Mystery surrounds Rudy Farias, missing Houston teen who wasn't really missing
Countless questions remain after police said a Texas man who’d been reported missing for eight years was actually gone only one day.
Rudy Farias, now 25, was reported missing in March 2015 by his mother, Janine Santana. Police said Monday that Farias had been found outside a Houston church last week after they received a call about a person lying on the ground. While the Farias reunion was initially celebrated, it immediately took a dark and confusing turn.
False identities and reports
During a Thursday press conference, Houston Police Lt. Christopher Zamora said that “after investigators talked with him yesterday, it was discovered that Rudy returned home” a day after he was initially reported missing. Zamora said that Santana “continued to deceive police by remaining adamant that Rudy was still missing.”
According to police, both Santana and Farias himself “gave fictitious names while interacting with various patrol officers.” Zamora said the district attorney was declining to file charges for making fictitious reports and failure to ID, but added, “The investigation is active, and there are new leads coming in. We’ll continue to follow those leads.”
Family members went to police in 2018 to say they had seen Farias staying behind the home of a relative. A police spokesman said this week that investigators followed up on that claim but “could not observe him. They could not locate him. Santana claimed the person spotted was her nephew.”
Zamora said that Farias is “with his mother by choice,” noting his status as an adult, but said he had been connected with victim services. Police added that their interviews with Farias did not lead them to believe he had been sexually abused, although a local activist has repeatedly leveled that accusation against Santana.
The original 'disappearance'
Farias was reported missing on March 7, 2015, after allegedly not returning from walking his two dogs the prior evening. According to contemporaneous updates from Texas EquuSearch, a civilian search and recovery team, the dogs were found but Farias, who had “an injured right leg and walks with a slight limp,” was not.
A GoFundMe campaign to help find Farias and support Santana was launched shortly after he was reported missing, raising $2,000. The company has taken the page down, saying, “The fundraiser has been removed from the platform and the beneficiary has been banned from using GoFundMe for any future fundraisers.”
In a statement released Monday by the Texas Center for the Missing, Santana claimed that Farias was found outside a Houston church.
“We want to thank the media and public for all their support. My son Rudy Farias IV was found on Thursday, June 29th, after being missing for eight years,” Santana said. “Currently, we do not have any additional information on Rudy’s case. What we do know is at the time of his recovery, a good Samaritan located him unresponsive and immediately called police and 911. My son Rudy is receiving the care he needs to overcome his trauma, but at this time, he is nonverbal and not able to communicate with us. We are asking for privacy during this difficult time but will share more details as Rudy continues to heal.”
A surprise to neighbors
Neighbors said they were surprised by the news that Farias had been found because they never realized he was missing.
“He used to come in my garage, chill with my cousin, son and daughter,” Kisha Ross told Houston’s ABC News affiliate. “That boy has never been missing.”
Ross’s cousin Broderick Conley added that he and Farias would hang out often, describing it as “laughing ... good times.”
Jeanay Wyble told NBC News she also hadn’t realized Farias was missing, “Every day he comes over and talks to us,” she said, but noted, “He’s just depressed all the time. A lot of times he’s not sober. We didn’t know he was missing. We’ve just been hanging with him.”
“I always saw that son, sitting outside or sitting in the car,” Marisol Flores said.
However, one neighbor told NBC News he had not seen Farias in eight years. Eighty-year-old John Richardson told the outlet whenever he would ask Santana about her son, "she would start crying and say they haven’t found him, and it would hurt me."
