When a mother in Texas reported her teen son missing back in 2015, a massive search began to find him. Rudolph Rudy Farias IV was 17 when his mother, Janie Santana, said he disappeared while walking their dogs near their Houston home. More than eight years later, on June 29, Farias appeared bruised and bloody on a church doorstep.
Family and friends rejoiced when Farias was found alive, but some claim he was never missing and that Santana kept him captive in her home, subjecting him to years of abuse. Concerned neighbors and family want to get to the bottom of what really happened.
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Santana reported Farias missing eight years ago.
According to multiple reports, Santana called the police on March 6, 2015, after her son took their dogs for a walk. NBC News reported the dogs both returned to the home without their leashes on, but Farias was never seen again. His family hired a private investigator, Brenda Paradise, who said in 2015 that the teen had been suffering from depression following a tragedy in his personal life, the new outlet reported.
"He watched his best friend die right in front of him," she said at the time, per NBC News. "His brother was his best friend in the world. He's just gone through so much more than anyone his age ever should."
Some say Farias didn't go missing but that he ran away from his mother.
Quanell X, a community activist in Houston, spoke out against Santana and claims she subjected her son to brutal physical and sexual abuse. Quanell said Farias has been in his mother's home for the past eight years while he was supposedly missing and that she has had him under her control, ABC 13 reported.
"She convinced him that he was in trouble for initially running away and that law enforcement wanted to arrest him and put him in jail for running away," Quanell said. "She had convinced him that all types of agencies were looking for him to put him in jail."
Farias was allegedly afraid of getting into trouble, so he willingly remained captive in the home.
Some say they knew Farias was there all along and that they actually tried to get help from the police.
Cassandra Lopez, Farias' cousin, told KPRC 2 her family thought the situation was suspicious from the beginning.
"I was in shock. I was like, I couldn't believe it. I mean, I was glad, but I just was wondering what was going to unfold from it. Like, what was the story going to be behind it? Because it's just we always in our hearts knew that he wasn't really missing," Lopez said.
A neighbor told the news outlet the teen had been at the home the whole time, but he went by the name Dolph. Even so, he was withdrawn and never shared much about himself.
"When he is with us, he doesn't really say much or who he is. We just know he lives down here with his mom, goes to work with her around 6 p.m. to 7 or 8 in the morning, said neighbor Jeanay Wyble. "He just been freely walking down the street."
Houston police responded to Lopez's claims that Farias was at the home, but they could never find him, according to KPRC 2.
Santana had reportedly denied claims the boy living with her was her son.
The mother spoke with ABC 13 and said the person neighbors claim was Farias was actually her nephew, not her missing son.
Police interviewed Santana and Farias on Wednesday, KHOU reported, and planned to share more details regarding the case in a news conference on Thursday.
"While there are reports of some of the content of the interviews being released, our detectives are not in a position at this time to discuss specifics of the interviews or if the content being released is entirely factual," the Houston Police Department tweeted.
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Quanell X said Farias had finally had enough.
The advocate claims Farias no longer wanted to live under his mother's rules and decided to break free.
"He said he just got tired of her not respecting his boundaries and he wanted his own life," Quanell X said, according to ABC 13. "His exact words were, 'I was tired of living like a slave.'"
There has not been an arrest in the case.
