The parents of missing baby Emmanuel Haro were arrested Friday on suspicion of murder, more than a week after his mother claimed the 7-month-old boy was abducted, San Bernardino County sheriff’s officials said.
They were arrested at their Cabazon home, and officials said they were still searching for the baby, who is presumed dead.
The couple faked the story about their son being kidnapped, the Sheriff’s Department said in a news release. Rebecca Haro, 41; and Jake Haro, 32, were arrested at their home after armored vehicles rammed down their front gate.
“It is believed Emmanuel is deceased and the search to recover his remains is ongoing,” the Sheriff’s Department said in a statement. “While these arrests mark a significant development, our focus remains on finding Emmanuel.”
By 10 a.m., a crowd was gathering near the family’s home on Ramona Street where the Haro parents were arrested hours earlier. A small memorial set up for Emmanuel near the home had drawn about 50 people, some of whom came from out of state out of fascination with the case.
Seven-month-old Emmanuel Haro.
(San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department)
Among them was Jimmy Williams, a YouTube videographer from Chesapeake, Va., who arrived in the county three days ago to follow the case.
“It’s not just the community that wants answers,” Williams said. “It’s the whole country that wants answers for this beautiful, little baby.”
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Another person outside the home, Kimberly Govea, was wearing a black T-shirt that said, “Where’s the baby?”
She attended a vigil Thursday evening outside the Haro home.
“This is our passion to help people find lost kids or whatever, put pressure on the families to … give up where the baby’s at,” she said.
Neighbors gather outside the Cabazon home of Jake and Rebecca Haro, the parents of Emmanuel Haro, who were taken into custody on Friday.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus thanked law enforcement and prosecutors from Riverside and San Bernardino counties for their role in the investigation and arrests. He also thanked the public and the media for their roles in assisting the investigation.
“The circumstances surrounding this investigation are tragic and we will continue to search for Emmanuel,” Dicus said in a statement. “I trust our justice system will hold the parents accountable.”
Emmanuel was reported missing Aug. 14 under suspicious circumstances after his mother said she was attacked and knocked unconscious outside a Big 5 store in Yucaipa, according to a press release.
At the home on Friday morning, San Bernardino County sheriff’s investigators in plain clothes searched the property, passing by a colorful kid’s bicycle leaning against a fence and a baby swing on the the porch.
Investigators entered three detached buildings on the property, including a single-story home and a tin-roofed barn. Helicopters circled over the neighborhood and showed footage of investigators parsing through scattered items in the home’s rear while multiple people filmed the scene with their phones from the street.
The sheriff’s department said Emmanuel is presumed dead, but “investigators will continue their search for seven-month-old Emmanuel Haro.”
By 1 p.m. detectives and forensic investigators had packed up their equipment and were leaving the home.
They left behind some yellow police tape and a mangled wooden fence that a SWAT vehicle rammed through when the authorities made their arrests.
When Rebecca Haro initially reported her baby missing, she gave statements to investigators that she later contradicted, authorities said. When she was confronted with those inconsistencies, sheriff’s officials say she stopped speaking with investigators.
Over the weekend, investigators and police dogs searched the family home in Cabazon, a community northwest of Palm Springs. The Sheriff’s Department says it has served multiple search warrants at the home and is reviewing surveillance footage from areas of interest in the case.
Earlier this week, an attorney for the boy’s father, Jake Haro, insisted the family was still cooperating, and Rebecca Haro had only refused to take a polygraph when it was requested by law enforcement.
Authorities said she gave contradictory statements, but Vincent Hughes, who is representing Jake Haro in a separate criminal case, said she was overcome with emotion because of her missing son.
A law enforcement operation was underway Friday morning at the Cabazon home of 7-month-old Emmanuel Haro.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
The couple surrendered their phones to investigators and allowed detectives to search their Cabazon home, Hughes said. Investigators also took two iPads, including one that had not been taken out of the box, and three Xbox video game consoles. Their vehicle was also taken by investigators as part of the search for their son, according to Hughes.
Hughes was escorted into the family home by investigators just before noon and stayed inside for 30 minutes before leaving.
Bystanders jeered him as he left.
“They’re innocent until proven guilty,” he told news reporters as he walked back to his vehicle.
He declined to provide any additional comments.
In an interview with KTLA-TV last week, Rebecca Haro, who had a black eye, pleaded for the return of her son. She said that she had planned to go to the Big 5 Sporting Goods store the night of Aug. 14 to buy a mouth guard for her older son.
“If you know anything, please come forward or take him to the cops,” she said. “Please come and bring my son back. I’m begging you.”
According to court records, Jake Haro was convicted in June 2023 of willful child cruelty for an incident involving another child in Hemet. He’s due to appear in court on Sept. 2 for a violation of his probation, and Hughes is defending him in that case. Jake Haro said he was giving the baby girl a bath in a kitchen sink and accidentally dropped her but a doctor’s report said the girl’s injuries did not fit that narrative.
That case is separate and has no connection to the Haros’ missing child, Hughes said.
Monica Flores ties balloons to a fence in Cabazon, where a small memorial has been set up for Emmanuel Haro, who has been missing for a week.
(OnScene.TV)
“Jake has a criminal past,” Hughes said. “We’re not running from that, but the facts of that case are a lot different than the facts of this case. And one crime doesn’t mean that you’ve committed every other crime known to man, especially to take your own child.”
“They just want their son back, they want people to put in the same effort that they’re using to question them to go out and search for Emmanuel,” Hughes told The Times.
Authorities confirmed Wednesday that Riverside County child protective services removed a 2-year-old child from the home of the same couple who reported the infant missing last week.
It’s unclear what prompted officials to remove the 2-year-old. A spokesperson for Riverside County declined to comment, citing state confidentiality laws.
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