Parents of missing baby Emmanuel Haro arrested on suspicion of murder.
In a strange twist to the disappearance of 7-month-old baby Emmanuel Haro, the parents of the infant were arrested Friday for murder. A week before, Jake and Rebecca Haro, the parents, reported the mysterious disappearance of their son outside a sporting goods store. Police found discrepancies in Rebecca’s claims and the sheriff’s office refused to rule out foul play. The sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post Friday that the pair were being charged with murder, but investigators will carry on searching for the baby boy with a full head of brown hair and brown eyes.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 San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department media press release.Sheriff’s deputies arrived and searched the area but could not find Emmanuel. The boy was last seen wearing a black onesie, authorities said.Sheriff’s officials did not disclose whether his mother, Rebecca Haro, had suffered any visible injuries during the attack. During her interview with detectives, officials said, she was confronted with inconsistencies from her initial statement and stopped speaking with investigators. Earlier this week, an attorney for the boy’s father, Jake Haro, insisted the family is still cooperating, and Rebecca Haro 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.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.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.“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 LA Times.
