Rudy Farias, who was reported missing for eight years before being found, claims he was kept as a slave and abused by his own mother. Photo / Supplied
Rudy Farias, who was reported missing for eight years before being found, claims he was kept as a slave and abused by his own mother. Photo / Supplied
The representative of Texas man Rudy Farias, who was reported missing for eight years before being found alive last week, has detailed horrific allegations claiming Farias was abused and treated like a slave by his own mother.
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) said Rudolph Rudy Farias IV was last seen on March 6, 2015 while walking his dog in Houston.
Then, just last week after more than eight years, locals called authorities after Farias was found unresponsive outside a local church.
But in a stunning twist, Farias’ support person, Quanell X, who is a community activist, has spoken to media detailing what Farias had told detectives after meeting with authorities for the first time today.
According to Qunnell, Farias had been abused and held captive by his own mother over the course of an eight-year period.
Quanell said Farias’ mother had been drugging him and sexually abusing him for years. Farias only spoke up after authorities separated him from his mother.
Farias allegedly said police found him last week because he stole his mother’s car to get away from her.
Rudy Farias, who was reported missing for eight years before being found, claims he was kept as a slave and abused by his own mother. Photo / Supplied
When asked why Farias, now 25, escaped, Quanell said: “He said he wanted his own life. His exact words were ‘I was tired of living like a slave. I just want to be free’.”
It’s unclear when Farias ran away before turning up outside the church on June 28, but Quanell said he was carrying his mother’s credit card which was issued two years ago when he was found last week.
“If he’s been missing for eight years, how did he have her credit card?”
Farias’ initially tried to escape in 2015: Quanell claims
Quanell said that Farias initially ran away when he went missing in 2015 but returned home just two days later. Santana then allegedly told him that he would have to go into hiding and would be arrested if he ever tried to run away again.
“So she brought him back to the house and hid him in the home and initially whenever investigators would come, she would hide him in the house,” he claimed. “He just kept saying, ‘I don’t want to go to jail.’”
Breaking down in tears, Quanell detailed allegations of sexual abuse Farias claims to have suffered at the hands of his mother, saying she allegedly made him sleep in bed with her and demanded he fulfill her fantasies before he managed to run away.
“She would cross his boundaries when he would shower,” Quanell claimed as tears streamed down his face.
“He ran away this time, because he was tired. It’s a goddamn shame. I have never in my life heard of a mother doing to a child what this woman did [to Farias].”
Rudy Farias in hospital in Houston, Texas after being found after being missing for eight years. Photo released by family.
Quanell also said Farias told detectives his mother drugged him and physically abused him.
“That young man’s body has scars all over it. He said she often locked him in a room, that she would give him drugs. There’s a whole lot of mental health issues induced because of the drugs.
“That boy said she was the one providing him drugs, hallucinations, mushrooms. She gave this boy serious drugs to the point where he needs serious professional help.
“This young boy was not kidnapped by some strangers... this isn’t the case.”
A missing poster for Rudolph "Rudy" Farias IV is shown during the Missing Person Day event at City Hall Sunday, Jan. 31, 2016, in Houston. Farias, who went missing as a teenager in 2015 after last being seen walking his dogs in Houston has been found alive, his family and police said Monday, July 3, 2023. (TexasEquuSearch/Courtesy of Houston Chronicle via AP)
It is also alleged Santana would take Farias to her work and make him carry out tasks she was supposed to do himself.
He went on to claim that he knew something was wrong with the mother’s account.
Rudy Farias, who was reported missing for eight years before being found, claims he was kept as a slave and abused by his own mother. Photo / Supplied
Authorities spoke to Santana and Farias separately. Quanell added: “He was petrified [to speak] but the minute he was by himself he calmed down. When she was in the room he wouldn’t say nothing. The minute she left the room he spoke.
“Based on what that boy told me, I don’t see why she’s not in handcuffs right now.”
Neighbours claim Farias was ‘living with his mum the whole time’
Kisha Ross, who lives nearby, told local media, “He used to come in my garage, chill with my cousin, son, and daughter.”
“That boy has never been missing,” she claimed.
Ross’ cousin, Broderick Conley, also says he’s spent plenty of time with the Farias as he was growing up. “Laughing good times,” Conley said. “Sometimes he would go to the park by himself.”
When asked how Farias stayed missing for so long, Quanall stated: “He was allowed to visit with some of the neighbours under an assumed name. She believed that after so many years people have forgotten about the case. That under an assumed named people wouldn’t put two and two together.”
Santana was questioned by police.
The Houston Police Department posted to Twitter after Wednesday’s press conference that they are not commenting on the interview with Farias and his mother, or whether some reporting about the “specifics of the interviews” is “entirely factual.”
