Tarrant County grand jury indicts Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez's mother on capital murder charge
TARRANT COUNTY (CBSNewsTexas) - A Tarrant County grand jury has indicted Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez's mother Cindy Rodriguez-Singh on capital murder and additional charges related to the disappearance of her son who was reported missing last year.
Calling the Oct. 30 update "a tremendous milestone," Everman Police Chief Craig Spencer said a murder warrant was also issued for Rodriguez-Singh. Spencer added that the warrant will help to extradite her back to the United States.
The additional charges filed were: two counts injury to child and one count abandoning without intent to return.
Rodriguez-Alvarez was last seen in November of 2022, but his family didn't report him missing until five months later in March 2023. A Texas AMBER Alert was issued for him on March 25.
Rodriguez-Singh and her husband fled the country in March just days after the AMBER Alert was issued.
Everman Mayor Ray Richardson said 2023 has been a difficult year for his city. "Not a day goes by where someone doesn't ask about Noel or the missing little boy from Everman."
Described as a "sweet boy who was always smiling," Rodriguez-Alvarez was six at the time.
"He was a sweet little boy," said Patricia Paris, who once fostered the little boy and his siblings. She remembers him as loving, and loveable. "That was our boy. He loved to give hugs... just a sweet little boy."
Although born prematurely, Paris said Rodriguez-Alvarez could walk, talk, operate his tablet and was overcoming his challenges. She said when he and his siblings were returned to his mother in December of 2021, she was assured of the family's continued support.
"I remember my husband telling her if she feels like she's overwhelmed, if she needed a break, just call us. We would come get him we would take care of him," recalled Paris.
During the ensuing investigation, records from a credit card account belonging to Rodriguez-Alvarez's stepfather Arshdeep Singh showed one way plane tickets to India were bought for him, the child's mother and siblings. And a large cash deposit went into Singh's bank account on March 22, hours before the family fled.
Singh's boss said he had access to the company safe, and he reportedly fraudulently altered the company's cash deposits record. He then removed $10,000, according to his boss from the safe. After, Singh traveled to the nearest bank, and deposited $8,000 into his own personal account, his boss told CBS News Texas last year.
The investigation into what happened to Rodriguez-Alvarez has spanned state and country borders, with law enforcement officials spending thousands of man hours on the case.
Anyone with information about this case is asked to call police at 817.293.2923.