‘Surrogate parent’ to Rudy Farias reveals years-long suspicions about his mother

A woman who considered herself a “surrogate parent” to Rudy Farias before he was reported missing eight years ago has spoken out following revelations that he was at home with his mother the entire time.

Jacque Brunswick lived in the same Houston neighbourhood as Mr Farias in the years before his mother, Janie Santana, claimed he vanished in March 2015.

She appeared on NewsNation on Friday to react to the news that Ms Santana had lied about his disappearance. The bizarre case made international headlines this week after Ms Santana announced that her son, now 25, had been “found” after almost a decade - before police confirmed he was never actually missing.

Ms Brunswick said she became close with Mr Farias following his brother’s death in a motorcycle accident.

“Rudy was really having trouble dealing with it and was wanting help,” she said. “And it wasn’t just me. There was some other people that you know, we started that taking him under our wings.”

Ms Brunswick said the then-teenager was “sheltered” and appeared to be afraid of his mother.

“He was a very timid young man, would not look at you when he spoke, especially if she was around,” she told anchor Chris Cuomo. “He would look at the ground and fidget with his hands.”

After Mr Farias was reported missing at 17 years old, Ms Brunswick said she suspected Ms Santana was involved.

“I honestly had always thought that Janie had something to do with it, had her hands in it some way or somehow,” she said.

“After a couple of years I started grieving him because I truly thought that he was dead.”

Then suddenly, on 29 June, Ms Santana announced that her son, now 25, had been found alive but battered and bruised outside a church in Houston.

Following an interview with investigators, community activist Quanell X said that Mr Farias has claimed he was held by his mother in her home where she physically and sexually abused him for the duration of his alleged disappearance.

On Thursday, Houston Police confirmed in a press conference that Mr Farias had in fact returned home on 8 March 2015 – just one day after he was reported missing.

However, they denied the claims of abuse and revealed there are no intentions to bring charges against his mother.

The police briefing – not to mention the week’s events – resulted in more questions than answers as the case takes bizarre twists one after the next.

What exactly happened to Mr Farias over the past eight years, why his mother sought to deceive authorities and how she seemingly succeeded for all this time continue to be something of a mystery.