“We had a very intense feeling of urgency to try to find out what happened to the six-year-old boy,” Chief Craig Spencer said.
”We had a very intense feeling of urgency to try to find out what happened to the six-year-old boy,” Chief Craig Spencer said.
“We had a very intense feeling of urgency to try to find out what happened to the six-year-old boy,” Chief Craig Spencer said.
EVERMAN, Texas — Although two years have come and gone since the Everman Police Chief Craig Spencer got the biggest case of his career, sometimes, it still keeps him up at night.
On March 25, 2023, 6-year-old Noel Alvarez seemingly vanished.
“We have no answers, still,” Chief Spencer said. “We had a very intense feeling of urgency to try to find out what happened to the six-year-old boy.”
Police believe Noel was last seen in Everman in late 2022. His mother, Cindy Rodriguez-Singh, and stepfather, Arshdeep Singh, are suspects in his disappearance.
Chief Spencer learned from airport surveillance video that days before the Amber Alert was sent out on March 25, 2023, Noel’s mother and stepfather fled the country with her other children.
“She had planned for all this,” Chief Craig Spencer said. “She already had everything arranged as far as passports and things ready to go.”
The FBI issued a warrant offering up to $25,000 in reward money to help locate the boys’ mother.
For weeks, Chief Spencer and his investigators turned over every stone, looking for clues on Noel. Investigators executed search warrants at their home. A forensic team dug up their landlord’s newly paved concrete patio. Texas Search and Rescue K-9 units searched tirelessly for the boy in Everman. Then, in April of 2023, with no signs of Noel, a heartbreaking announcement came during a news conference.
“[We reached the] devastating conclusion that Noel is likely deceased,” Chief Spencer said.
The announcement came after countless hours were put in by investigators who made finding Noel their top priority every day.
“All of the investigators from all the various agencies, including myself, were here starting at 7, 8 in the morning until 7, 8, 9 at night nonstop,” said Spencer.
Today, there is a park in Everman that is dedicated to Noel. One that Chief Spencer, a father of two 5-year-olds, brings his kids to.
“Every time I take my kids to that park, I think about Noel and his case,” Chief Spencer said. “This will continue to stick with me personally.”
It’s a case he has no intentions of closing, and he sends this message to Noel’s mother:
“Do the right thing. Bring yourself back, turn yourself in.”