Rudy Farias Case: Missing Houston Teen for 8 Years Has Been Home All Along

Police announced Thursday that a man believed to have been missing for more than eight years returned home within days of being reported missing in 2015.

The day after police detectives independently interviewed Rudy Farias IV, 25, and his mother, Janie Santana, and determined that Farias had only been missing briefly as a 17-year-old, Houston Police Chief Troy Finner stated that the department's investigation is ongoing.

Rudi Farias Was Not Missing

The Harris County District Attorney's Office has not accepted criminal charges against Farias or Santana, HPM reported.

Police disclosed on Thursday that since Farias was reported missing, he and his mother allegedly provided fictitious names and identifying information when interacting with officers on multiple occasions, with HPD detective Christopher Zamora adding that Santana "continued to deceive police by insisting that Rudy was still missing."

During a Thursday news conference, Zamora stated, "It is a crime to provide fraudulent identities (to the police)." In addition, he stated that Farias was "secure" with his mother as of Thursday.

Finner referred to Farias as a "potential" victim a day after Houston activist Quanell X observed Farias' interview with police and told reporters that Farias described being tortured, manipulated, and even held captive by his mother since he was reported missing in March 2015.

Early in March 2015, Farias' mother reported him missing after he walked the family's two canines, and they returned home without him. Authorities believed he was still missing until he was discovered outside a church on Avenue L and 76th Street on June 29, according to HPD.

Officials now report that he returned home within 48 hours of being reported missing. The mother of Farias stated the non-profit Texas Center for the Missing on Monday, claiming that her son was unresponsive when he was discovered by a good Samaritan who called 911 last week.

Some of the family's neighbors had seen Farias regularly in the years since he was reported missing. Also, on Wednesday, HPD detectives questioned both Farias and Santana.

Quanell X accompanied Farias to his interview with the police and told reporters that he overheard disquieting details about Farias' relationship with Santana.

According to Quanell X, Farias ran away in 2015 and returned home shortly thereafter, whereupon his mother allegedly persuaded him that he could face legal consequences if authorities discovered he wasn't absent.

Farias' Mom Avoids Being Charge

Quanell X added that Farias told police that his mother sexually abused him and that he was sometimes confined in his room and given psychedelic substances. Houston police vigorously refuted some of these claims. According to investigators, Farias never discussed his mother's sexual assault.

However, immediately after Thursday's press conference, members of Farias' family stood outside HPD headquarters and echoed the sexual abuse allegations against Farias' mother.

Pauline Sanchez, Farias' aunt, accused her half-sister of concealing Farias from the family, adding that she hasn't spoken with her nephew since 2015.

At a news conference, branded the decision not to prosecute the boy's mother "bulls***."

Three of arias' aunts, Santana's sisters, conducted a separate news conference at which they did not hold back in expressing their feelings about their sister. Santana was reportedly married to an HPD officer until his demise in 2014, a year before the disappearance of her son.

The Independent reported that the sisters also contested a photograph of Farias at the hospital that Santana gave to the media on Monday. According to his sisters, the photograph was shot in 2012.

"Rudy is in no danger. He voluntarily resides with his mother," the Houston police superintendent said, adding that Farias has been referred to Adult Protective Services for assistance.

The aunts expressed their support for Farias at their own press conference, conveying him the message, "We love you, your aunts and cousins, we stand behind you, and we're right here with you."

Per Huff Post, a crowdfunding campaign created to "help find" Rudy Farias raised more than $2,000, according to information released by authorities on Thursday. The GoFundMe account, which was established on March 22, 2015, received contributions from more than thirty individuals.