(NBC News) — The search for a missing 6-year-old Texas boy who has not been seen for months is now a death investigation, police in Everman said Thursday.

The boy, Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez, was last seen in October at a hospital when his mother, Cindy Rodriguez-Singh, was there to give birth to twins, police said.

Police conducted a welfare check March 20 at the family’s home, but Noel was not there. Two days later, Rodriguez-Singh, her husband, and six other children got on a plane and traveled to India, Everman Police Chief Craig Spencer said.

“Based on the totality of the circumstances, along with the evidence available to us at this time, it has led to a very unfortunate, unimaginable and devastating conclusion — that Noel is likely deceased,” Spencer said at a news conference Thursday.

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