The investigation into a teenager found eight years after he was reported missing has been slammed as a "sham" by a local community activist who claimed the now-adult said his mum held him like a "sex slave".
Rudy Farias disappeared March 6, 2015 while walking his dogs near Tidwell and Park Drive in northwest Houston. He was then 17-years-old and a search was launched to find him.
Rudy, now 25, was ‘found’ on June 29 in the doorway of a local church, eight years after his mother, Janie Santana, reported he had disappeared.
He was found lying unconscious and the family said has been left unable to speak from his ordeal.
The case took a sinister twist after members of his Houston community in Texas claimed his mum had held him all along while drugging him and subjecting him to twisted abuse, and “made him play daddy.”
Quanell X, the community activist and counsellor who first aired allegations that Mr Farias was abused by his mother, told The Independent: “I believe that Rudy is absolutely a victim."
His comments came after a police press conference in which the Houston Police Department said they were not treating the young man as a victim and said so far no charges have been pressed.
Houston Police Chief Troy Finner said Rudy did not make any statements related to sexual abuse allegations while speaking with cops this week.
Police did reveal the missing boy had returned home days after first being reported missing and that his mum lied repeatedly to the police about it.
After sitting on a meeting between Rudy and investigators, Quanell X claimed Mr Farias was hidden by his mum, drugged and abused for years. But police say that, in their interview with Rudy, he never brought up allegations of sexual abuse involving his mother.
Police have said there is no evidence of abuse. Chief Finner confirmed the District Attorney has declined to press charges against Ms Santana and, while he did not outrightly dispute Quanell X’s claims, he also did not confirm them.
Speaking to The Independent following this, Quanell X accused police of “trying to hide from conducting a shady sham investigation”.
And speaking to the DailyMail, he said: "It was crazy to watch the press conference. The detective heard that young man say that she made him be her husband. The detective heard him say that she told him that his name is daddy now, that she called him daddy when she would kiss him in the mouth."
He also called on charges to be bought against Rudy's mum, saying: "I'm gonna try to help Rudy as much as possible and I think the DA needs to press charges against her and that Rudy should be removed from her custody in some type of way, I don't believe he's safe in her custody at all."
Neighbours have since recorded her, saying she now expected to be arrested.
“When he first went missing, he didn’t report it to the police,’ Santana claimed, speaking as she exited 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.”
Ms Santana told previously told investigators that Mr Farias was her nephew which police “disputed."
Ms Santana could be charged with “making fictitious reports” or “failure to ID” but the District Attorney has so far chosen not to press charges.
Giving false statements is a criminal offence. His cousin said she told police in 2018 he was at his mother’s house, and his grandmother had seen and spoken to him.
Cassandra Lopez said they always knew “in our hearts” the story of Farias having vanished was not true.
“I was in shock. I was like, I couldn’t believe it,” she said.
“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.”
America’s National Missing and Unidentified Persons System said Farias was last seen on March 6, 2015, before the Texas Centre for the Missing and Houston police said he was found wounded last week outside a church.
