A then-17-year-old Texas high school student who disappeared while walking his dogs more than eight years ago has been found alive.
Rudy Farias set out on March 6, 2015, to walk his two dogs in north Houston and never returned home, although the dogs were later found, KTRK reported.
“Please continue to keep his family in your prayers as Rudy recovers in the hospital,” the Texas Center for the Missing announced Saturday.
According to NBC News, the last time Rudy’s mother saw him was around 6 p.m. when he went to take his two dogs on a walk near his home. Several hours later, one of the dogs reportedly returned home and the other went back the next day, but Rudy was nowhere to be found.
Family members told NBC that Rudy had been suffering from depression for months. He lost his older brother to a motorcycle accident several years ago.
“He watched his best friend die right in front of him. His brother was his best friend in the world. He’s just gone through so much more than anyone his age ever should,” a private investigator working for the Farias family, was quoted saying on Dateline in 2015.
Investigators warned Farias’s family at the time that he could have been abducted and sold in human trafficking — and they were concerned because he suffered from anxiety, depression, and ashthma, for which he didn’t have his inhaler, KHOU reported.
Investigators have not provided details about when, how, or where Farias, now 23, was found. The Texas Center for the Missing said he is recovering in a hospital.