Parents of 7-month-old boy missing for nearly 2 weeks are charged with murder

The parents of a seven-month-old boy who has been missing for nearly two weeks in Southern California have been charged with his murder.

Jake Haro, 32, and his wife, Rebecca Haro, 41, were each charged with felony murder with malice on Tuesday in the death of their son Emmanuel, according to the Riverside County District Attorney’s office. They were also charged with filing a false police report, which is a misdemeanor. 

The Haros initially reported that their son had been kidnapped on Aug. 14, though investigators later determined that did not happen. Authorities believe the child is dead, though his remains have yet to be recovered as of Tuesday.

The couple appeared in court on Tuesday with their public defenders, but their arraignment was delayed until Sept. 4. Each was being held on $1 million bond, according to online jail records. 

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Riverside County prosecutors said they would not release additional information until a press conference on Wednesday.

Emmanuel was reported missing on Aug. 14. His mother told investigators that she had been attacked while changing Emmanuel’s diaper in the parking lot of a store in the San Bernardino County community of Yucaipa, authorities said. She claimed that someone said “Hola” to her, after which everything “went blank.”

“I woke up on the floor, and my son was gone,” she said in an interview last week with FOX Los Angeles. 

The couple spoke to news outlets, making pleas to the public to help find their son.

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Over the weekend, investigators said the couple had stopped cooperating, adding that there were “inconsistencies” in the mother’s story. Investigators declined to discuss what these inconsistencies were.

On Friday, the Haros were taken into custody on suspicion of murder at their home in Cabazon, 90 miles east of Los Angeles. 

Authorities searched the family’s home, and over the weekend they searched for the boy’s body near a freeway while his father, wearing a jail jumpsuit, was present. The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said it wouldn’t describe Jake Haro’s presence during the search as “providing assistance,” but declined to elaborate.

Jake Haro previously pleaded guilty to child cruelty charges in Riverside County in a separate case in 2018, Fox Los Angeles reported. At the time of Friday’s arrest, he was on probation after he was convicted of those charges and jailed in 2023. 

Rebecca Haro told Southern California’s Press-Enterprise in a jailhouse interview last weekend that her husband wouldn’t hurt an infant, and that she wanted to find her son.

“I want to be out looking for my baby,” she said. “I will not give up. I will not give up on my baby.”

Fox News Digital’s Louis Casiano and The Associated Press contributed to this report.