Parents of missing baby Emmanuel Haro arrested on suspicion of murder
The parents of a seven-month-old California boy who has been missing for more than a week have been arrested on suspicion of murder, authorities in California confirmed on Friday.
Emmanuel Haro went missing last Thursday. His mother, Rebecca Haro, claimed she was attacked and knocked unconscious and that when she woke up, someone had kidnapped her infant.
Rebecca and Jake Haro were arrested at their home in Cabazon on Friday morning, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said, adding that investigators are continuing their search for the baby.
Speaking to ABC Eyewitness News last week, Haro said she had been changing her son’s diaper in a store parking lot in Yucaipa, Calif., near San Bernardino, when she was assaulted from behind.
“I got him out of the car seat, and I laid him down so I could get his diapers ready, and somebody said, ‘Hola,’ and that’s all I remember. I saw white, and I fell on the floor, and as soon as I got up, I couldn’t find my son. I checked all around my truck,” Haro, who had a black eye, told the outlet.
Haro claimed she never saw her alleged attacker and no security footage was found in the area where Emmanuel, the youngest of Haro’s six children, disappeared.
“Investigators from our Specialized Investigations Division are continuing to investigate the reported kidnapping of a seven-month-old, after the child’s mother reported being attacked outside a retail store on Yucaipa Boulevard last night,” police wrote on X on Aug. 15. “K9 scent-tracking dogs were deployed but the child was not located. No suspect information is available at this time.”
In an update over the weekend, the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department said the mother’s initial statement had inconsistencies and that she ended the interview with investigators when confronted about them.
“Investigators interviewed multiple individuals, including Emmanuel’s parents Jake and Rebecca Haro. During those interviews, Rebecca was confronted with inconsistencies in her initial statement and declined to continue with the interview,” the department said in a statement on Aug. 16, but did not elaborate on the inconsistencies they found.
On Wednesday, the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department said it is aware of reported sightings of Emmanuel Haro, but no other details were provided.
Earlier this week, a car belonging to the child’s father was seized by authorities.
The sheriff’s department released a statement on Aug. 20 with an update on the continued search.
“We know the community is deeply concerned about this case and we will continue to provide information, to the extent it does not jeopardize the investigation,” the agency said. “Our investigators have followed up on the reported sightings of 7-month-old Emmanuel Haro, but he has not yet been located.
“While Emmanuel’s father has retained an attorney, if the parents choose to work with detectives, we welcome their cooperation as we continue efforts to locate Emmanuel.”
The department also noted there was a fire reported in the neighbourhood near the Haro home and that they had been in contact with investigators regarding the incident.
“At this time, we have no information indicating the fire is related, and we will continue to communicate with fire investigators as their investigation progresses,” they added. “Emmanuel continues to be the main focus of this investigation, and we will continue our efforts to locate him.”
Authorities describe Emmanuel as 21 pounds and approximately 24 inches tall, with brown hair and brown crossed eyes. He was last seen wearing a black Nike onesie.
N.S. missing kids: Court documents provide details on Lilly and Jack Sullivan case
Newly released court documents are revealing previously unreported details of the investigation into the disappearance of two young children from their home in rural northeastern Nova Scotia more than three months ago.
Included in several documents are the initial impressions by police of polygraphs given to the parents of six-year-old Lilly and four-year-old Jack Sullivan, and confirmation that investigators found a second piece of a pink blanket they say belonged to Lilly, in the trash.
The information is contained in court applications filed by investigators for permission to conduct searches for phone records, banking records, and video related to the case. The documents include unproven statements made by police. Those documents were released to The Canadian Press and other news outlets. Many of them contain redactions.
According to one document, sworn by Cpl. Charlene Jordan Curl of the RCMPs Northeast Nova Scotia major crime unit, the children were first reported missing on 10:01 a.m. on May 2 from their home in rural Lansdowne Station, N.S., by their mother Malehya Brooks-Murray.
Brooks-Murray told police she believed the two children had wandered away from home, but the exact time she said she thought they went missing was redacted. Police were on the scene at 10:27 a.m.
The document says the last time the children were seen outside their home was on May 1, when they were captured by video surveillance at a local Dollarama store with Brooks-Murray and Daniel Martell, their stepfather.
RCMP conducted at least four polygraphs during their investigation — the first two were on May 12 with the children’s parents at the detachment at Bible Hill, N.S. Martell’s polygraph “indicated he was truthful,” as did the test for Brooks-Murray that found she was truthful when answering specific questions, although the list of questions is redacted in the document.
An unidentified investigator’s comment included at the end of a section on the results of both of those polygraphs says, “At this point in the investigation Jack and Lilly’s disappearance is not believed to be criminal in nature.”
“I do not have reasonable grounds to believe a criminal offence has occurred. Because Jack and Lilly are still missing, polygraph examinations were conducted with the intention of ruling out that possibility.”
Martell told The Canadian Press on May 28 that he had passed a polygraph test, but the RCMP declined at the time to confirm or deny his claim.
Results from polygraphs, which measure fluctuations within a person’s sympathetic nervous system as they answer questions, are not admissible in Canadian courts, but the machines are considered an investigative tool.
Meanwhile, on June 10, the children’s stepgrandmother, Janie MacKenzie, underwent a polygraph examination but another document notes that her “physiology was not suitable for analysis and an opinion on the polygraph examination was not rendered.” The children’s biological father, Cody Sullivan, underwent a polygraph on June 12, 2025, and passed the examination, with his answers found to be “truthful.”
In July, the Mounties said they were running forensic tests on a pink blanket found during the search of the heavily wooded areas near the children’s home. Police said at the time that the family had confirmed the blanket belonged to Lilly, but investigators released few details.
The newly released documents shed more light on that part of the investigation, saying three family members found the blanket in a tree on Lansdowne Station Road on May 2, exactly one kilometre from the family home. A photo was shown to the mother and stepfather who confirmed it was Lilly’s.
Later, police dispatched a sniffer dog to the area where the blanket was found, but the animal was unable to pick up a scent of Lilly or Jack, the documents say. On May 4, another piece of blanket was seized by police after it was found inside a trash bag at the end of the driveway of the children’s home, according to police.
Police say they confirmed both pieces were part of the same blanket.
Among the numerous court orders sought by police, was one for the Cobequid Pass, a tolled section of highway in Nova Scotia. Specifically, the RCMP were looking for video records including closed circuit footage of all cameras of drivers leaving Nova Scotia between May 1, 2025, at 2:25 p.m. to May 3, 2025, at 3 a.m.
One of the documents says that On May 3, police received a report that Jack and Lilly might be with their biological father. Police received a pair of messages about this early on May 3, but the report notes the caller, who was unnamed, did not have any proof and “she just wanted to make sure every possibility is looked into.” According to the request for Cobequid Pass toll plaza vids, “Malehya later reported to police that she thought Cody Sullivan, Lilly and Jack’s biological father, might have picked up them and taken them to New Brunswick.”
Police later met with Sullivan on May 22. The court document said he told police he had been in a relationship with the mother but had not seen her nor the children in three years. He said he paid child support, contrary to what Brooks-Murray had told police.
“He said he did not know what happened to Jack and Lilly,” police noted.
“He was home on May 2, 2025, and never goes anywhere. He has not been anywhere other than his house recently and has had no contact with Malehya since the children went missing.”
The documents say police had received hundreds of tips in the case, including one from a witness who said she was travelling with her sons on the morning of May 2 and saw two children walking along the side of the road.
Natasha Haywood informed the RCMP on May 31. She described seeing a young girl holding a young boy’s hand — the boy had dirty blond hair and was wearing shorts, while the girl had darkish hair in pigtails and was wearing a tank top with blue strings. According to police, she said the children were walking toward a Caucasian female of about 50-60 years old with a “loose curl” haircut, who was waiting next to the passenger side of an older model tan or gold sedan with the backdoor open.
The documents say that in early June, police met with the witness near the corner of Gairloch Road and Lansdowne Station Road, where she mentioned having seen the children walking north towards Westville, N.S., and that the vehicle appeared to be waiting for them.
When she later met with police, Haywood said she thought the girl was around 9 or 10-years-old and the boy five-years-old, the documents say.
Investigators are working to find out if the children were indeed Jack and Lilly, the document noted.
“None of the tips so far have led to Jack and Lilly’s location or has any information that has been corroborated by the investigation,” a document notes.
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