A missing seven-month-old baby boy is believed to be dead following a harrowing investigation that has led to murder charges against his parents.
Emmanuel Haro has been missing for more than a week after his mother, Rebecca Haro, 41, claimed she was attacked in a parking lot while changing his diaper, and that her child was abducted, according to police.
“I was going to get the diaper and somebody said, ‘Hola,’ and I don’t remember anything since,” Rebecca tearfully told KTLA the day after the alleged attack. “I woke up here on the floor, and I didn’t see Emmanuel.”
Haro and her husband, Jake Haro, 32, were taken into custody at their home Friday, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said. They have been charged with murder and are being held at Riverside County jail without bail.
“It is believed Emmanuel is deceased and the search to recover his remains is ongoing,” the department said in a news release Friday afternoon.
Social workers also removed a two-year-old child from the couple’s home.
On August 14, Rebecca Haro, who had a black eye, initially told police that she was attacked by a man while changing Emmanuel’s diaper in the parking lot of a Big 5 Sporting Goods store in Yucaipa.
“Whoever took my son, please return him,” Jake Haro pleaded to KTLA on August 15. “We just want him back. We won’t do anything to you. Just give us our son. Keep him safe, don’t hurt him, make sure you feed him and change him.”
“If you know anything, please come forward or take him to the cops,” Rebecca Haro added. “Please come and bring my son back. I’m begging you.”
But the mother stopped speaking with authorities after she was confronted about alleged inconsistencies in her recollection of the attack. Detectives focused on the boy’s parents and police obtained search warrants for their home, covering text messages, computers, and other communications. They used cadaver dogs around the home and took Jake Haro’s vehicle into evidence.
Police have since claimed that the alleged abduction never happened.
Emmanuel Haro is about 24 inches tall and weighs around 21 pounds, according to police. He has brown hair, brown eyes, and is cross-eyed. He was last seen wearing a black Nike onesie.
Jake Haro’s lawyer, Vincent Hughes, told the Los Angeles Times that the mother’s “inconsistencies” stemmed from being overwhelmed by her son’s disappearance. She declined a lie detector test when authorities requested one.
“No attorney in their right mind would allow that to happen, and no person should ever consent to a lie detector test when it’s not even scientifically proven to be admissible in court,” Hughes told the newspaper.
Jake Haro served six months in jail in 2023 for willful child cruelty, stemming from an October 2018 incident.
“Jake has a criminal past. We’re not running from that, but the facts of that case are a lot different than the facts of this case,” ” Hughes told the Los Angeles Times. “And one crime doesn’t mean that you’ve committed every other crime known to man, especially to take your own child.”
Neighbors are demanding justice for Emmanuel following his parents’ arrest. Nearly 100 people held a candlelight vigil for him on Friday, bringing flowers, stuffed animals, balloons, books, candles, and signs to place along a fence on Ramona Street in Cabazon, The Sun reports.
The community gathered in a prayer circle with blue candles led by resident David Hernandez.
“I don’t know the family. It just hit close to home for my wife and myself, because we live in Yucaipa,” Hernandez told the outlet. “It’s our community, and to hear something like that is not something that we hear every day, right?”
Maya Gutierrez, 20, said she had been standing outside the Haros’ home all Friday afternoon in solidarity with Emmanuel
“Nobody was his voice,” Gutierrez said. “He didn’t deserve that at all.”
Anyone with information about Emmanuel’s disappearance should contact the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department’s Specialized Investigations Division at 909-890-4904. Anonymous tips can be submitted to We-Tip at 1-800-78-CRIME (27463) or at wetip.com.
