A mother who police say faked her son’s disappearance for eight years has been charged with receiving at least $2,025 in online donations while he was allegedly missing.
Janie Santana created a GoFundMe account shortly after falsely claiming that Rudy Farias, then 17, had disappeared in Houston, Texas, in March 2015.
But what first seemed like a miraculous reunion turned into a horror story after Rudy, now 25, appeared outside a church and activist Quanell X claimed the young man accused his mother of holding him captive and abusing him. of him, which the police later denied.
Despite police confirming that Rudy never disappeared, a woman named Julissa Bravo, whose relationship to Santana is still unclear, created a ‘Donate to Help Find Rudy Farias IV’ page with a goal of $75,000.
Santana was the beneficiary of more than 30 donations and received the funds in 2015, the platform confirmed.
Janie Santana has been accused of receiving at least $2,025 in online donations while her son Rudy Farias was allegedly missing.
Then 17-year-old Rudy Farias, pictured Wednesday, disappeared after walking his dogs in Houston, Texas, in March 2015.
Santana was the recipient of more than 30 GoFundMe donations and received the funds in 2015, according to the company.
GoFundMe has since permanently banned Santana from its services.
‘We are asking for donations so we can offer a reward for information leading us To Rudy…She needs financial assistance as she is understandably unable to work so with her son missing! The bills are piling up and Rudy’s mother’s health has also deteriorated because she is devastated!’ the archived GoFundMe page said.
‘Please go deep into your hearts and put yourself in Rudy’s mother’s shoes… she can’t do this alone! Give her what you can and know that God will bless you and all you do for her! We believe Rudy IS STILL ALIVE AND TIME IS RUNNING OUT!’
In a statement to Newsweek, GoFundMe said: ‘GoFundMe has zero tolerance for misuse of our platform and cooperates with law enforcement investigations of those accused of wrongdoing.
“The fundraiser has been removed from the platform and the recipient has been prohibited from using GoFundMe for future fundraisers.”
DailyMail.com has contacted GoFundMe for comment for this story.
A Houston police department spokesperson told DailyMail.com on Friday that while there is no specific investigation into the donations Santana received, these claims would be part of the overall ongoing investigation into the case.
It has also been claimed that a GoFundMe was set up after Rudy was “found” at church to request money to cover his medical costs and recovery. Social media users shared screenshots of the page and said it was removed after Santana’s story began to unravel. The company has not confirmed this account.
Quanell told the media that Rudy had accused his mother of holding him hostage and sexually abusing him for years, forcing him to “play daddy” and giving him hallucinogenic drugs to keep him under her control.
Houston police also confirmed that Rudy had never disappeared, as was widely suspected after Rudy reappeared last week, eight years after his mother, Janie Santana, claimed he was missing.
But police said Rudy has denied any charges against his mother, despite harrowing claims made yesterday by community activist Quanell X, who said Rudy revealed to him years of abuse at the hands of his mother, who made him ‘play dad’.
Pauline and Michelle Sánchez Rodríguez, Rudy’s aunts, appeared at the press conference Thursday and told local media they were upset with how police were handling the situation and praised Quanell.
‘They’re helping[Santana]They are giving you an advantage. All they had to do was bring her in,’ said one of them. “They say that anyone can do what they want with their children and no one will do anything.”
In an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com on Thursday afternoon after the press conference, Quanell stood by his earlier allegations, saying he believed Rudy was in danger.
“It was crazy to watch the press conference,” said the civil rights activist. ‘The detective heard that young man say that she made him be her husband. The detective heard him say that she told him that now he is called daddy, that she called him daddy when she kissed him on the mouth.
Quanell insisted that Rudy is a victim and that his mother should be charged with a crime.
“I begged them not to leave that child in their custody,” he said.
Rudy’s aunt, Paulina Sánchez, claimed that Rudy is not staying with his mother, who he reportedly wants no contact with after refusing to press charges against her.
A missing person’s note detailed what she was wearing when she disappeared, aged 17, in 2015. It also mentioned that she suffered from depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety.
“I’m going to try to help Rudy as much as possible and I think the DA should press charges against her and Rudy should be removed from her custody somehow, I don’t think he’s safe in her custody.” all.’
Rudy’s aunt Paulina later said she was reunited with Rudy after eight years on Thursday. She claims that despite the neighbors saying they saw him the whole time, the family believed that Rudy had really been missing.
Sanchez claimed that Rudy is not staying with his mother, who he reportedly wants no contact with after refusing to press charges against her.
“He’s a little skinny,” he said. “He’s fine, but he plans to stay away from his mother.”
Quanell said the reason Rudy was found last week was because he stole his mother’s car to get away from her, but he crashed and ended up bloody and bruised outside the church last week.
He said that Rudy had his mother’s two-year-old credit card with him, which proved that he couldn’t have been missing for eight years.
He stated: ‘Based on what that boy told me, I don’t see why she’s not handcuffed right now. He was petrified, but by the time he was there he just calmed down. I think she was drugging this boy.
“He said he didn’t like getting into bed with her, he would try to get out of bed, but she told him it had to be her husband.”
Rudy allegedly said his mother forced him to bathe her and punished him by locking him in a room “over and over again.”
But police said at a news conference Thursday that Rudy had refused to press charges against his mother, and had made no such accusations to detectives when interviewed this week.
Chief Troy Finner said the duo had contact with police since he was reported missing, but said they both provided false names, allowing the young man to go under the radar for years, even as neighbors and family often saw him. .
Last week, when Rudy was located, Santana announced the discovery of his son on Facebook and claimed that he was in bad shape.
She said he had blood in his hair and that he had been roughed up and beaten, sharing photos of him in a hospital bed.
‘Rudy is in very bad shape, he has cuts, soft tissue tumors, small openings and swelling on the soles of his feet, along with bruises, old and new cuts/scratches on his body, old and dried blood on his head and The hair. he has a very, very dark complexion now almost unrecognizable,’ he wrote on Facebook.
“God only knows what he has endured during his time away from home.”
She added: ‘He flinches if you try to touch him or hug him thinking we’re going to hit him. He thinks his name is Julio Torres and he is 14 years old now.’
But after news of his miraculous return broke, neighbors claimed that Farias had never disappeared and was often seen in the neighborhood.
