a car on March 22. plane to India.
Noel was not with them, according to police.
His extradition has been requested to stand trial for abandoning and endangering a minor.
The boy was born prematurely and has severe disabilities, including a chronic lung disease that requires medical treatment and, occasionally, oxygen assistance.
After the investigation, the authorities found out that the mother was "abusive" with him and she did not care for him: she even deprived him of water or food because she did not like to change his diaper.
Noel Rodríguez-Álvarez. Everman Emergency Services via Facebook
Rodríguez-Singh told some people that the child "was possessed and had the devil inside," said Spencer, who clarified that they have ruled out some hypotheses that were being handled around the case.
"We have not found evidence to suggest that Noel was sold or trafficked"
and they dismissed the versions that indicate that he was handed over to other relatives in Mexico.
"It is not the news that we would like to have"
The investigation found that the boy was last seen in October 2022, when his mother gave birth to twin girls at a local hospital.
The search for a body continues.
"We don't have all the answers, so bringing them (the mother and stepfather) in and interviewing them would be helpful," authorities responded.
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"This is by far one of the most difficult cases I've been involved in," Spencer acknowledged, saying officials are shocked and committed to the investigation.
The police established that the child was seen on July 21 by a professional for speech therapy, the following appointments were not kept, raising the alerts.
"Noel was described as unhealthy and malnourished
," Spencer lamented.
Before the girls' birth in October, the mother made the comments about the alleged possession of her son, saying she believed he would harm them.
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In November, authorities say, she applied for passports for herself and her husband and their six children, minus Noel, and began fabricating stories saying he was with his biological father in Mexico or had been sold.
mother's version
Rodriguez-Singh initially told police the boy was in Mexico with his father.
"He provided what we now know is misinformation that Noel was staying with family in Mexico," Spencer said last week.
“We are genuinely concerned for Noel's physical and medical well-being,” he added then.
When agents visited the family's rented home -- a converted shed at the back of a residential property on Wisteria Drive -- they spoke to the mother, who assured them that Noel was with his biological father in Mexico.
But investigators spoke with the biological father, Mariano Álvarez Contreras, who confirmed that he never had the chance to meet him since he was deported before he was born.
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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has confirmed the deportation to the press, according to the Star Telegram newspaper.
Police focused on the front porch of the home that Rodriguez-Singh paid for even though the family does not own the home, which is unusual, Spencer said, as reported by NBC News.
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According to a search warrant obtained Tuesday by NBC 5, the mother's brother, Cantarino Rodríguez, said she told his mother that she sold the boy at a Fiesta Market to an unknown woman
and
that she threatened to notify Child Protective Services if he tried to recover it, a version that was dismissed this Thursday by the police.
“I want to be very clear when I say this, very, very clear.
This is a rumor that we have heard
and we have no evidence to support it,” Spencer said.
Although arrest warrants were issued for the boy's mother and stepfather, there was no court order or restriction preventing them from leaving the United States for India when they left the country, police said.