Remains identified as missing Texas 6-year-old Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez, DA says

Lillie Davidson, Fort Worth Star-Telegram on May 15, 2026

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FORT WORTH, Texas — The human remains that were found this week in the backyard of the Everman home where missing 6-year-old Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez lived have been positively identified as belonging to the child, District Attorney Phil Sorrells said.

The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office used dental records to identify Noel, who hadn’t been seen alive since October 2022, Sorrells said. The medical examiner’s office has not yet announced a determination on Noel’s cause and manner of death.

Human remains found this week in Everman, Texas, have been identified as 6-year-old Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez, who hadn’t been seen since 2022, authorities said. Courtesy: Everman Police Department

The child’s mother, 41-year-old Cindy Rodriguez-Singh, was arrested last summer in India after a global manhunt put her on the FBI’s Most Wanted Fugitives list. Last month, Rodriguez-Singh was found incompetent to stand trial on a capital murder charge in the death of her son, and she will be remanded to a state mental health facility until her competency can be restored.

The boy’s identification comes after FBI agents and local authorities spent three days digging this week in a coordinated investigative excavation in the backyard of the home in Everman.

“This case has weighed heavily on our community from the beginning,” Sorrells said. “Noel was a child whose life mattered. He deserved protection, care, and love. Instead, he became the victim of an unthinkable crime.”

Sorrells said Thursday that the psychologist’s report to the court states Rodriguez-Singh is expected to regain competency in the foreseeable future. “So she will stand trial for this,” he said.

Noel, who had physical and intellectual disabilities, was reported missing in March 2023, months after he was last seen in the fall of 2022. Although the child’s body had not been found at the time, he was presumed dead and Rodriguez-Singh was charged with capital murder after she fled the country in 2023. With her husband and six of her other children, she flew from Dallas-Fort Worth to India when police began searching for Noel.

Everman police have described Rodriguez-Singh as an abusive parent who deprived Noel of food and water because she did not like changing his diaper. At least once she struck him with a set of keys because he drank water, police said. Rodriguez-Singh called Noel evil and a demon, police have said.

Investigators said the mother told several false stories to try to explain her son’s disappearance, including saying that he was living with his biological father in Mexico and that she had sold the body to someone outside a Fiesta Mart store.

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