Rudy Farias’ mother, accused of faking son’s disappearance, returns after going ‘on the run’: ‘She’s a very greedy person’
The mother of Rudy Farias — who Texas police say faked her son’s disappearance for eight years — has returned to her home after initially fleeing in the dead of night, The Post’s exclusive pictures show.
Neighbors said elusive Janie Santana made a midnight dash last week after police exposed the miraculous re-appearance of her son as a sham, and that she’d been leading them, investigators and missing person’s charities on a wild goose chase since 2015.
They said Rudy, who was then 17, had actually returned home the next day and she had been passing him off as her “nephew” since then.
The Post photographed Santana — who has been avoiding media appearances since Rudy was found outside a local church, leaving her house in North Houston Monday.
Santana has been described as a con woman and an internet catfish by relatives.
“She’s had different husbands, different names,” Santana’s sister, Pauline Sanchez-Rodriguez, told The Post.
“She’s a very greedy person. It’s all about money.”
However, Houston police have so far declined to charge Santana with any crimes as they continue their investigation.
Meanwhile, Farias is said to have been staying at a friend’s home in East Houston since Wednesday.
His aunt initially claimed he did not want anything to do with Santana and was refusing to see her and even take her phone calls.
However, Rudy spent time with his mother Saturday, his neighbors told The Post.
They shared photographs of Santana’s rental car parked in front of the East Houston home while she visited with her son.
“Rudy is not safe there either,” said the concerned neighbor who wished to remain anonymous.
The reunion between mother and son dashed the hopes of many that Farias was taking steps to distance himself from Santana.
The only change of heart Farias appears to have is with his extended family, including his aunt, Pauline.
She showed up to the East Houston home with shopping bags from Macy’s and Walmart, the neighborhood spies added.
“She was bringing him clothes and other things, and they went out to the street and yelled at her,” the neighbor said, adding the cops were called to the residence as multiple neigbors heard screaming and yelling in the middle of the street.
Eventually, Rudy accepted the offerings from his aunt, who had hoped she would leave the friend’s home and go live with her son, she told The Post Thursday.
After being found with cuts and bruises by a Houston church, Farias had been treated at hospital and then interviewed by police. Local activists claimed he had said he had been held against his will and even sexually abused by his mother during the time he was missing.
However, a detective who interviewed him said that was not true and he had never accused anyone of abusing him.
Farias was then allowed to leave with Santana.
