A Texas man who was reported missing as a teenager in 2015 and found alive last week at a church was only gone for a day, but he and his mother maintained the ruse for eight year by giving officers false names, police said Thursday.
Houston police detectives said prosecutors have declined to bring false report charges against Janie Santana and her son, Rudolph “Rudy” Farias IV, but that their investigation is continuing.
The announcement came a week after police said they found Farias after receiving a call about a person lying on the ground in front of a southeast Houston church.
Authorities had not previously said where Farias, now 25, spent the eight years since he was reported missing after taking his two dogs for a walk near his family’s home in northeast Houston. He was hospitalized after police found him last week and detectives interviewed him and his mother on Wednesday.
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“After investigators talked with him yesterday, it was discovered that Rudy returned home the following day on March 8, 2015,” Lt. Christopher Zamora said during a news conference. “The mother, Janie, continued to deceive police by remaining adamant that Rudy was still missing.”
After Farias was reported missing, Houston police and Texas Equusearch, a civilian search and recovery team, looked for him without success, although his dogs were later found.
In the years that followed, there were several possible sightings of Farias, according to a private investigator hired by the teen′s mother a few months after he went missing. They included one sighting in 2018 that police responded to, but the investigation remained open as a missing person case.
Upon police announcing they’d found her son, Santana released a statement thanking the media and saying, he “is receiving the care he needs to overcome his trauma, but at this time, he is nonverbal and not able to communicate with us.”
Santana’s family said they suspected Farias was not missing and accused Santana of keeping him away from them all these years.
“We’re upset that (authorities) are not going to do anything,” Pauline Sanchez Rodriguez, Farias’ aunt, said as she and other family members stood outside Houston police headquarters.
Rodriguez said her late mother, Rosa Sosa Rodriguez, had lived with Santana and repeatedly told relatives that Farias was living in the house with them.
“My mom would always tell me, ‘Rudy is here ... He’s there. He’s in that room,’” Rodriguez said. “And Janie said, 'No she’s lying, she’s losing it.'”
Zamora said Santana claimed the person friends and family were seeing was not Farias but her nephew, but "we disputed that.”
Police Chief Troy Finner declined Thursday to answer questions about the mental health of Farias or his mother and would not say what motivated their actions. He said police are “right at the beginning” of their investigation into what happened.
Police also said patrol officers responded to a burglary call Wednesday night at the family’s home and that it is now part of their investigation.
