Messages of outrage and grief as hundreds gather to honor missing 6-year-old Everman boy
Community leaders shared messages of mourning, hope and of thanks to police and firefighters in Everman on Monday night as they remembered missing 6-year-old Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez.
Noel, who has severe physical and developmental disabilities, went missing in November but was only reported such in March after family members raised concerns that they hadn’t seen him in months. Last week, police declared that the case was no longer an endangered missing persons case but a death investigation and a search for the child’s remains.
Monday’s vigil at Everman’s civic center drew hundreds including faith leaders and law enforcement. They shared messages of grief at the loss of life, outrage at what investigations have uncovered about how Noel was treated and how hope could be found in community and prayer.
The hundreds of people gathered around a stage set up behind the civic center, holding tea candles in transparent plastic cups or other candles they’d brought from home. Some brought prayer candles to set in front of the stage.
Everman Police Chief Craig Spencer said it was important to remember what the event was all about.
“Tonight’s not about mom, it’s not about stepdad, it’s not about anything to do with the case,” Spencer told the gathering. “Tonight’s about Noel. ... Tonight, we honor him by finding ways to stop these tremendously horrible acts that go on.”
Police on Monday started searching areas near the home at which Noel and his family lived. Last month, authorities said, his mother and stepfather fled the country on a flight to India with a connection in Istanbul, Turkey, days before an Amber Alert was issued for Noel. Until then, the family still lived in a home and a shed in the back yard of the home in the 3700 block of Wisteria Drive.
Monday, canines and first responders searching the area of the home and nearby wooded areas to the north and east of the house teamed up with Texas Search and Rescue (TEXSAR), which searched on foot, on horseback and with drones.
Police Monday had not announced any new developments, but did say they were searching under a porch at the residence that Noel’s mother, Cindy Rodriguez-Singh, had a contractor build a few months ago.
Noel was last seen in the weeks after Rodriguez-Singh gave birth to twin girls in October, according to police. Noel was present for the births and appeared malnourished and unhealthy around that time, witnesses told police.
Rodriguez-Singh made statements that she thought Noel was “evil” and “possessed by a demon” and that she was afraid he might harm his baby sisters, according to police interviews with witnesses.
Around November, the mother began telling various stories to friends and relatives to explain Noel’s disappearance, police said. Through interviews, cellphone geolocation and other means, investigators have been able to disprove each of those stories, which included Rodriguez-Singh claiming that Noel was with his biological father in Mexico or that she had sold him to a woman in a Fiesta Mart grocery store parking lot, Spencer said.
Investigators also learned that Rodriguez-Singh asked to borrow a friend’s child to pose as Noel at one of his medical appointments so she could try to keep receiving government benefits for Noel, Spencer said. Investigators learned that Noel, who had serious disabilities including a lung condition, was last seen by a speech therapist in July and missed other doctors’ appointments around that time.
Witnesses also told police that Noel’s mom abused the boy and withheld food and water from him because she didn’t want to change his dirty diapers. In one incident referenced in a search warrant, Rodriguez-Singh’s brother said that she hit Noel in the face with her car keys because the child drank water when she didn’t want him to.
Authorities have issued warrants for the arrest of Rodriguez-Singh and her husband, Arshdeep Singh, on felony charges of abandoning and endangering a child. Authorities said they are trying to extradite the couple from India, where they fled in March, days after police began investigating an anonymous tip that Noel had been missing since November.
