Twelve days after they said their son had vanished from a parking lot outside a sporting goods store, the parents of baby Emmanuel Haro have been charged in his death.
Emmanuel’s parents, Jake Haro, 32, and Rebecca Haro, 41, are scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday afternoon in Riverside County on one count each of murder with malice. They were also charged with making a false police report, a misdemeanor. Riverside County prosecutors are asking they be held in lieu of $1-million bail.
Authorities say the couple faked the 7-month-old’s disappearance and the infant is presumed dead.
Rebecca Haro said she was attacked in a Yucaipa parking lot on Aug. 14 outside a Big 5 store while changing Emmanuel’s diaper. But San Bernardino County sheriff’s investigators said there were inconsistencies in her initial statement, and when they confronted her about those details, she stopped cooperating.
Authorities arrested the parents at their Cabazon home on Friday. San Bernardino County sheriff’s investigators are now focused on finding Emmanuel’s remains. Over the weekend, search teams scoured an isolated field in Moreno Valley. They were accompanied by Jake Haro but did not find anything, officials said.
The case has captured the fascination of true crime mystery fans, with the couple maintaining their innocence as a past criminal case against Jake Haro has resurfaced.
Jake Haro was previously convicted of child abuse in 2023 with his previous wife. A medical report showed that his daughter was seriously injured when she was examined at a Hemet hospital in 2018, according to court records. The unidentified girl suffered head trauma and had multiple fractures and signs of past bone breaks, police said in an affidavit. Jake Haro was convicted of willful cruelty to a child and was on probation in that case when he was arrested last week.
Following Emmanuel’s disappearance, Riverside County child protective services removed a 2-year-old child from the Haro home. It’s…