"we can seek answers for the disappearance of Noel."
Police in Texas is seeking to extradite a man who fled to India with his wife and her six children.
Arshdeep Singh and Cindy Rodriguez Singh have reportedly been in India since November 2022, a few weeks after Singh’s stepson Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez went missing.
The pair have been charged with child abandonment and endangerment.
Singh has also been charged with stealing $10,000 in cash from his employer before fleeing to India.
Rodriguez-Singh went with six of her children to apply for passports on November 1, shortly after the birth of her twin daughters and after Noel was seen.
She bought plane tickets to India via a connecting flight to Istanbul, Turkey.
Singh used his credit card to buy the plane tickets.
Everman Police Chief Craig Spencer said:
“We want these fugitives arrested and extradited to the United States so that we can seek answers for the disappearance of Noel.”
Singh delivered products to convenience stores and hours before leaving the US, “he allegedly forged documents to hide the theft of $10,000 in cash from his employer”.
Police Chief Spencer said investigators looking into a large deposit alerted the company to the altered document and missing money.
He hopes that in addition to the charges, the fact that the couple are “being wanted for questioning in a death investigation could add even more urgency to the case”.
Police are working with federal partners including the FBI to collaborate with Indian officials to extradite the couple.
The US and India have an extradition treaty, which aims to “enhance cooperation between the law enforcement authorities of both countries and thereby make a significant contribution to international law enforcement efforts”.
Singh worked at the convenience store chain AGHA Enterprises and had access to the company’s financial records and even safes in stores.
His employer, Mohammed Khan, said Singh was hired about two and a half years ago to manage the purchasing of merchandise for stores and help with banking.
Stating that he “never would have imagined Singh would be involved in anything criminal”, Mr Khan described Singh as “a happy person, and a hard worker who would do anything he could to help the business succeed”.
Mr Khan said that since Noel’s disappearance, “he hadn’t noticed or been told about any changes in Singh’s behaviour or personality”.
Singh married Rodriguez-Singh in 2021.
Prior to their marriage, Rodriguez-Singh was living in the home of Charles Parson.
She was sleeping in a car outside his house with her children and he invited them to use his spare bedrooms.
After she married Singh, they built a shed in Mr Parson’s backyard to expand living space.
It is unclear when Singh moved to the US but Mr Parson said that he “always gave the impression of a father figure who wanted to spoil his children”.
It is reported that Rodriguez-Singh lost custody of “at least some of her children” in 2020, and “was put on probation after an incident”.
Her mother wants her daughter to return to the US and tell the authorities where to find Noel’s body, adding that “if she’d known he was being mistreated or that his mother couldn’t care for him, she would have taken him in”.
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