Everman police said at a press conference Monday that 6-year-old Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez is still missing and they have not found evidence to show whether he is alive or dead. Texas Amber Alert was issued Saturday for Noel, who authorities say has severe disabilities and has not been seen since November. The alert was changed to an Endangered Missing Persons alert after it was discovered that Noel’s mother, stepfather and siblings left the country on an international flight without him, police said.
On Monday, police were searching in the yard and inside the family’s home on Wisteria Drive, which is a large converted shed in the yard behind another house. Children’s bikes and a toy car were outside. Everman Police Chief Craig Spencer said the shed was essentially converted into a large, one-room space in which all nine people in the family lived. An older man lives in the main house. He has been cooperative with the investigation and gave authorities permission to search the property, Spencer said. Police had a cadaver dog on the property Monday but it did not alert to any evidence of a body during the search, according to Spencer, who was at the home with other officers and later spoke at the press conference. He added that authorities have no reason to believe Noel is dead but brought the cadaver dog out “to cover all our bases.”
Police found a pickup truck that belongs to Noel’s mother, 37-year-old Cindy Rodriguez-Singh, at DFW Airport, where the family departed on a flight to Turkey on Thursday. The truck was taken to a secure holding area and searched. Inside, police found a travel visa for one of Rodriguez-Singh’s other six children.
The visa, dated March 21, was obtained one day after authorities made a welfare check at the family’s home, Spencer said. The visa was for travel to India with a stop first in Turkey. Spencer said investigators have not confirmed the specific destination in India or whether the family was on that connecting flight. Noel’s stepfather, 35-year-old Arshdeep Singh, is from India. Cindy Rodriguez-Singh has four children between ages 7 and 11, and 5-month-old twins with her husband. Police said they cannot yet say for certain how long the two have been in a relationship or when they got married. During the welfare check, after authorities received an anonymous tip that the 6-year-old was missing, Rodriguez-Singh lied and said Noel was in Mexico with his biological father, according to Spencer. Authorities had no reason to doubt her story at the the time, but police later confirmed that the father was deported before Noel was born and has never met the child, he said.
