Cindy Rodriguez-Singh, mother of missing Everman boy, has been arrested, FBI says

EVERMAN, Texas — The mother of a missing 6-year-old Everman boy, who was last seen in November of 2022, has been arrested, according to FBI Director Kash Patel. 

Cindy Rodriguez-Singh, 40, fled to India with her husband, Arshdeep Singh, and six other children in March of 2023, shortly before the AMBER Alert was issued for the missing boy, Noel Rodriguez Alvarez, 6, of Everman. 

Noel is believed to be dead, but his body has never been recovered, officials have said. Today, there is a park in Everman that is dedicated to Noel.

Patel announced on X Wednesday that Rodriguez-Singh had been captured, a little more than a month after being added to the  FBI’s 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list. 

Singh was charged with capital murder in connection with the case in Tarrant County in October of 2023, and a federal arrest warrant was issued for her for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution in November of 2023. The reward for her arrest had been increased from $25,000 to $250,000 after she was added to the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted list in July.

In March, WFAA spoke with Everman Police Chief Craig Spencer one-on-one, where he said this was the biggest case of his career and one that still kept him up at night. 

Watch WFAA’s full interview with Chief Spencer here:

Rodriguez-Singh is the fourth “10 Most Wanted” fugitive arrested in the last seven months, Patel said on X.

“Thanks to our local partners in Texas, where this case originated, @TheJusticeDept, as well as partners in India for the coordinating. @FBIDallas and @NewYorkFBI did tremendous work,” Patel wrote.

Sources within Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) tell WFAA, per DFPS protocol, once there’s a court order, the six surviving children will enter foster care once they return to Texas.

Here is a timeline of events since the very beginning: 

• March 20, 2023: Everman police were contacted by Texas Child Protective Investigations (CPI) about Noel.  According to Everman police chief Craig Spencer, CPI was told that many family members said they hadn’t seen the 6-year-old since November 2022. They requested officers conduct a welfare check at the boy’s home. The chief said police arrived to the home where the mother, 37-year-old Cindy Rodriguez-Singh, told them that Noel had been with his biological father in Mexico since November. Everman police then relayed that information to the CPI.
• March 23, 2023: CPI contacted Everman police again. An investigator said they spoke to more family members who were concerned about Noel’s well-being. According to Spencer, CPI also found the boy’s father in Mexico. He told the agency that he did not have Noel. He further told authorities he never got to meet his son since he was deported before Noel was born. Spencer said records from Homeland Security support the father’s statements. In addition to that, a CPI investigator tried to reach Noel’s siblings at their school. Spencer said the children were absent when authorities tried to reach them, and that CPI then learned that their mother had contacted the school to inquire about unenrolling them. CPI then tried to reach Rodriguez-Singh, but were unable to do so. Spencer said there had been prior CPS investigations and actions against the mother, and said that she does have an “extensive criminal history.” A warrant was issued for her arrest.
• March 25, 2023: An AMBER Alert was issued for Rodriguez-Alvarez at around midnight. Spencer said multiple agencies were dispatched to find Noel, his mother, his stepfather, and his six siblings (including a pair of 5-month-old twins, plus 7-, 8-, 9- and 11-year-olds). By 9 p.m. on March 25, authorities learned that the family had boarded a flight to Turkey, then to India. Police said they left on Thursday, before the AMBER Alert was issued. Spencer said Noel was not listed as a passenger on that flight.
• March 26, 2023: The AMBER Alert was discontinued and Noel’s case was re-issued as an Endangered Missing Persons Alert through Texas DPS.
• March 27, 2023: Police said they were conducting a secondary search at the home where the family lives. While police said they have no evidence that the boy is dead, authorities used cadaver dogs during Monday’s search of the residence. Police on Monday also said they were looking into rumors that the boy may have been sold.
• March 30/31, 2023: Everman police searched the landlord’s property where the family lived. The search included using sonar technology on a new concrete patio after a tip was called into the Everman Police Department. The cement for the patio was partially dug up in search of the missing 6-year-old. Investigators found nothing to indicate Rodriguez-Alvarez’s body was underneath the patio.
• April 5, 2023: A warrant obtained by WFAA said Rodriguez-Singh’s brother told investigators that she told their mother that she sold Noel to an unknown female at a Fiesta Mart. Everman police told WFAA that there has been no evidence found that the child was sold. To read more about the warrant’s details, click here.
• April 6, 2023 – Everman Police Chief Craig Spencer said in a press conference the boy is no longer considered an endangered missing person, and that investigators have determined that he is likely dead. 
• April 10, 2023 – Everman police said while investigators were searching the backyard of the property where the family once lived, cadaver dogs alerted to certain topsoil areas. Their focus on the backyard came from an earlier find in the investigation when they learned about a carpet that Noel’s stepfather had thrown out the day before the family flew out of the country. With assistance from TEXSAR, multiple Human Remain Detection Canines alerted officials to a carpet found in a nearby dumpster to the property where the family lived. According to officials, that carpet once lined the floor of a “make-shift” storage shed where a patio in the backyard now sits. Police said Rodriguez-Singh paid for the concrete to be laid and for a patio to be built where that storage shed once stood in early March 2023. That led investigators to secure a search warrant for crews to remove the concrete patio. After removing the patio, the Detection Canines again alerted officials – this time to the top soil underneath the concrete.
• April 18, 2023 – Everman Police Chief Craig Spencer told WFAA that investigators obtained new data that have allowed them to identify additional people Noel’s mother and stepfather had communicated with before they flew out of the country. Investigators were interviewing those individuals. Spencer said searches for Noel’s body would happen again later in week, and likely through the weekend. Searches were supposed to happen the weekend prior (April 15-16), but investigators held off in order to gather more data and pinpoint specific search locations, the chief said.
• April 22, 2023 – The search for Rodriguez-Alvarez continues. Everman police and crews conducted ground and drone searches in two different areas after pausing their search for nearly a week to comb through new data in the investigation. Everman police said the two areas they were searching were about 215 acres of land, just north of Bluebell Drive in Everman, as well as a section of land south of Shelby Road near Village Creek. There were additional small search areas that smaller teams of investigators were also looking into, Spencer said, but did not disclose those locations.
• April 25, 2023 – Everman police said in a press conference that Rodriguez-Alvarez’s stepfather, Arshdeep Singh, reportedly used his credit card back in March to buy plane tickets less than 24 hours before he and some of Noel’s family boarded a flight for India. Police said Singh altered his company’s cash deposit records and removed $10,000 in cash before depositing $8,000 of that into his own account. Singh reportedly worked for convenience stores, and police have surveillance video of him depositing money into the bank. Singh now faces felony theft charges.
• June 9, 2023 – The Everman Police Department released airport surveillance photos of Noel’s family preparing to board a flight out of the country without Noel. The photos, captured in March at DFW Airport, were the last U.S. sighting of the family
• October 30, 2023 – A Tarrant County grand jury issued four indictments against Noel’s mother, Cindy Rodriguez-Singh, which includes capital murder, two counts of injury to a child and one count of abandoning without the intent to return. 
• August 29, 2024 – The FBI announced a $25,000 reward being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Cindy Rodriguez-Singh.
• March 25, 2025 – Marking two years since the AMBER Alert was issued for Noel, WFAA spoke one-on-one with Everman Police Chief Craig Spencer. He told us this was the biggest case of his career, and sometimes, it still keeps him up at night.
• July 1, 2025 – Cindy Rodriguez-Singh is added to the the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list, and the reward for information leading to her arrest was increased to $250,000.

Rodriguez-Singh, 40, was added to the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list in July 2025, becoming only the 12th woman to make the list in its 75-year history, according to FBI Dallas Special Agent in Charge R. Joseph Rothrock. She was one of only two women on the list after being added.

She is charged with capital murder of a person under 10 years of age and unlawful flight to avoid prosecution. 

During the investigation to find Noel, Chief Spencer said Rodriguez-Singh was reportedly abusive toward the 6-year-old boy. Spencer said police received information during their investigation that Rodriguez-Singh would describe Noel as “evil, possessed, or having a demon in him.” Police said the boy had severe health problems and, at times, required oxygen to breathe.

During a news conference on April 6, 2023, Chief Spencer said that Noel was last seen by a medical professional on July 21, 2022, for speech therapy. The chief said several medical appointments were missed around this time.

Spencer said a warning letter had been sent to Rodriguez-Singh from the Department of State Health Services regarding the benefits she was receiving for Noel.

“Investigators learned that near this timeline, Cindy even asked an acquaintance of hers if she could borrow her son for a doctor’s appointment so that she could keep the benefits stating that Noel had COVID,” Spencer said in the April 6, 2023 news conference.

Spencer said Noel was present at the time Rodriguez-Singh gave birth to twin girls in October 2022. According to the chief, witnesses stated Noel appeared to be “unhealthy and malnourished.”

Along with describing the 6-year-old as “evil,” interviews revealed that Rodriguez-Singh also said she believed Noel was going to harm her newborn twins, Spencer said. Police said Rodriguez-Singh was known by relatives to be “abusive and neglectful” to the 6-year-old boy. Relatives stated that she would withhold food and water from Noel because she didn’t want to clean his diapers.

According to a warrant, Rodriguez-Singh’s brother stated he witnessed her strike Noel with her car keys after learning he was given water.

In November 2022, the mother applied for passports for herself and all the children except for Noel, Spencer said.