Following a tip in March 2023, Everman police began looking into the welfare of 6-year-old Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez.

Within days of opening that investigation, police learned Cindy Singh and the rest of the boy's family had suddenly left the country. Investigators said a day before the family departed, the couple used a credit card to buy one-way airline tickets to India for the boy's stepfather, mother, and siblings.

In April 2023, cadaver dogs assisting investigators at the child's home on Wisteria Drive "alerted" to a discarded rug and topsoil underneath a recently poured concrete porch at the family's rented home. The "alert," police said, indicated human remains had been present at some time in the past; however, no physical evidence was found that could be tested and identified.

In the spring of 2023, investigators said they believed Noel was deceased after finding no evidence to support claims or rumors that he was either living with family members abroad or had been sold to a woman outside of a local grocery store.

Singh was indicted in October 2023 on four charges, including a charge of capital murder, two charges of injury to a child, and one charge of abandoning a child without the intent to return.

“We’ve talked a lot about Cindy and her comments [lying, claiming Noel was in Mexico],” said then Everman Police Chief C.W. Spencer in 2024. “We’ve talked a lot and shared with you that family was aware some of these things [Noel appearing malnourished]. There are some failures for this child, absolutely, which is why we are here to seek justice for these failures.”