EVERMAN, Texas — Everman police announced Thursday their efforts toward solving the disappearance of 6-year-old Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez had shifted into a death investigation.
The little boy, last seen in October, is believed dead, per Everman Police Chief Craig Spencer.
The Everman Police Department continues to search for his body or remains.
That puzzle would be much easier if the little boy's mother, Cynthia Rodriguez-Singh, and stepfather, Arshdeep Singh, were in police custody. The pair fled to Turkey and then India with little Noel's six other siblings, per authorities.
The pair, per police, did not book travel for Noel and said the trip was one-way.
The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security are now assisting in the case to find the couple abroad.
The little boy was last seen by his family in October 2022, police say.
Everman's Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez vigil held Monday night
On March 20, police started asking questions about Noel's disappearance to Rodriguez-Singh after getting a tip from another family member that the little boy hadn't been seen.
Two days later, she and her husband fled the country with their other children while police investigated her untrue claims about Noel living with family in Mexico.
Spencer said in a news conference Tuesday that Rodriguez-Singh was abusive, even neglectful toward Noel, that witnesses told his department that his mother feared the little boy had the 'devil in him' and might harm her newborn twins.
Spencer said Rodriguez-Singh would even prevent Noel from eating or drinking to avoid changing his diapers.
Rodriguez-Singh and her husband have active felony warrants for abandoning or endangering a child in connection to the investigation.
Spencer told reporters he wants both found and extradited to the United States. The U.S. and India have had an extradition treaty in place since 1997.
With federal authorities now involved, how would the pair be tracked down in the second-most populous country on the planet?
Alex Del Carmen, a renowned criminologist, consultant and trainer of FBI agents, opined to WFAA how that might play out.
"The protocol is -- the FBI in Dallas would contact the FBI office in Washington DC, and then they would coordinate with the FBI office in India," Del Carmen said.
"That office would then start working with local authorities to track and identify them. At some point, the hope is to arrest and extradite them to the United States."
In the American Embassy in New Delhi, legal attachés for the FBI, or 'legats' for short, would be the ones in charge of working with local authorities.
To read more about what they do and their jurisdiction. click here.
"It's a complicated logistical exercise, but the reality here is this: If any government in the world is really good at doing this, it's us. We have the technology, we have the ability, and we have the sophistication," Del Carmen said.
"It's going to take days, weeks, maybe months, but they will be found."
However, the legal attachés in India likely have a lot on their plates monitoring terrorist activity, even helping its host country India with crimes committed inside its borders.
Still, Del Carmen thinks this case will take priority due to the publicity connected to it.
"I think most of the officials there would find this story appealing and compelling," Del Carmen said. "This is a top priority because of the coverage--particularly the national coverage that this is getting. But a lot of this depends on exactly where they went and if the alleged crime they committed rises to the level where Interpol and local authorities have something to say about it."