Cindy Rodriguez Singh has been considered a fugitive since 2023 after the FBI lied about where her son was and said she fled to the US with her husband and six other children
A Texan woman on the FBI’s top 10 most wanted fugitive list has been arrested in connection with the presumed death of her six-year-old son.
Cindy Rodriguez Singh, 40, was charged with capital murder in 2023 in the death of Noel Alvarez. The FBI said the charges were filed in Fort Worth, Texas, about seven months after Singh left the US amid investigations of Noel’s loss of failure, the FBI said.
The FBI did not say where Rodriguez Singh was arrested, but agency director Kash Patel said in X that she was in custody on capital murder and illegal flight charges to avoid charges.
The FBI initially provided a reward of up to $25,000 for information that led to her arrest. They increased their reward to $250,000 and put Rodriguez Singh on the most wanted list in July.
It was not immediately clear where Rodriguez Singh was being held or whether she had acquired a lawyer.
This is what we know about the incident.
When did Noel Alvarez disappear?
The FBI says 6-year-old Noel Alvarez has not been seen since October 2022.
In March 2023, police at the Everman Police Station, a suburb of Dallas, went to Rodriguez Singh’s home to check on the boy at a request from Texas Family and Conservation Services, according to the FBI.
“During an interview with Welfare Check, Rodriguez Singh lied to the officers when he explained that the boy lived in Mexico with his biological father and had been there since November 2022,” the FBI said in a news release., He added that the father said he had no connection with his son.
On March 22, 2023, two days after police questioned Rodriguez Singh, the FBI said she boarded a flight to India with her husband and six other children. Investigators then discovered that Rodriguez Singh had applied for passports to all children except Noel in November 2022, ABC News reported, citing local police.
“None of us will forget Noel. We will continue to make every effort to find justice for him,” FBI Dallas special agent Panske Sheff said in a statement last month. “It includes Cindy Rodriguez Singh being arrested and returning to the US, so she can answer her alleged crimes. I believe her arrest will play an important role in finding Noel’s residence for the investigative team, including state, local and federal investigators.”
He said Noel’s loss of failure “had a major impact on our community.”
“This incident is still fresh in the minds of many of us in Everman residents and North Texas,” he said.
More information about Noel Albaraz and his mother
The FBI said Noel’s history of health and developmental issues includes chronic lung disease, pulmonary edema, and fibrillar tumors. “He required appointments and regular medical appointments and medications, including ophthalmologists and speech therapy appointments, as well as inhaled albuterol,” the FBI said.
“Cindy has failed many times to meet his health and developmental needs as he is the leading adult responsible for Noel’s safety and well-being,” KeCev said.
The FBI said Rodriguez Singh has a history of drug and alcohol abuse, urging him to become foster parents at some point in Texas family and protective services.
Other recent arrests on most wanted lists
In his announcement regarding Rodriguez Singh’s arrest, Patel said she was the fourth arrest of fugitives on the top ten list in the past seven months, “a feat of the administration that has made great outdoor activities, law enforcement partners, intelligence reporting agencies and good policemen do their jobs.”
Among the recent arrests was the arrest of the violent Ramalasarvattorcha gang (Francisco Javier Roma France, whom federal authorities described as the high leader of the MS-13). He was arrested in March at San Diego’s port of entry from Mexico on charges of directing MS-13 activities in the US in El Salvador, Mexico.
