August 22: Rebecca Haro and Jake Haro are arrested.
A few days after the search for the child began, authorities noted that Jake had hired a lawyer and began to notice “inconsistencies” in the story of Rebecca's kidnapping. Two days later, on August 22, 2025, Jake and Rebecca were arrested and charged with the murder of their son, as well as filing a false police report.
“This morning, Sheriff's Homicide and Special Enforcement Unit detectives arrested Jake and Rebecca Haro at their residence in Cabazon on charges of PC 187 – Murder,” authorities wrote in the newspaper. Instagram post on the day of the arrest, adding in a follow-up message a day later: “Based on the evidence, investigators have concluded that there was no abduction in Yucaipa. Emmauel is believed to have died and the search for his remains continues.”
Despite the arrest, both parents maintained their innocence.
“I won’t give up,” Rebecca told a Southern California News Group reporter, according to the publication Press Enterprise. “I will not give up my child.”
And after Jake was indicted on a previous child endangerment charge in 2021, to which he pleaded guilty in 2023, Rebecca said in the same interview, “He would never harm a child.”
