Missing Texas teenager found alive after eight years | Abroad

Alarmed police and firefighters found the 25-year-old unconscious on the ground outside a church in southeast Houston around 10 p.m. Thursday night. Police spokesman John Cannon has confirmed the disappearance of Rudolph “Rudy” Farias IV.

It’s not yet clear where Farias has been for the past eight years, Cannon said. Police investigators have not yet been able to interview him. Farias is currently hospitalized.

“What we do know is that a Good Samaritan saw him lying unconscious in front of the church and immediately alerted the police,” Janie Santana, Farias’ mother, said in a statement. “My son is receiving the care he needs to overcome his trauma, but at the moment he is unable to communicate with us.”

News of Farias’ discovery was announced in a tweet by the Texas Center for the Missing on Saturday. “This is one of those days that all families of missing persons hope and dream of: REUNIFICATION. We are grateful that Rudy has been found and is receiving the care he needs,” the center said in a statement Monday.

Farias was 17 when he was reported missing on March 6, 2015, after walking his two dogs near his family’s home in northeast Houston. The dogs were recovered, but Farias, who was known to suffer from depression and anxiety, was missing.

Private detective Martin Renteria, who had gone into the missing persons case at the request of the family, was also unable to find him. ,,After a few years, we had to give up,” he said on Monday. He added that he suspected that Farias, who had grown up in the meantime, might have fled and did not want to be found.