Everman authorities resumed their ground search Saturday in hopes of finding evidence that may lead them to Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez.
Noel has been missing since October 2022, which is the last time officials said they could confirm someone had seen the boy alive. Earlier this month, investigators said they believed he was deceased after finding no evidence to support claims or rumors that the 6-year-old boy is either living with family members abroad or had been sold to a woman outside of a local grocery store.
The search Saturday stretched more than 200 acres, including two large areas beginning along Shelby Road. Everman Police Chief Craig Spencer said there were also two smaller spots being handled by a small team of investigators. Spencer said in total, the search Saturday included about 50 people including TEXSAR.
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The volunteer-based organization is comprised of experts trained in search and rescue.
“For the last week and a half, our investigative team has been focused on the analytics and data that we have been able to collect through various search warrants and things. For the purpose of being able to establish purposeful search areas,” Spencer said.
Spencer said the case of Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez has included between 30 and 40 investigators, so far.
“Everybody from detectives, investigators, state officials, to federal partners. We’ve had trafficking experts on the case. I couldn’t ask for a better team,” Spencer said. “The search areas we’re conducting today [Saturday], there’s data to support those search areas. One of the things we wanted to avoid was just a broad, wide-spectrum random search. We can’t afford, with this case, to miss anything.”
It’s been hard not having anger or confusion regarding this case. I cannot seem to understand why this would happen to a child.
Everman Police Chief Craig Spencer
Officials said the boy’s mother and stepfather are believed to have traveled to India with their six other children after police started looking into the boy's disappearance in March. The FBI is working with international partners to locate and extradite Cindy and Arshdeep Singh who are currently charged with felony child abandonment and endangerment in the missing boy's case.
“It’s been hard not having anger or confusion regarding this case. I cannot seem to understand why this would happen to a child,” Spencer said. “All the rumors, and all of the things that have floated around the case. It doesn’t matter if she [mother] sold him or if he’s dead, it never should have came to any of this. At all.”
Maxx Pasko lives on Shelby Road and said police stopped by his home on Friday to explain authorities would be searching the area nearby on Saturday.
“I guess it stuns a lot of people that it’s so close to where you live, but a lot of bad things happen everywhere. It doesn’t matter where you’re from or where you live,” Pasko said. “I’d like to say I’m shocked, but there’s a lot of bad things that happen in this world.”
At the search Saturday, Spencer thanked the law enforcement officials who have been a part of the case and the community.
“I can’t drive around the community right now without someone in the community stopping me, asking how the case is going. Have we had any luck in finding Noel?” he said.
Last week, cadaver dogs assisting investigators at the child's home on Wisteria Drive "alerted" to a discarded rug and topsoil underneath a recently poured porch, indicating human remains had been present at some time in the past, however, no physical evidence was found that could be tested and identified.
