The mother of a 25-year-old man who allegedly vanished in 2015 says police want to 'arrest her' after he claimed she had been holding him hostage and sexually abusing him - as relatives now say they 'knew he was never missing.'
Rudy Farias was 'found' on June 29 in the doorway of a church in Houston, Texas, eight years after his mother Janie Santana reported him missing.
Santana, a frequent poster on true crime chat boards on Facebook, announced his discovery and said he was in an extremely poor physical state, and unable to speak.
The story took an astonishing turn on Wednesday as Farias and Santana, spoke to detectives at a Houston hotel, with a mediator - local New Black Panther leader and community activist Quanell X.
Quanell told reporters Farias claimed he had been sexually abused and hidden by his mother for the last eight years - saying she made him sleep in the bed with her while she was naked and 'making him play daddy.'
Santana, who according to reports works overnight as a security guard and took Farias with her to work in the evenings and kept him largely hidden from view in the day, was recorded by neighbors saying she now expected to be arrested.
'When he first went missing, he didn't report it to the police,' Santana claimed on Wednesday, speaking as she got out of her car in front of her home.
'And they are trying to say that he might have done some crimes. Which he didn't.
'And now they want to arrest me. Because they said I was hiding him.'
As news of Farias' shocking claim spread, relatives and neighbors began saying they knew he was not missing.
Farias' cousin said she told police in 2018 he was at his mother's house, and his grandmother had seen and spoken to him.
Farias' aunt said she also knew he was not missing - while neighbors claimed they'd seen him walking around the neighborhood.
Cassandra Lopez, his cousin, told KPRC 2 they always knew 'in our hearts' the story of Farias having vanished was not true.
'I was in shock,' she said. '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 she called 911 in 2018 after family members saw Farias at his mother's home, and their grandmother saw him regularly.
Houston police visited the house, but did not find him and it is unclear if they questioned any of the relatives.
Farias' father, Houston police officer Rudolph Farias III, died by suicide in 2014. He was a 21-year veteran and was facing an internal affairs investigation at the time of his death.
Houston police said they'll hold a press conference on Thursday.
'She would just say, I saw Rudy. You know, he came to check on me and we said hello and we had a little conversation. She never went into detail, but she would say she saw him,' said Lopez.
Lopez said the rest of the family are eager to hear from him.
'I mean, half of his life is - almost a quarter of his life - has already been taken away,' said Lopez.
'Don't you know that? That's just not right. He didn't deserve, nobody deserves that.'
Farias' aunt Pauline Sanchez Rodriguez - the stepsister of Santana - told KPRC 2 that she believes Santana has been lying for the last eight years.
'Everything's coming up to the light,' she said.
Farias and his mother are thought to have left the Houston hotel on Wednesday afternoon together, and Rodriguez said she was worried about him.
'I came to this neighborhood to see if I could find her. I fear for Rudy Farias' life.'
She said that Farias was reluctant to open up to his family as a young teenager.
'He was afraid because his mom manipulated him and kept him from spending time with us, talking to us, socializing with his cousins and that's wrong,' she said.
Rodriguez said she always suspected he had not disappeared.
'I knew it, my heart, I go with what my heart tells me, you have five senses. I have my sixth sense,' Rodriguez said.
Neighbors echoed the family's claims that Farias was not missing for the past eight years.
They said he was known as Dolph, an abbreviation of his full name Rudolph, and was somewhat withdrawn - but was regularly seen around the neighborhood.
'When he is with us, he doesn't really say much or who he is,' said Jeanay Wyble.
'We just know he lives down here with his mom, goes to work with her around 6pm to 7 or 8 in the morning.
'He's just been freely walking down the street.'
Another neighbor, Kisha Ross, said Farias told her he didn't want to spend time at home because 'his mom got on his nerves'.
She claimed that Santana offered her money to not speak to the media, but she refused, insisting she wanted to tell the truth.
'He used to come in my garage, chill with my cousin, son, and daughter,' said Ross, adding that Farias liked to hang out in the woods by himself.
Broderick Conley, Ross's cousin, also said he used to hang out with Farias regularly - 'laughing' and having 'good times.'
Another aunt, however, said she believed Santana's story that her son was missing, and even went from Houston to California to try and find him.
'She had me out there in California thinking that they had found somebody that looked like Rudy in California,' said Sylvia Lopez.
'And I went all the way with her.'
Quanell, the community activist, was called to intervene by a local journalist and true crime sleuth who reports under the name Grizzy.
Grizzy had followed the case for years, and was contacted by Santana when Farias was 'found.'
Quanell said he was horrified by what he heard - adding that Farias only opened up to him once he was at a distance from his mother.
The well-known local activist was filmed escorting Farias out of the hotel in Humble, a suburb 20 miles from downtown Houston. Farias walked with a slight limp and had a blanket over his head.
Quanell said the reason Farias was found last week was because he stole his mother's car to get away from her, but crashed and ended up bloodied and bruised outside the church last week.
He said Farias had his mother's two-year-old credit card on him, which proved he could not have been missing for eight years.
After being separated from his mother, Farias reportedly said he never went missing, and for the past years his mother has been making him sleep in the bed with her while she was naked, and 'making him play daddy.'
When asked about the sexual assault claims, Quanell said he did not want to go into details about the 'kissing.'
After he was asked again, he replied: 'Let me ask you a question - if your mother is tongue kissing you in the bed with her naked, what the h*** is that? This is sick.'
Quanell claimed Santana kept her son hidden and convinced him he had to hide because police were looking for him to put him in jail.
The local figure said he asked Farias why he ran away, and Farias told him: 'I was tired of living like a slave.'
He claimed: 'Based on what that boy told me, I don't see why she's not in handcuffs right now.
'He was petrified but the minute he was by himself he calmed down. I believe she was drugging the hell out of this kid.
'He said he didn't like getting in the bed with her, that he would try to sneak out of the bed but she told him he had to be her husband.'
Farias allegedly said his mother made him bathe her, and punished him by locking him in a room 'over and over.'
At the time of Farias' disappearance, his mother told officials that he suffered from depression and PTSD since his brother died in a motorcycle accident in 2011 - an incident neighbors say he spoke about.
When Farias was located, Santana claimed he had blood in his hair and had been badly abused and beaten, and shared photos of him in a hospital bed.
'Rudy is in pretty bad shape, he has cuts, soft tissue tumors, small openings and swelling on the soles of his feet, along with bruising, old and new cuts/scrapes on his body, old dry blood on his head and hair, he has very very dark complexion now almost unrecognizable,' she wrote on Facebook.
'God only knows what he has endured during his time away from home.'
She added: 'He flinches if you try to touch him or hug him thinking we are going to strike him.
'He thinks his name is Julio Torres and he is 14 now.'
