The 6-year-old allegedly died at the hands of his mother.
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What Happened to Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez? The Case Against His Mother, Explained
The case of a missing 6-year-old Texas boy with developmental disabilities, Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez, evolved into an international case when his mother, Cindy Rodriguez Singh, fled to India. Singh made the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list and was returned to the Fort Worth, Texas, suburb of Everman where she faces a capital murder charge. She was declared incompetent to stand trial, so Singh was admitted to a state hospital for treatment until she understands the charges and can legally defend herself.
A Boy with a Complicated Life
Noel was born prematurely on February 2, 2017. Premature infants are prone to various complications. In Noel’s case, he experienced developmental delays, esotropia (eye misalignment) and a chronic lung disease, among other ailments that required regular medical attention.
His mother, Singh, had a history of drinking, according to police. After she crashed into a pole while intoxicated, she lost custody of her children. Patricia Paris took in Noel and two of his siblings as a foster mom. She remembers Noel being a sweet, shy 3-year-old kid.
“He wouldn’t look up at you at all,” Paris tells A&E Crime + Investigation. It took Noel a while to warm up to her, but once he did, they were inseparable.
“Everywhere I went, he wanted to go,” Paris says. “He would say ‘Ma, can I go? Please, please.’ To be separated from Noel was hard for him, because he believed that I was gonna leave him. I had to convince him that I’m not going anywhere.”
Fifteen months later, Singh regained custody of her children.
The Search for Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez
Noel was last seen on Thanksgiving Day 2022. A family member anonymously notified Child Protective Services of his disappearance in March 2023. CPS in turn contacted the police to do a welfare check.
On March 20, 2023, Everman police visited Noel’s home. Singh claimed that Noel went to live with his father in Mexico. They believed they had no reason to doubt her and left. Three days later, police contacted Noel’s father. He said that he was deported before Noel was born and never saw him. By the time the lie was exposed, Singh, her husband, Arshdeep Singh, and six of her kids had fled the country to India, Arshdeep’s birth home. Noel was not with them.
An AMBER Alert was issued on March 25. The next day, the alert was replaced with an Endangered Missing Person report.
On March 27, authorities searched Singh's home. During another search in April, cadaver dogs alerted them to an area in the backyard and a recovered carpet that Arshdeep disposed of the day after the welfare check. However, Noel’s remains were not found.
A felony warrant was issued for the couple on March 30. By then, the FBI had joined the investigation. A week later, Everman police announced that the search for Noel had transitioned to a death investigation.
Paris was shocked that Singh was capable of harming Noel.
“If I suspected any type of thing that was going on, I promise you, I would have definitely made a big fuss out of it. I had no knowledge,” she says.
Singh was indicted on October 30, 2023, on a charge of capital murder, two counts of injury to a child and one count of abandoning without the intent to return. She was arrested in India on August 20, 2025, and brought back to Texas.
Following new leads, authorities searched the Singh home again on May 13, 2026. They found
human remains that turned out to be Noel’s.
Craig Spencer, Everman’s police chief at the time, said that in the days leading to Noel’s death, Singh
described him as “evil, possessed, or having a demon in him.” She allegedly feared that Noel would harm her twin babies.
Cindy Rodriguez Singh Awaits Trial
A psychiatric evaluation found that Singh was not competent to stand trial. The trial was paused, and she was sent to a state hospital for treatment.
Dana R. Anderson is a forensic psychologist who has served as an expert witness and conducted numerous evaluations for the courts. She tells A&E Crime + Investigation, “For the most part, people are restored to competency and return to court and go through the legal process.”
Every client has different needs. Some simply require training.
“If I was the person doing the part of the training process, I would be going over making sure they understand all the basics of the courtroom procedures,” Anderson says.
Anderson cites another potential part of restoring competency.
“There could be a medication component and that’s common. Typically, in my experience, there’s some level of psychotic or disorganized thinking that they thought something else was happening that wasn’t—the reality was impaired—and that’s why they committed this crime.”
After treatment, she rarely finds a client incompetent to stand trial. Exceptions could be with clients who have neurocognitive impairment or dementia.
“[It has to be] something that’s irreversible,” Anderson says. “It can be tricky with folks who enter in and out of psychosis or are in and out of their meds.”
Then there’s the defendant trying to game the system.
“Sometimes people can attempt to malinger different symptoms in a psychosis or memory or some other impairment," Anderson adds. "They could just be desperate to avoid going through the legal process.”
She stressed, “Somebody can be declared competent to stand trial and still make an insanity plea. Competency is your mental state.”
“We told Cindy, ‘If you need anything, we’re here for you,’ Paris says. “‘You don’t have to do this by yourself. If you need some time away from Noel, we’ll take him for a little bit. If it feels like too much and you really can’t do it, we’ll come get him. It will be just between you and I.’”
Paris’ offer was rebuffed. If convicted, Singh could face the death penalty or spend the rest of her life in prison.
She has not publicly responded to the charges against her.
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