EXCLUSIVE: Rudy Farias’ mom is seen on a Harley Davidson and with relatives she lied to for EIGHT YEARS in old family photos – as her sister tells of the moment she first suspected her nephew’s disappearance was a scam
- Mom of ‘missing’ Rudy Farias seen in exclusive images showing her on a Harley Davidson, dancing, socializing with family members she deceived for eight years
- Janie Santana, 55, from Houston, Texas, has generally avoided public attention since her son Rudy’s supposed reappearance, was revealed as a hoax this week
- Rudy, who allegedly went missing on March 6, 2015, after going out to walk his dogs and never returning
The mom of ‘missing’ Rudy Farias is seen in exclusive DailyMail.com images straddling a Harley Davidson, hitting the dancefloor and mingling with the family members she spent eight years cruelly deceiving over the fate of her son.
Secretive Janie Santana, 55, has largely dodged the cameras in her native Houston, Texas, since news of 25-year-old Rudy’s miraculous reappearance was exposed this week as a sham.
But our exclusive images capture Santana as a bubbly blonde partygoer and leather-clad biker babe in the years before she fooled her family into thinking Rudy had vanished while allegedly hiding him at her suburban home.
The photos emerged as Santana’s shaken sister Sylvia Sanchez-Lopez, 65, told DailyMail.com today of the moment she first suspected her younger sibling was pulling a massive scam.
It was around 2016, a year after Santana reported Rudy missing to police, that she and Santana received word that a boy closely resembling him had turned up at a hospital in California.
The mom of ‘missing’ Rudy Farias, Janie Santana, is seen in exclusive DailyMail.com images straddling a Harley Davidson, in her mid-40s
Janie Santana is seen partying in her mid-30s hitting the dancefloor
Janie Santana falsely claimed that then 17-year-old Rudy Farias had gone missing in Houston, Texas , in March 2015
The two women flew straight out to see the teenager but soon realized it wasn’t Rudy, who supposedly left home on March 6, 2015 to walk his dogs and never returned.
Police say he came back the next day but Santana maintained the lie that Rudy was missing until he was found last Thursday outside a church.
‘When I got to the boy’s hospital bed his family had already found him. I said can I please look at his face, just to make sure,’ Sylvia said of the trip to California.
‘Rudy has a mole underneath one of his eyes and that wasn’t there. It broke my heart that it wasn’t him. When Janie came out of the room she seemed to be forcing her tears. I would call them Crocodile tears.
‘All of a sudden she collapsed onto the floor. I was thinking, come on, this is so overly dramatic, this cannot be real. She was a darn good actor. They put her in a bed and she stayed there for two more days getting attention and sympathy from the doctors.
Sylvia Sanchez-Lopez, left, together with sister Janie Santana in the years before she fooled her family into thinking Rudy had vanished while allegedly hiding him at her suburban home
Secretive Janie Santana, 55, has largely dodged the cameras in her native Houston, Texas, since news of 25-year-old Rudy’s miraculous reappearance was exposed this week as a sham
The photos emerged as Santana’s shaken sister Sylvia Sanchez-Lopez, 65, told DailyMail.com today of the moment she first suspected her younger sibling was pulling a massive scam
Sylvia Sanchez-Lopez with late mother Rosa, who died aged 85 in May 2020
Janie Santana’s home in Houston, Texas pictured above
Farias, now 25, was just 13 years old when his big brother and ‘best friend’ Charles (pictured) died in the tragic road accident in 2011
Rudy Farias is pictured as a 17-year-old, when he was was reported missing in 2015. Now 25, police said he was never missing
‘I called my siblings, my husband, I said something is not right. I did not want to be part of that anymore. That’s when something clicked.’
In truth, Sylvia said she had never been especially close to Santana while growing up.
She barely drank while Santana loved to sip margaritas and liquor at parties. ‘She loves to drink. She can get crazy and loud,’ Sylvia said.
‘I went out with her this one time and she made me drink some hard liquor. That finished me off for the night. I still don’t drink now.’
Santana got into motorcycling through her former partner, John Rodriguez, a sheriff’s deputy and law enforcement veteran of 23 years who died in 2007, aged 49.
She also got into serious money issues, including a string of foreclosures and a bankruptcy.
Along the way she struggled with her weight and her blonde hair turned silvery gray.
Relations between Santana and Sylvia would reach rock bottom in the years that followed Rudy’s ‘disappearance’ as they fought a bitter legal feud over guardianship of their mother Rosa who died aged 85 in May 2020.
The mother of Rudy Farias is seen holding a birthday cake in photos given to DailyMail.com
Farias’ older brother Charles died in car accident in 2011
Janie Santana (top left) Sylvia Sanchez-Lopez (top center) Linda Sanchez (top right) Front row L-R Pauline Sanchez, Joe Sanchez and Gloria Sanchez
Rudy’s aunt, Paulina Sanchez, claimed Rudy is not staying with his mom, who he reportedly wants no contact with after declining to press any charges against her
Timeline of Rudy Farias’ disappearance
February 13, 2011: Farias’ older brother Charles dies in car accident.
August 19, 2014: Farias’ father dies of a self-inflected gunshot wound.
March 2015: Farias was first reported missing. He had last been seen along Valley Lake Drive, which is north of Tidwell in northeast Houston.
He was reportedly walking his two dogs when he disappeared. The dogs were later found, but Farias was not.
September 2018: Family members call police to report that Rudy was living behind a relative’s home. Houston police searched the property, but did not find him.
June 29, 2023: A man, later identified as Farias, was found unresponsive outside Immaculate Heart Church near 76th Street and Avenue K in southeast Houston.
July 5, 2023: Community activist Quanell X and Houston Police meet with Rudy Farias at a hotel in Humble, Texas. Quanell X later tells reporters outside the hotel that Farias told him that his mother had been drugging and sexually abusing him for years.
July 6, 2023: Houston police reveal Rudy Farias was never missing over the past eight years and say Farias did not report being sexually abused by his mother.
Sylvia fought to have Rosa move into her home claiming that her living conditions with Santana were filthy and degrading.
According to a complaint lodged in Harris County, the Santana residence was ‘not a clean, safe, or habitable residence for the Proposed Ward [Rosa], adding: ‘The home had animal urine and feces throughout the house.’
It added: ‘Proposed Ward did not have a bed and slept on the couch which smelled of urine. At the time the Proposed Ward last went into the hospital, she had significant bed sores that had gone untreated.’
Sylvia’s petition noted that Santana had previously filed for bankruptcy and said she was convicted of disorderly conduct over the illegal discharge of a firearm in 1994 under her then-name Janie Uresti.
Court records confirm Santana was indeed handed nine months’ probation and fined $100 for the offense.
Churchgoing Sylvia would eventually win the right to have beloved Sanchez matriarch Rosa spend her final months living with her in Katy, Houston.
A photo obtained exclusively by DailyMail.com reveals how she and her four other siblings, Pauline, Joe, Gloria and Linda, put aside their differences with Santana for a 2020 memorial dinner.
That was the last time she and Santana spoke.
Sylvia told DailyMail.com she believes Rudy’s alleged claims of being held as a slave and abused by his mom are genuine.
‘Myself and a lot of people went out looking for Rudy. We put up posters all around town, from corner to corner. I stood by Janie, I truly believed her.
‘Now, I believe everything Rudy says about her, 100 percent. I’m shocked. I’m without words. The police have to do something.’
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