The case of the disappearance of 7-month-old Emmanuel Haro over the last seven days has taken a series of wicked turns, culminating in the arrest this morning of both of his parents on murder charges.
Despite the emergence of information that has thrown Rebecca Haro’s original account of her son’s August 14 kidnapping into progressively greater doubt, certainty about the infant’s fate and precisely how that came about remains elusive, despite the definitive action by the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.
There are, as far as the public is concerned, multiple vagueries and unknowns in the case. That is partly an outgrowth of the investigative process in which information by authorities is being deliberately withheld to deny a suspect or suspects knowledge that might assist them in hiding or destroying evidence or materials related to the crime. Sheriff’s department investigators also acknowledged that some key facts, details and specifics are unknown to them, as when they stated after the arrests that Emmanuel’s body has yet to be located.
According to Rebecca Haro, between 7:40 p.m and 7:50 p.m. on August 14, the child had been forcibly taken from her by a man who approached her from behind as she was changing Emmanuel’s diaper on the passenger side of the family’s vehicle while parked in the parking lot of the Big 5 Sporting Goods store in Yucaipa. She had been knocked unconscious and fell to the ground, she said. Upon coming to, she said, her baby was gone. Lending credibility to he story was that her right eye had been blackened.
Less than 48 hours later, after an intense effort by the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department in the immediate aftermath of the kidnapping report to find the child or a vehicle matching the description of the one driven by Rebecca Haro’s alleged assailant, a statement attributed to an anonymous investigator with the sheriff’s department pointed toward “inconsistencies” in Rebecca Haro’s statements to them.
This provoked among local social media some hints and subtle suggestions that there was something amiss with the case, and it fueled heightened efforts by a host of amateur local sleuths who had already undertaken a close examination of the kidnapping story to make more inquiries. Social media and internet postings, which already included hints and subtle suggestions that the Rebecca and her husband, Jake, had something to do with the child’s disappearance, escalated into more pointed accusations that the story told by Emmanuel’s parents was an outright fabrication intended to hide a far more sinister circumstance when another media report that Rebecca Haro was no longer cooperating with the sheriff’s deparment investigators. I would take another three days before it emerged that the lack of cooperation consisted of her refusal to submit to a polygraph examination.
Over the next five days, local observers, social media near and far and then media nationwide and across the globe broke into a frenzied cacophony that virtually indicted both parents in the presumed death of their child, based upon what were largely secondhand or third-hand unverified recitations of what had been learned by residents of Yucaipa, residents of Cabazon, the community where the Haro’s resided and residents of nearby Redlands who had curiosity about the case.
A woman in Yucaipa said she had learned from Big Five employees that the Haros had come into the business, inquiring about security cameras in the parking lot and area surrounding the store.
Some Yucaipa residents reported that video footage from a security camera at a liquor store across the street from the Big 5 showing what had occurred in the Big 5 parking lot on August 14, in which Rebecca Haro fell to the ground but which did not depict anyone, including someone matching the description of the man who had allegedly knocked her out, anywhere around.
Video footage from an internal camera at the Baada clothing store next to the Big 5 which runs from 7:44 p.m. until 7:54 p.m. and offers a view of the parking lot does not show any action similar to that contained in Rebecca Haro’s recounting of the kidnapping.
On Monday, August 18, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department put out a statement that “foul play” could not be ruled out in the case. A department spokeswoman refused to elaborate any further.
A Cabazon-based videographer/influencer, Ahmed Bellozo, said he had back-traced the Haros’ movements to August 3, and that they had been at Waterman Discount Mall in San Bernardino on that date, at which time her right eye was already blackened.
On Saturday, those who were hoping that the unfolding events might have a joyful resolution were heartened at the possible sighting of the child in Bakersfield. That report did not pan out, however.
There was a rapid succession of events on Sunday, August 18. The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department put out a statement that “foul play” could not be ruled out in the case. A department spokeswoman refused to elaborate any further.
Shortly thereafter, the news media learned that Emmanuel’s 2-Year-old sibling had been removed from the Haros’ custody.
Later on Sunday, there was an explosion of information with regard to the Haros that leapt across the planet and threw the couple, or at least Jake Haro, into the most unfavorable of light, when an identification of Jake Emmanuel Haro and Jake Mitchell Haro as being one and the same was made. Riverside County Superior Court records showed that a conviction against Jake Mitchell Haro had been entered against him in June 2023, stemming from his arrest on charges of child cruelty in Hemet four years and 8 months previously.
On October 13, 2018, Haro and his then wife, Vanessa Avina, were arrested after their 10-week-old daughter, Carolina Rose, was admitted to Hemet Valley Hospital. Doctors reported to police that the girl had a “fresh” and “acute” fractured rib, six previously fractured ribs, a previous leg bone fracture and a previous skull fracture, all of which were in a state of “healing,” swelling of the neck and a brain hemorrhage. Investigators and prosecutors eventually established that Jake and Vanessa were involved in the abuse of their infant daughter, and the criminal case against them dragged on four more than four years while each made accusations against each other and the marriage ended in divorce. Jake and Vanessa had another child, Jake Jr., who was born with fetal alcohol syndrome. Both Jake and Vanessa entered guilty pleas to willful cruelty against a child. Jake was sentenced to four years in prison, but the sentence was suspended in lieu of his completing 180 days in jail, during which he was granted a work release. Vanessa was given a 120-day sentence, which was also subject to work release.
Carolina Rose was adopted by Vanessa’s sister, who changed the child’s name to Promise Faith. The child was severely disabled after having had to undergo a tracheotomy, and is now blind, unable to walk or speak, with three to seven percent brain function. She is entirely dependent upon her aunt, her primary caregiver.
Based on what they were learning, investigators redoubled their scrutiny of the Haros, whose Cabazon home was subjected to a search pursuant to a search warrant, one which included the use of cadaver dogs. Jake’s and Rebecca’s cell phones were seized and they both willingly disclosed to investigators the devices’ passwords.
Contrary to reports that Rebecca was not cooperating with the investigation, she was repeatedly subject to interrogations and what those knowledgeable about the investigation said were “coercive and suggestive” questioning and “obvious manipulations.” Those manipulations were so obvious, the Sentinel was told, that she was aware, despite what investigators consider to be her limited degree of intelligence, that she was being fed false facts.
A report that was extant by midweek was that she was accompanied during questioning by attorney David Goldstein. An internet report identified that lawyer as being based in Riverside, a reference to David Allen Goldstein. Goldstein, however, told the Sentinel today that he was not representing Rebecca Haro. It appears that her lawyer is David Martin Goldstein, a celebrated criminal defense attorney based in Rancho Cucamonga.
On Thursday came word of a major break in the case. There was no immediate action based upon that report, however.
Today, at 6:59 a.m., San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department deputies and detectives supervised by a sergeant busted in upon the Haros at their Cabazon residence, handcuffed them and marched them out to sheriff’s department vehicles.
Significantly, even though the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department was the arresting agency for both, they were not taken to San Bernardino County to be booked into either the Central Jail in San Bernardino or the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga but to the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside. Their arrests, the Sentinel was told, reflect the conclusion that Emmanuel Haro is dead. Without identifying any tangible evidence to that effect, the department implied such evidence existed but was not going to be disclosed at present.
The department said it had “dedicated all available resources to locate seven-month-old Emmanuel Haro,” and that “numerous interviews have been conducted, search warrants have been served, digital and electronic evidence has been collected and closely analyzed. Based on the evidence, investigators determined a kidnapping in Yucaipa did not occur. It is believed Emmanuel is deceased.”
Still, the department officially put out that the child’s body has not been found. “[T]he search to recover his remains is ongoing,” the department stated in a release.
Both parents arrived at the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside before 8 a.m. The couple were in a disheveled and only marginally dressed state when they were ushered out of their house, which seemed to reflect that they had been asleep or had only recently awakened when the officers arrived. Rebecca Haro was wearing dark shorts and a white, sleeveless shirt or blouse, with sandals on her feet. Jake Haro was barefoot, wearing what were either boxers or shorts and a white T-shirt.
Both parents arrived at the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside before 8 a.m.
Circumstances suggest that both submitted to an intense round of questioning that morning and that the questioning of Jake continue throughout the afternoon. Records obtained by the Sentinel show that Rebecca was not booked into official custody at the jail until 12:32 p.m., more than a half hour after noon. Jake was not booked for another five hours, at 5:33 p.m.