Investigators appear to be focusing on the parents of a 7-month-old baby boy who reported him missing on Thursday.
The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said that Rebecca Haro stopped speaking with investigators when she “was confronted with inconsistencies in her initial statement,” and investigators have executed search warrants at the Haro home and collected “a large amount of surveillance video” as they continue their search for Emmanuel Haro.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Rebecca Haro claimed she woke up and found Emmanuel missing after someone reportedly knocked her unconscious. Haro took the infant to a Big 5 Sporting Goods on Thursday to purchase a mouth guard for her older son while her husband and other two children stayed at a local park where their son had football practice.
She said she was changing the boy’s diaper when someone attacked her from behind, leaving her with a black eye when she regained consciousness.
Both Jake and Rebecca Haro have since stopped cooperating with investigators. When deputies asked the mother to take a polygraph examination, her husband refused to allow it until they had a lawyer present. It’s not known if they have since allowed the test.
While the sheriff’s department has remained relatively tightlipped about the investigation, KTLA reports that among the claims detectives are grappling with are a possible video showing Rebecca Haro had the black eye as early as August 3 and a claim that baby Emmanuel was not seen at the park with the rest of the family on the day of the kidnapping.
According to KTLA, the couple’s 2-year-old child has been removed from their custody, and the child’s grandmother said that deputies brought cadaver dogs to the family’s home in Cabazon.
Another troubling development is Jake Haro’s previous conviction on a willful child cruelty charge. He and his then-wife, Vanessa Avina, pleaded guilty after their 10-week-old daughter was admitted to the hospital with an “acute”fractured rib, six other rib fractures that were “healing,” a skull fracture, a brain hemorrhage, swelling in the neck, and a healing leg fracture, according to the Orange County Register.
Haro was sentenced in 2022 to 180 days in a work-release program, with a suspended four-year prison sentence and an order to attend a child abuser treatment program, the San Bernardino Sun said. Avina got 120 days in the work-release program and was ordered to attend the treatment program.
Jake Haro was recently charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm and is due in court on September 2 to answer that charge.
The Sun also reported that the national Uvalde Foundation for Kids announced that it had called off an independent search for the boy it was organizing — and cancelled a $5,000 reward for information.
While the sheriff’s department has not said that the Haros are a focus of the investigation, they did say they have not ruled anyone out.
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[Featured image: Emmanuel Haro/San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department]
