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Missing Everman 6-year-old presumed dead, police say

Police say they are now investigating the death of Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez, a 6-year-old from Everman with intellectual disabilities.
Texas Department of Public Safety
Police say they are now investigating the death of Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez, a 6-year-old from Everman with intellectual disabilities.

Police have issued felony arrest warrants for Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez's mother and stepfather, who police say went to India shortly after Noel went missing.

Correction: A previous version of this story gave an incorrect date for the release of an AMBER Alert for Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez. The alert went out on March 25.

A 6-year-old boy from Everman who has been missing for weeks is presumed dead, police said Thursday.

Law enforcement sent out an AMBER Alert for Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez on March 25, and he was labeled an “endangered missing person” later that day.

Now, police say they are investigating the child's death.

"I understand that this is not the news that we were all hoping for or praying for, but we all must continue to stand together as a community and fight for Noel," said Craig Spencer, chief public safety officer for the Everman Police Department.

Noel was last seen at a hospital in October when his mother Cindy Rodriguez-Singh gave birth to twins, according to police. Witnesses claimed Rodriguez-Singh had told them Noel was with his biological father in Mexico, with his aunt in Mexico or had been sold to a woman in a Fiesta Mart parking lot.

After investigating, police determined none of those stories turned out to be true.

Witnesses told police Rodriguez-Singh was known by relatives to be abusive toward Noel, who police said has intellectual disabilities. Police also said witnesses report Cindy calling her son "evil, possessed or having a demon in him," not wanting him near her other children.

In November, Rodriguez-Singh applied for passports for herself and six of her children, excluding Noel, police said.

Arrest warrants have now been issued for the arrest of Noel's mother and stepfather, who police said went to India with six of their kids shortly after the investigation began. They could face felony charges for child endangerment, police said.

"Although the course of this investigation has changed, our commitment to Noel has not," Spencer said. "We will continue to fight for Noel."

The City of Everman will host a candlelight vigil for Noel at 8:30 p.m. Monday night at the Everman Civic Center, 213 N. Race St.

Got a tip? Email Toluwani Osibamowo at tosibamowo@kera.org. You can follow Toluwani on Twitter @tosibamowo.

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Toluwani Osibamowo is a general assignments reporter for KERA. She previously worked as a news intern for Texas Tech Public Media and copy editor for Texas Tech University’s student newspaper, The Daily Toreador, before graduating with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. She is originally from Plano.