Parents of Missing California Infant Arrested for Murder as Search for Baby Emmanuel Continues

Emmanuel Haro was 7 months old

The parents of missing seven-month-old Emmanuel Haro have been arrested on suspicion of murder, a week after the infant mysteriously vanished in California.

Jake and Rebecca Haro were taken into custody on Friday at their home in Cabazon by San Bernardino County Sheriff’s homicide detectives. Authorities said the parents are facing murder charges, though the search for their baby boy — described as having brown hair and brown eyes — remains ongoing.

Jake Haro is placed in the back of a law enforcement patrol car during his arrest on Aug. 22, 2025, in Cabazon, California

The case began on August 14 when Rebecca Haro told investigators she had been attacked outside a sporting goods store and knocked unconscious. She claimed that when she woke up, her baby was gone. However, authorities later announced there were significant inconsistencies in her account.

Detectives executed multiple search warrants at the Haro residence and reviewed surveillance footage in the days before the arrests. Despite pleading publicly for her son’s return in interviews, officials said Rebecca’s statements did not align with the evidence. At the time, she appeared with a black eye, insisting, “Please come and bring my son back. I’m begging you.”

A handcuffed Rebecca Haro is escorted from her Cabazon home during her arrest in the suspected murder of 7-month-old Emmanuel Haro

The arrest comes against a backdrop of troubling family history. Rebecca Haro’s brother, James Beushausen, is serving a sentence of at least 50 years in prison for the 2017 murder of his girlfriend, Jaylynn Amanda Keith.

Jake Haro also has a prior criminal record. In 2023, he served six months in jail for a willful child cruelty charge involving his older daughter from another relationship. That child, then just 10 weeks old, suffered broken bones in October 2018.

Emmanuel’s parents, Rebecca and Jake Haro

Defense attorney Vincent Hughes, who has previously represented Jake Haro, confirmed he is representing him again but not Rebecca to avoid conflicts of interest. Hughes said his client denies any involvement in his son’s disappearance and argued that past convictions should not influence current allegations.

“The criminal justice system is about reform,” Hughes stated. “He completed the child abuse class, he did what he was told to do. I don’t really see how if somebody has a charge, any future charge means that they did it.”

The sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post Friday that the pair were being charged with murder

Hughes also said he has been subjected to death threats and harassment since the case drew nationwide attention. “I’m being completely dragged through the mud because I’m giving somebody what they are constitutionally protected and afforded,” he said.

San Bernardino County authorities confirmed the murder charges but stressed that the investigation remains active as efforts continue to locate baby Emmanuel.