After being reported missing for eight years, 25-year-old Rudy Farias was found alive, but badly, in a ditch outside a church in Texas.
Now a social activist claims that Rudy was allegedly enslaved – by his own mother.
– She forced him to sleep in her bed and pretend to be “daddy”, says the activist Quanell X.
On March 6, 2015, 17-year-old Rudy Farias was out walking the family’s two dogs. When the dogs came home without Rudy, he was reported missing.
Now, eight years later, he has been found alive in a ditch outside a church.
– My son Rudy is getting the care he needs to overcome his trauma. But he is currently non-verbal and therefore cannot communicate with us, Rudy’s mother Janie Santana said at the time.
All’s well that ends well, many thought.
“Heard terrible things”
But now the local community activist Quanell X steps forward and says that he was allowed to take part in the first police interviews with Rudy after he was found.
In the interrogation, Rudy allegedly claimed that his mother, Janie Santana, kept him captive in her own home in slave-like conditions. During eight years, she allegedly abused and drugged him and forced him to have sex with her, writes Independent.
– I have heard terrible things from the young man. I didn’t want him to see me cry but I couldn’t hold back the tears, Quanell X added FOX 26 Houston.
– No child should ever be treated like that by their own mother.
According to the activist, it is true that Rudy disappeared on March 6, 2015, but that it was accidental. Two days later, Rudy is said to have come home and the mother is said to have convinced him that he was wanted by the police and that he would be put in jail.
– So she hid him in the house when investigators about the disappearance came to visit, claims Rudy according to the activist.
Hanging out with the neighbors
ABC News have spoken to a neighbor who states that they spent time with Rudy several times during the eight years he was “missing”.
– He used to come into our garage, hang out with my cousin and my children. The boy has never been missing, says neighbor Kisha Ross to ABC.
According to Quanell X, Rudy allegedly said that last week he managed to steal his mother’s car and escape. He then allegedly crashed the vehicle, hence the many injuries he had when he was found in the ditch.
The Houston Police Department says in a statement that it will not comment on the allegations against Janie Santana.