Man "missing" for eight years discovered

A missing Houston man was found eight years after his initial disappearance, but many believe he never was actually “missing” in the first place …

Transcript

00:00During the eight-year time frame where he was missing, investigators followed up on many tips,

00:05leads, collected evidence proving that Rudy was not missing during the eight-year period.

00:11That's what a lieutenant with the Houston Police Department had to say about the bizarre case

00:15surrounding a Texas teenager that never actually went missing. Back in March of 2015, then 17-year-old

00:21Rudolph Rudy Farias IV was reported missing by his mother. In response, police in Texas

00:27looked for Rudy but never found him. Rudy's mother, Janie Santana, even hired private

00:32investigators to find her son, despite knowing he wasn't actually missing. It is now believed that

00:38Rudy returned home the following day in 2015. He and his mother, for reasons currently unknown,

00:43seemingly decided to lie to police about his whereabouts and provided false names and birthdays

00:48to officers for the next eight years. Rudy's real identity was discovered after police received a

00:53call about him lying on the ground in front of a church. According to his family's Facebook post,

00:58he was allegedly bloodied and covered in bruises. This led to an interview with both Rudy and his

01:03mother during which the truth about his identity was revealed. Neighbors, private investigators,

01:08and Rudy's own family members have reportedly long doubted Santana's story about her missing son.

01:13Per a 2011 court-filed affidavit concerning a different matter, Santana's sister said Janie

01:19has always been a pathological liar and that she lies about everything. And according to Insider,

01:24many of the private investigators who worked on the case believe Rudy's disappearance was a scam

01:29orchestrated by his mother to fundraise money. The district attorney declined any charges at

01:34this time for making fictitious reports and failure to ID, but an investigation is ongoing.