In a news conference on Monday, Everman police told reporters they still have not recovered the body of 6-year-old Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez. But they believe he died at the hands of his mother, Cindy Rodriguez-Singh. She has since fled the country. NBC 5’s Candace Sweat has the story.
The mother of Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez, a 6-year-old boy from Everman who has been missing for a year and is now presumed dead, has been indicted by a grand jury on several new charges including capital murder.
Everman Chief of Police CW Spencer said Monday afternoon a Tarrant County grand jury indicted Cindy Singh, the boy's mother, on one charge of capital murder, two charges of injury to a child, and one charge of abandoning a child without the intent to return.
Singh is believed to be in India with her husband, Arshdeep, and her six other children. Spencer said Monday that the indictments should help drive the extradition process forward and that his department was working with federal partners to find the boy's mother and stepfather. Spencer said if the boy's stepfather is also found, he expects to file additional charges against him as well.
“Our hope is that we will be able to work with federal partners and they’ll be able to work with international partners on getting her apprehended and brought back, and get some answers to those questions because we still have unanswered questions,” said Spencer.
Following a tip last March, Everman Police began looking into Noel's welfare. Within days of opening that investigation, police learned Cindy and the rest of the boy's family had suddenly left the country. Investigators said a day before the family departed the couple used a credit card to buy one-way airline tickets to India for the boy's stepfather, his mother, and the boy's siblings.
In April, cadaver dogs assisting investigators at the child's home on Wisteria Drive "alerted" to a discarded rug and topsoil underneath a recently poured porch at the home the family rented. The "alert," police said, indicated human remains had been present at some time in the past, however, no physical evidence was found that could be tested and identified.
Investigators said in the spring they believed Noel was deceased after finding no evidence to support claims or rumors that he was either living with family members abroad or had been sold to a woman outside of a local grocery store.
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Spencer told reporters his investigators' work is paying off. While Noel was never found, detectives said all roads lead to one conclusion, though the manner and means is unknown to the grand jury.
“That's what they've been working on tirelessly for the past six months is trying to identify any other potential outcomes for this child; all of which have been ruled out, leaving us down to one simple conclusion, that he was murdered,” Spencer said
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Dozens of search and rescue volunteers scoured hundreds of acres near the boy's home for clues in the spring but no significant finding was announced by police. Spencer said Monday that additional searches had taken place over the summer and that the work on the investigation is not done and will continue until justice is reached for Noel.
According to family members, Noel was last seen alive about a year ago, in October 2022, and he appeared malnourished and unhealthy.
“The last thing I want is to have a 6-year-old boy die at the hands of his mother,” Spencer said. “That's not what I want, but that's the facts that we're faced with here and that's what we're looking at.”
Criminal defense attorney Russell Wilson said there have been several successful criminal prosecutions without a body.
“We're very familiar with autopsies, and those usually provide a wealth of information in the manner and means of how a death occurred,” said Wilson. “But it doesn't mean you can't proceed on a case without it.”
