This past weekend, news of a missing Texas man being found alive after eight years spread like a sensation. Now it turns out that not a word of the story is true: According to the police, the man believed missing never disappeared, he lived with his mother the whole time, he writes. Sky News.
Rudy Farias’ fake story made international headlines over the weekend: He was 17 when he was reported missing on March 6, 2015, after walking his dogs near their home in Houston. Civilian search and rescue teams also searched for him, but they were nowhere to be found, but the dogs were later found. According to reports at the time, Farias was suffering from depression and anxiety, didn’t take his medication, had asthma, and even limped slightly in his right leg, MTI wrote.
Years passed, Farias was listed as a missing person, until it was unexpectedly announced on July 1st that he had been found safe outside a Houston church, although his condition was agitated. Even then, the story was a bit suspicious, because his mother, Janie Santana, said her son “is receiving the necessary trauma care, but right now he can’t talk to them, he can’t communicate” in the hospital. Where Farias has been and what he has been doing for the past eight years is not mentioned in the news.
Houston police announced a few days later, at a Thursday news conference, that Farias had in fact been missing for only a day.
“After the detectives spoke to him yesterday, it was determined that Rudy returned home the next day, March 8, 2015,” said Police Lieutenant Christopher Zamora. He added that both Farias and his mother gave a false name and date of birth, which led the police astray.
the CNN According to his report, Zamora indicated that the police had been suspicious of the boy’s disappearance all along. Over the years, investigators have followed various leads and tips and “collected evidence that Rudy was not missing,” he said.
Zamora also said that Farias had been seen by other people at times over the past eight years, but that his mother “claimed her nephew was the person his friends and family saw coming and going.” When asked if the man and his mother could be charged, Zamora said the public prosecutor refused to press charges until a full investigation was completed.
