The mystery surrounding a son thought missing for eight years before turning up age 25 amid 'sex slave' accusations has deepened - as cops say he did not make the claims levelled against his mum.
Rudolph 'Rudy' Farias IV was 17 when he was reported missing before being found on June 29 this year with community activists claiming his mummJanie Santanam had held him as a kind of sex slave for eight years, forcing him to 'play daddy' and abusing him.
The shocking revelations have continued at a police press conference this afternoon but have provided more questions than answers as the Houston Police Department deny Rudy made sexual abuse allegations.
Local activist and counsellor Quanell X had this week made the shocking claim to local media that Rudy had told him and police investigators that he was drugged and abused by his mother.
But at the press conference in Texas at 10am US time, (3pm GMT), Police chief Troy Finner said Rudy did not make any statements related to sexual abuse allegations while speaking with cops this week.
And he confirmed the District Attorney has declined to press charges against Ms Santana.
He did not outrightly dispute Quanell X’s claims, but also did not confirm them.
The latest bombshell in the disturbing case heard the Houston Police Department reveal that Rudy was never truly missing and had returned home the day after he was reported to have vanished.
Waiting reporters were told that, over the eight years Rudy was recorded as a missing person, police had multiple interactions with Rudy and his mum and they both gave fake names for Rudy, and were not honest about who he was.
Ms Santana told police Rudy was her nephew, which cops "disputed".
And Houston police detectives said prosecutors have declined to bring false report charges against Ms Santana and her son, Rudolph "Rudy" Farias IV, but that their investigation is continuing. Chief Finner said he could not go into detail about the discussion he had with Rudy as the investigation was active.
Police said the mum could have been charged with “making fictitious reports” or “failure to ID”, but but the DA has declined to pursue those charges.
They did not offer a possible motive as to why the mum claimed Rudy was missing when he was not.
The announcement came a week after police said they found Farias after receiving a call about a person lying on the ground in front of a southeast Houston church.
Authorities had not previously said where Farias, now 25, spent the eight years since he was reported missing after taking his two dogs for a walk near his family's home in northeast Houston.
He was hospitalised after police found him last week and detectives interviewed him and his mother on Wednesday.
After Farias was reported missing, Houston police and Texas Equusearch, a civilian search and recovery team, looked for him without success, although his dogs were later found.
In the years following, there were several possible sightings of Farias, according to a private investigator hired by the teen*s mother a few months after he went missing.
They included one sighting in 2018 that police responded to, but the investigation remained open as a missing person case.
Upon police announcing they'd found her son, Ms Santana released a statement saying, he "is receiving the care he needs to overcome his trauma, but at this time, he is nonverbal and not able to communicate with us."
The case took a sinister twist this week after members of his Houston community in Texas claimed his mum had held him all along while subjecting him to twisted abuse and “made him play daddy.”
Community activist Quanell X shared the details of the alleged abuse that he had claimed came to light during a conversation between Farias and Houston investigators.
“She would ask him to play daddy. She told him that he had to be the husband,” he said.
Quanell X claimed Rudy told him and authorities that Ms Santana - a frequent poster on true crime chat boards on Facebook - kept him under wraps for nearly a decade while lying to and abusing him.
According to reports, she works overnight as a security guard, took Rudy to work in the evenings, and kept him largely hidden from view during the day.
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," Ms 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.”
Rudy’s relatives and neighbours claim they knew he was not missing.
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 Rudy 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 Rudy 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.
