TRANSCRIPTION OF PRESS CONFERENCE
26TH MARCH
CHIEF - Good morning. My name is Craig Spencer, I'm the Chief of Police for the City of Everman. First, I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge our colleagues and partners, as well as those who have assisted us, so far in this investigation, some of whom are represented up here with me today. Also joining us, I have Mayor Ray Richardson, Mayor for the City of Everman, as well as Julie Evans, who is the Chief Executive Officer for the Alliance for children. In addition to that, behind me, you're only seeing some of the support that we've been having as far as our state, local and federal law enforcement partnership goes. Those partnerships include the Alliance for Children, Child Protective Investigations, Texas Department of Public Safety, Texas Rangers, Fort Worth Police Department, the White Settlement Police Department, Department of Homeland Security, National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, and then of course, our specific investigative team who's up here as well, and they've done an incredible job so far in this investigation.
Secondly, I need to thank all those who have volunteered their own time and effort to locate Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez. Since the issuance of the Amber Alert we've received countless tips and information and although not all of those tips and information received have been able to support us in locating Noel, we know that everyone is doing everything that they can and we truly appreciate those efforts and want those to continue. I've got a prepared statement here for you and then immediately after that, I'll be happy to answer any questions that you may have.
I'd like to provide a summary on the course of this investigation. First, let me start by saying that 6 yr. old Manuel Rodriguez-Alvarez is still missing. Noel suffers from multiple disabilities including: severe development disorder, social disorder, physical disabilities, chronic lung disease, which requires treatment and oxygen at times. On March 20th. our agency was notified by child protective investigations that they had received a complaint from an anonymous source that Noel had not been seen since November of 2022.
Noel reportedly resided with his mother, identified as Cindy Rodriguez-Singh, as well as 4 biological siblings, ages 7, 8, 9 and 11, and twin 5 month old half siblings and a stepfather. The stepfather was identified as Ashdeep (?) Singh. Cindy is the custodial mother of all 7 of these children. The family resided at a residence located in the 3700 block of Wisteria, here in Everman. CPI requested that officers conduct a welfare check of Noel at that residence. Officers responded to the home and made contact with the mother. At that time, the mother advised officers that Noel has been residing with his biological father in Mexico, since November. At that time, there were no indications present to the officer that would warrant any further investigation. This information was then shared with CPI.
On March 23rd, CPI contacted our agency, again, regarding Noel. They advised that they had spoken with several other family members, who also stated that they had not seen Noel since November of 2022 and expressed significant concern for the child's welfare. Additionally, CPI was able to track down the biological father in Mexico, who advised that he did not have Noel in his custody and that he had never had the opportunity to meet Noel, due to being deported prior to the birth of his youngest son with Cindy. Homeland Security records supported the father's statements. Additionally, the CPI investigator had attempted to make contact with the other children at their school, but learned that those children were absent and that the mother had contacted the school to inquire about their un-enrolment. CPI had attempted contact with the mother, by phone and at the residence, with no success. It appeared to the CPI investigator that the mother was intentionally avoiding authorities. This prompted an investigation into the child's whereabouts.
Investigators attempted to make contact with the mother, utilising all available methods. Although we are prohibited from releasing specific details about prior incidents and prior investigations, related to child protective services, I am able to simply share that there have been prior investigations and actions against the mother. Additionally, the mother has an extensive criminal history involving alcohol related offences.
On March 24th, investigators worked with our partners at the Alliance for Children and CPI on this case. Investigators were able to rule out that the child was in the possession of any other known family members. At which time investigators obtained an arrest warrant for the mother for the offensive of false report regarding a missing child or missing person. Investigators worked with the Texas Fusion Centre, which is responsible for the administration of Statewide alerts and it was determined that based upon the totality of the circumstances, an Amber Alert for Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez was warranted. This alert was issued shortly after midnight on March 25th.
On that same day, March 25th, investigators from various agencies worked tirelessly throughout the day on this case in an attempt to locate Noel, the mother, stepfather and other children. Investigators responded to dozens of tips and information that was received and at approximately 9 pm., last night, we learned that the mother, stepfather and siblings had all left the country on a Turkish Airways flight to Istanbul, that flew out on March 23rd prior to the issuance of the Amber Alert. Noel was not listed as a passenger on that flight. For this reason, the Amber Alert was discontinued and an endangered missing persons was issued through the Texas Department of Public Safety. This change does not affect the course of our investigation. We plan to continue to investigate this case to the fullest of our capabilities. I need to be very clear that we currently do not have any physical evidence related to Noel's status as a missing person. What I do know is that we have a 6 yr. old, disabled boy that cannot be accounted for, is missing and that the mother is not willing to cooperate with investigators to help us to simply assure that the child is safe, and we are desperately seeking the public's help.
Currently, we have engaged with our partners at the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children who are assisting us with all of their available resources and expertise. We are asking that anyone with any amount of information related to this case or this family to please contact the Everman Police Department and you can do so by calling our main line at 817-293-2923. And so with that I'll take any questions that I can.
REPORTER - The family have other family ties to Turkey? What do you think took them there? and is there any cooperation.. I know it's early but what help do you think you'll be able to get from the government over there, is that possible?
CHIEF - Yeah. So, let me let me start by saying; we do not have any direct relations to Turkey that we can identify. However, I can tell you that the stepfather is an immigrant from India. What we are trying to figure out is whether or not the Turkish Airlines flight was its final destination to Turkey or whether there was a connecting flight possibly elsewhere. And I'm sorry, David, what was the second part of your question? Working with authorities? Is that right?
REPORTER - Yeah, I guess you don't know if Turkey or Istanbul was the final destination as it's too early to process. If Turkey or Istanbul is the final destination, is there any help over there? you kind of answered that you don't have any (
inaudible) right now.
CHIEF - Yeah, well... and one of the toughest parts of this case is the fact that we are still lacking any physical evidence of what may or may not have happened to Noel. You know, and I don't want to speculate on anything, I mean, there could be a very simple explanation of this. Noel could be in the custody of a friend or a family member that we haven't been able to identify, but without the cooperation from the family or the mother, and under these circumstances, you know, we don't have a choice but to continue to look into it and address it as a missing person. But with a lack of evidence, it's hard to continue a criminal investigation into this, which means it's going to be difficult to engage with federal partners and foreign partners on anything further from here. We will certainly do our best to attempt that but with a lack of physical evidence or statements from family we don't have much to go on right now.
REPORTER - (
Asks Chief how critical it is to find Noel)
CHIEF - Well, yeah, no, it's extremely critical. I mean, his disabilities are extensive and he absolutely needs to be seen by medical staff and treated for his disabilities. You know, one of the things that's been most concerning is the chronic lung disease and is he receiving the treatment that he normally should receive with that chronic lung disease? He has a requirement to be on oxygen at certain points in time and we don't know if he's getting that. Obviously, the lack of treatment with his disabilities could ultimately result in death. Therefore, it's extremely critical for us. I mean, we've got to do everything we can to try to find this child and that's why we're seeking the public's help and trying to get more information on this.
REPORTER - (
Asks about the other children)
CHIEF - You know, I think it's natural for everybody to be concerned when you've got one sibling that's got a case like this, I think it's naturally warranted, but I can tell you that there has not been any evidence, provided to us, that would indicate that there's any danger to the other children, if that makes sense.
REPORTER - (
inaudible)
CHIEF - Yeah, we're working on trying to pull all medical records and things. I don't have exact dates, but right now, we're presuming since the child hasn't been seen since November of 22 that that's likely maybe the last time that he may have received medical treatment, we don't know.
REPORTER - Was Noel in school prior to his disappearance? I know you said November was the last time he was seen. Can you talk about where he was last seen? Had he been in school?
CHIEF - Yeah, David, that was one of the first investigative routes we tried to take - was checking with the school. Unfortunately, Noel was not enrolled in any school so there weren't any records or school resources for us to be able to tap on that end. So, he was solely in the custody of his mother.
REPORTER - Were the other children in school? At 6 yrs. old, I know you're typically in school by then. I don't know if you know why he wasn't in, were they just keeping him out for whatever reason? Were the other kids enrolled at all?
CHIEF - Yeah, it's hard to speculate on why he wasn't in school without talking to the mother. I mean, it could potentially be linked to the fact that he's got developmental disorders and social disorders, that may have delayed his entry into school, that's that's a distinct possibility. So, I don't want to speculate that there was any kind of criminal intent or mal intent on him not being enrolled in school. The other older siblings were enrolled in school, within the Everman ISD, and the two 5 month olds obviously weren't in school yet.
REPORTER - (
inaudible)
CHIEF - You know, it doesn't matter how long ago it was, or any kind of information you may have. If you have anything related to this case, if you've ever talked to this family, you know anything about the family, we want to know, we want to get that information coming in. And then of course, you know, somebody knows something about this family. This is not a small family. I mean, there's 7 children who have been involved. These kids have been in the school district for several years. Somebody knows something that's going on and we want those calls to come in. So really, there's not anything specific that we're looking for, as far as information, because in a case like this, any little bit of information could really snowball into something that would wind up being the result of us being able to find him.
REPORTER - (
Asks about the stepfather)
CHIEF - He was initially part of the investigation, however, we don't have any criminal history on him, we don't have any CPS history on him and he is not the biological father of Noel, although they did all reside together so we had no reason to... when we issued the Amber Alert to tie him to that Amber Alert, like we did with the circumstances on Cindy, the mother.
I certainly appreciate all of you and if you can really help us out in pushing this information out and trying to get the public aware of this case, we're going to keep this going as best as we possibly can. Like I mentioned, we've engaged with National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, so we're looking forward to utilising all of their assets and resources and trying to get public education out there and seeing what leads we may be able to come up with. So as we get any updates we'll obviously share those with you. All right. Thank you all.