Texas man Rudolph "Rudy" Farias' missing person's case was suspicious from the outset, with his mom, Janie Santana, repeatedly lying to the private investigators she'd enlisted to find her son, according to a report.
Four detectives told the Insider and other outlets Janie Santana's story about Farias, whom she reported missing in 2015 when he was 17, never added up.
"There's something dark and dirty here," investigator Brenda Paradise told NBC's "Dateline" in one of the earliest stories about Farias' supposed disappearance eight years ago.
Farias, now 25, seemed to have miraculously materialized outside a church in southeast Houston June 29, but a police investigation revealed he was never actually missing.
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At a press conference Thursday, Houston Police said Farias returned home one day after he was reported missing, and that Santana had actively deceived law enforcement about his whereabouts for years.
Although police said Santana had clearly committed crimes by lying to investigators, they didn't plan to charge her.
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The saga grew even stranger with community activist Quanell X telling reporters Farias alleged in the presence of Sgt. Stephen Jimenez he had endured years of sexual abuse at his mother's hands.
At the press conference, Jimenez denied that Farias ever made this claim in his presence. The Houston Police Department declined to directly comment on Quanell X's allegation.
Paradise, who was part of a network of search-and-rescue volunteers, said there were red flags from the outset.
Santana allegedly gave investigators her son's wrong date of birth, and missing person flyers had be redone. She also wouldn't provide any recent pictures of Farias.
"She told me that she though if he looked younger, there would be more empathy," Paradise told the news outlet.
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Searchers found an asthma inhaler and a backpack at the scene of the disappearance, and Santana said they belonged to Farias.
"Rudy never even had asthmas," Paradise said. "The backpack had some elementary school kid's homework inside it, and that wasn't Rudy's either."
Paradise said she's stunned he could have been living at home all this time. "There were freakin' billboards in Houston," announcing he was missing, she noted.
"I just don't trust anything that comes from that family."
Ryan Grayson, another private investigator on the case, said Santana had claimed a woman was holding Farias hostage in Mexico. He contacted the supposed trafficker.
"She said that Rudy's mom had talked to her," he recalled. "She said, ‘I told Janie I didn't want to be involved in her scam.'"
After that, he bowed out of the investigation. "I've got a strong feeling he was a victim," Grayson added. "I know he was special needs. It's a pretty sad situation."
Husband-and-wife investigators Barbara and Martin Renteria also worked on the case.
"She had us searching from Mexico to Louisiana," Barbara said of Santana. "All of it was a lie."
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Quanell X told Fox News Digital "the police had failed" Farias.
"That detective heard every word that Rudy said about being violated in the shower, about his mother making him play husband and calling him daddy," Quanell said.
Farias' father, who worked as a cop in the traffic enforcement division of the Houston Police Department, allegedly killed himself in a patrol car in 1993, according to Quanell X. A newspaper report corroborates the suicide.
"The police are trying to protect one of their own," he said of their decision not to charge Santana or ackowledge Farias' sexual assault claims.
Santana's checkered past includes her ex-husband, Gilbert Quiroz, accusing her of bigamy.
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The pair tied the knot in 2012 when the Air Force veteran was stationed in Tucson, Arizona, but one year later, he filed a petition for an annulment in Harris County, Texas, court records show.
He said he'd learned she was legally wed to at least one man and had four other possible husbands, according to a petition obtained by Fox News Digital. The annulment was granted.
Santana didn't immediately return a request for comment.
