Everman, Texas, Police said missing 6-year-old Noel Rodriguez Alvarez is a 'death investigation'
Everman police provided an update on April 6. (Credit: Everman, Texas Emergency Services)
A Texas grand jury has indicted a mother in the murder of her 6-year-old disabled son a year after he was last seen. Prosecutors are hopeful that this will expedite her return from India, where she and her family emigrated days before an Amber Alert was issued for the missing child.
Cindy Rodriguez-Singh is accused of two counts of injury to a child and one count of abandoning a child without intent to return in addition to capital murder charges handed down by the Tarrant County grand jury on Monday.
Just after giving birth to twins last November, Rodriguez-Singh applied for passports for her six other children, but not Noel Rodriguez-Álvarez, authorities previously told told People.
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Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez, 6, was last seen alive by extended family members in October of last year. Although his remains have not been found, police believe he is dead and his mother, Cindy Rodriguez-Singh, is responsible. Everman Police in Texas are working with the U.S. Marshals to extradite the woman back from India after she was charged with capital murder on Monday. (Everman Emergency Services Facebook)
Then in March, she, her husband Arshdeep Singh and her six other children left their home in Everman and fled to India on a one-way Turkish Airlines flight, police said.
At a press conference on Monday, Everman Police Chief Craig Spencer hoped that "these indictments [would] significantly support our effort to apprehend and extradite Cindy back to the United States."
Now, Spencer said, authorities are working with the U.S. Marshals, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI to bring the mother back to the states for trial.
Noel's body has not been found, however, cadaver dogs detected human remains on a carpet that had once been on the floor of a shed that had been demolished on the family's rented property. The carpet had been retrieved from a dumpster by police after Arshdeep Singh disposed of it, Law & Crime reported.
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An indictment for capital murder was handed down by a Texas grand jury on Monday for the alleged murder of Cindy Rodriguez-Singh's son. Her husband, Arshdeep Singh, was charged with felony theft in April before the couple and their six other children boarded a one-way flight to India. (Texas Department of Public Safety)
Spencer told People the family had a concrete patio constructed over the former site of the shed under "very suspicious circumstances." Although law enforcement obtained a warrant to rip up the concrete, no physical evidence was recovered.
Police said the family spent their entire tax return on the rushed construction of the patio just weeks before boarding their flight, and reportedly requested that concrete be laid more thickly in one area, contractors told authorities.
"When this case was presented to the grand jury, it was indicted in what is called a ‘manner and means unknown to the grand jury,'" Spencer said at the Monday press conference. "When you indict on that, [you] have to prove – we may not have a body and, well, we don't have a body, right – but we have to prove a reasonable effort in identifying any and all other circumstances and potential outcomes for this boy."
However, after an exhaustive six-month search for the body, Spencer said police were left with "one simple conclusion" – that "he was murdered."
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Witnesses have told police that Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez appeared "malnourished" and "unhealthy" when he was last seen around the time his mother gave birth to twins in 2022. Witnesses told police that Cindy Rodriguez-Singh confided in others that the child was "evil" and "possessed," and feared that he would "hunt" her infant children. Allegedly, witnesses told police, the mother would deny the special-needs child food and water to avoid changing his diapers. (Everman Emergency Services Facebook)
The child was last seen at the hospital where Rodriguez-Singh gave birth to her twins and one other time in October 2022 – witnesses told police the 6-year-old appeared "malnourished" and "unhealthy" at the time, per a prior press release from the Everman Police Department.
The child has serious disabilities that require intensive care and patience, including a chronic lung disease that requires frequent oxygen treatment, USA Today reported.
When police initially contacted Rodriguez-Singh following concerned calls from the boy's extended family, she reportedly said that he was in Mexico with his father – a claim that was later disproved, per a search warrant obtained by Fox News Digital.
The shed identified as the last known residence of Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez. (MADELEINE COOK/STAR-TELEGRAM VIA AP)
In early April, Noel's grandmother told police that Rodriguez-Singh told her that the child was sold to another woman at a Fiesta Market grocery store, per the warrant.
In the days leading up to his suspected death, witnesses told police that the mother told others the 6-year-old was "evil, possessed or [had] a demon in him."
She also allegedly feared the boy would "hunt" her newborns, per the warrant.
The mother was "known by relatives to be abusive and neglectful" to Noel, per People.
"One relative witnessed Cindy strike Noel in the face with keys for drinking water," police wrote in an earlier press release. "Witnesses additional stated that food and water was often withheld from Noel because Cindy did not like changing Noel's dirty diapers."
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After an indictment was handed down for his murder, a vigil was held for Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez on Monday in Everman, Texas. (Associated Press)
Police have also alleged that the mother practiced the religion of Asante Morte and worshiped Santa Muerte – a cult-like folk saint who personifies death, has been disavowed by Mexican officials with the Catholic Church and is often associated with violent drug cartels – saying that these alleged beliefs were "very important" to their investigation, FOX 4 Dallas reported.
The station showed an on-camera tour of another shed on the property, where the family lived before leaving the country, on March 29. Inside, shrines that appear to be for Nuestra Santa de Santa Muerte – "Our Lady of Death" in Spanish – were displayed among clutter.
Shrines to Santa Muerte – a cult-like Mexican saint figure disavowed by the Catholic Church – were found throughout the shed where Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez last lived with his family, police said. His mother allegedly told witnesses that her disabled son was "possessed." (FOX 4)
"In this case it's very important. She idolizes Santa Muerte. It’s everywhere within the shed. It was everywhere within the home, it was on her vehicle, so it was pretty evident to us she was idolizing and worshiping," Spencer told the outlet. "Essentially he is the patron saint that offers protection to the cartel and those kinds of activities."
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Also in April, on the same day the family left the country, Arshdeep Singh was charged with felony theft for reportedly stealing $10,000 from an employer on March 22, per Law & Crime.
A candlelight vigil for Noel was held on Monday in Everman.
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