‘They want to arrest me’ for ‘hiding him’

The mother of long-assumed-missing Texas man Rudy Farias has admitted that she expects to be busted for hiding him — as a cousin says she even called cops five years ago to report him still living at home.

Janie Santana was filmed by neighbors as she chatted calmly outside her Houston home late Tuesday about her 25-year-old son, who was found bruised and unresponsive outside a church last week, more than eight years after he was reported missing.

She suggested that she was being made a scapegoat over her son, who was just 17 when he was declared missing in March 2015 — and whom she’s been accused of abusing.

“When he first went missing, he didn’t report it to the police. And they’re trying to say he might have done some crimes — which he didn’t,” the mom told her neighbors in the clip obtained by KPRC 2 without elaborating on the accusations.

“And now, they want to arrest me because they said I was hiding him,” she said.

Community activist Quanell X has alleged that the mom kept her son trapped while abusing him, making him “play daddy.”

Houston Police confirmed late Wednesday that they had spoken to Farias and his mom about the case, without elaborating on what was said.

A cousin of Farias told KPRC 2 that the family knew he had been at home — and even reported it to the police.

“We always in our hearts knew that he wasn’t really missing,” Cassandra Lopez told the outlet of her family’s “shock” at his supposed reappearance.

Lopez said she called 911 in 2018 to report that her cousin was at home. That coincides with a date police said they got such a tip, which they responded to but never found Farias.

The cousin said their grandmother also reported regularly speaking to Farias, whom neighbors knew as Dolph.

“She would just say, ‘I saw Rudy — he came to check on me and we said hello and had a little conversation.’ She never went into detail, detail but she would say she saw him,” Lopez recalled.

Cops responded to her 911 call but never found him, she confirmed. Farias was found unresponsive outside a church with cuts and bruises last Thursday.

Quanell, the activist, claimed Farias was hurt after stealing and then crashing his mother’s car to avoid her abuse.

Houston police promised an update in the case later Thursday.