Rudy Farias’ mother ‘claimed he was kidnapped by human traffickers’ while she hid Texas man in home
Private investigator told The Independent she grew suspicious of Janie Santana after devoting hundreds of hours to finding Rudy Farias
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Your support makes all the difference.Rudy Farias’ mother once claimed that her son had been kidnapped by human traffickers while she was actually hiding him in her own home, according to a private investigator.
Brenda Paradise told The Independent she devoted hundreds of hours to finding Mr Farias but grew suspicious of his mother Janie Santana.
Ms Paradise said that Ms Santana repeatedly asked for money on her Facebook pages to help track her “missing” son down.
Once, she asked for money to pay a ransom to a suspected human trafficker in Tijuana, Mexico, who she falsely claimed had kidnapped Mr Farias. She even went to a morgue to identify a deceased body, Ms Paradise said.
Mr Farias made headlines last week when Ms Santana announced that the now-25-year-old had been “found” eight years after she reported him missing in 2015.
Houston police later confirmed that he was never missing and had been living at home with his mother the whole time.
Community activist Quanell X later claimed Mr Farias had alleged alarming abuse by his mother. After his claims were refuted by police, he doubled down in an interview with The Independent. Ms Santana has not been charged.
Rudy Farias’ mother may face legal action from GoFundMe after she profited from fake disappearance story
Rudy Farias’ mother could soon face legal action from GoFundMe after she raked in thousands of dollars in donations by falsely claiming that her son was missing.
The fundraising platform said in a statement on Thursday that Janie Santana had been permanently banned from GoFundMe and from all future beneficiary opportunities after the bizarre scam came to light this week.
“GoFundMe has zero tolerance for the misuse of our platform and cooperates with law enforcement investigations and those accused of wrongdoing,” the spokesperson said in a statement to Newsweek.
“Our trust and safety team takes swift action against those who exploit the generosity of our community, including with the outright removal of a fundraiser, banning an account for violating our terms of service, and even pursuing potential legal recourse.”
Rachel Sharp reports:
Rudy Farias’ mother may face legal action from GoFundMe
Janie Santana has allegedly been profiting from the scam after she claimed her son was missing for the last eight years
Rudy Farias is staying with family friend ‘until he knows he can cope by himself'
Rudy Farias is currently staying with a family friend as a media firestorm continues over his sham disappearance.
The 25-year-old’s aunt, Pauline Sanchez, told the Houston Chronicle that he’s taking time away from his mother Janie Santana to “adjust” and will call his family when he’s “ready”.
“Nobody’s going to go around him and he’s not coming out of that place until there’s no media around and he’s free and comfortable,” Ms Sanchez said.
“It won’t be until he knows he can cope by himself.”
Watch: Rudy Farias’ mother predicts her arrest
Janie Santana told neighbours she thought she was going to be arrested after claiming her son Rudy Farias had been “found” eight years after he was reported missing.
In a video clip, obtained by KPRC 2, Ms Santana is seen speaking to her neighbours as she got out of her car on Wednesday.
“When he first went missing, he didn’t report it to the police,” Ms Santana said.
“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.”
The following day, police confirmed that Mr Farias had never actually been missing and that his mother had lied to investigators.
However, officials said prosecutors were not planning to file charges against Ms Santana.
In an update on Friday, police cautioned that the investigation is active and ongoing.
ICYMI: The neighbour claims that helped expose sham disappearance
Just days after 25-year-old Rudolph “Rudy” Farias was found eight years after he went missing, neighbours came out to say he’d been at home all along.
Kisha Ross, a neighbour of Mr Farias and his mother, Janie Santana, said she had seen, and spent time, with Mr Farias in the time he was supposedly missing.
“He used to come in my garage, chill with my cousin, son, and daughter,” Ms Ross told ABC 7. “That boy has never been missing.”
Ms Ross said that her family knew Mr Farias as “Dolph” and that he often spent time at their home, though they had not seen him recently.
Ms Santana said neighbours were likely confusing Mr Farias with her nephew but neighbours insisted the photo showed “Dolph”.
“I am confused right now,” Ms Ross said.
Another neighbour, who asked to remain anonymous to ABC 7, said he knew and saw Mr Farias living at his mother’s house for years.
“I was just shocked someone over here was missing, and we see him,” the neighbour said. “It’s shocking to everyone.”
‘Surrogate parent’ to Rudy Farias reveals years-long suspicions about his mother
A woman who considered herself a “surrogate parent” to Rudy Farias before he was reported missing has spoken out following revelations that the disappearance was a sham.
Jacque Brunswick lived in the same Houston neighbourhood as Mr Farias in the years before his mother, Janie Santana, claimed he vanished in March 2015.
In a Friday appearance on NewsNation, Ms Brunswick revealed she has long believed that Ms Santana was involved in the disappearance.
“I honestly had always thought that Janie had something to do with it, had her hands in it some way or somehow,” she said.
“After a couple of years I started grieving him because I truly thought that he was dead.”
Ms Brunswick described Mr Farias as a “timid” teenager who appeared to be afraid of his mother.
Read more:
‘Surrogate parent’ to Rudy Farias reveals years-long suspicions about his mother
‘I honestly had always thought that Janie [Santana] had something to do with it,’ Jacque Brunswick says
How did police not find the ‘missing teen’ if he was at home all these years?
Neighbours and family members have come forward saying that they knew Rudy Farias was not missing, yet for eight years the young man was still considered missing.
Houston police admitted that they had multiple interactions with both the 25-year-old and his mother during the time he was allegedly missing.
And yet police failed to uncover the deception for eight years.
In a press conference on Thursday, authorities said that they had received tips and leads over the years about Mr Farias – including lines of inquiry that he was not missing at all.
During follow-ups, police obtained statements from friends, relatives and neighbours.
Mr Farias also had multiple interactions with Houston police over the eight years – but both he and his mother, Janie Santana gave different names to officers, police said.
Ms Santana even claimed that the man was her nephew – and not her son, police said.
She “remained adamant that her son Rudy was still missing”.
It remains unclear what steps police took – during those encounters – to determine whether or not the man before them was who he said he was.
Watch: Police announce Janie Santana not facing charges
PI says her ‘jaw dropped’ when she learned the truth about Rudy Farias
A private investigator who tried to track down Rudy Farias has told The Independent of her shock at learning that his mother Janie Santana will not face charges for lying about the disappearance for eight years.
Brenda Paradise began working on the case three days after Mr Farias was reported to have gone missing in 2015, and devoted hundreds of hours to finding him.
Ms Paradise said that early on she felt many of Ms Santana’s claims about her son’s disappearance didn’t add up, and that his mother probably lied to rake in thousands of dollars in public donations.
She said she wasn’t surprised when Mr Farias turned out to have been with his mother all along. But her “jaw dropped” when she heard police would not be pressing charges.
“If somebody had held a little blonde girl hostage all those years, police would have been all over this case.”
Read more from The Independent’s Bevan Hurley:
Was Rudy Farias’ mother suffering from Munchausen syndrome by proxy?
Brenda Paradise tells The Independent’s Bevan Hurley the bizarre missing person case is rooted in greed and mental health issues
Where is Rudy Farias’ mother now?
Rumours are swirling that Rudy Farias’ mother Janie Santana is “on the run” following explosive abuse claims.
A neighbour reportedly called 911 on Thursday night to report seeing Ms Santana leave her home in Houston just after midnight.
It came hours after police confirmed that Ms Santana had lied about her son being missing for eight years - but refuted abuse claims by local activist Quanell X.
Ms Santana had speculated on Wednesday that she would be arrested before authorities announced that prosecutors are not planning to press charges.
Her current whereabouts are unknown.
Why do Quanell X and police have different accounts of the same interview?
While it is now clear that Rudy Farias’ disappearance was a fraud, what remains unclear is what he did and what he may have suffered during the mysterious eight-year time gap.
On Wednesday, Mr Farias was interviewed by Houston Police investigators.
Following the meeting, he was led out of the building by community activist Quanell X.
Quanell X told reporters that the 25-year-old claimed he had suffered physical and sexual abuse at the hands of his mother over the past eight years.
“I heard horrific things from that young man, and I didn’t want him to see me shedding tears but I couldn’t hold [them] back,” Quanell X told reporters. “No child should ever be treated like that by their own mother.”
He claimed Mr Farias said Ms Santana abused him, forced him to take hallucinogenic mushrooms and kept him hidden in his home all the while continuing to claim he was missing.
But, his version of events was contradicted by Houston police on Thursday who said that Mr Farias did not tell investigators he had been abused.
Lieutenant Christopher Zamora, a detective with Houston Police Department (HPD)’s missing persons unit, said that “we do take all allegations seriously and any new information or facts that we receive will be investigated”.
But Quanell X doubled down on the abuse claims in an interview with The Independent.
“I believe that Rudy is absolutely a victim,” he said after the briefing.
“The kid was distraught ... absolutely distraught,” Quanell X said of Mr Farias’ demeanour in the police interview. “He went back and forth; he acted like a teenager, then he would act 20...is he 23 or 25? He went back and forth between like a child state to a mature state.”
Quanell X went on to accuse police of “trying to hide from conducting a shady sham investigation”.
“It’s all confusing as hell to me now,” he said. “I think they’re revictimising the kid all over again. I believe he needs extensive medical, psychological help and treatment.”
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