A Texas man who was reported missing eight years ago—only for investigators this month to discover he returned home the next day and had been living at home—spoke out for the first time on Tuesday to insist he was “brainwashed” by his mother the whole time.
“She never locked me in or handcuffed me or anything like that,” Rudy Farias told ABC13 about his mother, Janie Santana. “I had free will to leave, it just felt like brainwashing, honestly.”
Farias was reported missing on March 6, 2015, when the 17-year-old reportedly disappeared on a dog walk. But earlier this month, the Houston Police Department announced that he was “located safe” at a local church, miles from where he lived. In a statement issued through the Texas Center for the Missing, Santana said her son was found “unresponsive.”
But cracks in the narrative began to appear immediately after neighbors told media outlets that Farias had been living with Santana for years.
Last week, police confirmed that their probe revealed that Farias had returned home the day after he was reported missing, despite his mother’s ongoing claims that he had vanished. Police added that while Farias was listed as a missing person, he and Santana interacted with officers several times and used fake names and birthdays each time to hide his identity.
In the tearful interview, Farias explained that he had been “stuck at home” for years and felt like he “lived in a prison.” Sometimes, he added, Santana would even lock him in a room when family members visited their home to keep him hidden.
“I just wanted to be free. I wanted to have my own job. I just wanted to live my life. I just wanted to love somebody, have someone else who would actually love me. I struggled to understand my emotions,” he said.
He explained that to ensure he stayed quiet, his mother would manipulate him into believing that he had to stay silent for his own well-being and would bombard him with “negative thoughts” that would keep him complicit.
Still, Farias said, he was able to go to work with his mom and roam around the neighborhood.
As the years went by, he said, his relationship with his mother “felt like Stockholm syndrome, honestly,” in reference to the psychological coping mechanism of a victim developing positive feelings toward their captor.
“She locked me in there pretty much, mentally,” Farias said. “She was my only parent, the only person I really ever had besides my brother. When I lost my brother, I didn’t have anyone to teach me how to live or to have confidence or trust in myself. So I depended on my mom all my life.”
Farias’ half-brother died in a motorcycle accident in 2011, ABC 13 reported.
Farias also denied an allegation made by controversial community leader Quanell X that Farias had been sexually abused while he was “missing.” He said that while his mother made him sleep in her bed sometimes, it was never sexual.
“I wouldn’t lie about that because there’s plenty of people that need honest truths when it comes to those things, that just muddies the water to lie about those types of things,” he said, adding that he never said anything “bad” about his mother “in that regard.”
Police have since insisted that Farias did not mention any abuse during his hospital interview with police, despite Quanell X’s claim that he was in the room when the claims were lodged.
For now, Farias said, he is just trying to figure out how to move on after his harrowing ordeal.
“I just want to understand who I am,” he said.
