HOUSTON —

The case of a Texas man who was reported missing as a teenager in 2015 and found alive last week at a church took an unexpected turn Thursday when police revealed it all was a hoax — the man was only gone for a day, but he and his mother maintained the ruse for eight years by using false names.

Prosecutors did not file any charges against Janie Santana and her son, Rudolph "Rudy" Farias IV, but the investigation is continuing, Houston police detectives said. They gave a few other details about where they believe the case could lead.

Santana's family said they suspected Farias was not missing and blamed Santana for keeping him away from them all these years.

"We're upset that (authorities) are not going to do anything," Pauline Sanchez Rodriguez, Farias' aunt, said as she and other family members stood outside Houston police headquarters.

Santana did not return a telephone call seeking comment Thursday.

The announcement came a week after police said they found Farias after receiving a call about a person lying on the ground in front of a southeast Houston church.

Authorities had not previously said where Farias spent the past eight years since he was reported missing as a 17-year-old who took his two dogs for a walk near his family's home in northeast Houston and never came back. Now 25, he was hospitalized after police found him last week, and detectives interviewed him and his mother on Wednesday.

Investigators concluded Farias returned home the day after he was reported missing but "the mother, Janie, continued to deceive police by remaining adamant that Rudy was still missing," Lt. Christopher Zamora said during a news conference.

During the past eight years, Farias and his mother had various interactions with officers, police said.

"During these contacts, fictitious names and date of births were given — misleading the officers — and Rudy would remain missing," Zamora said.

After Farias was reported missing, Houston police and Texas Equusearch, a civilian search and recovery team, looked for him without success, although his dogs were later found.

In the years following, there were several possible sightings of Farias, according to a private investigator hired by Santana a few months after he went missing. They included one sighting in 2018 that police responded to, but the investigation remained open as a missing person case.

Rodriguez said her late mother, Rosa Sosa Rodriguez, had been living with Santana and kept telling relatives that Farias was living in the house with them.

"My mom would always tell me, 'Rudy is here ... He's there. He's in that room,'" Rodriguez said. "And Janie said, 'No she's lying, she's losing it.'"

Zamora said Santana claimed the person friends and family were seeing was not Farias but her nephew, but "we disputed that."

Rodriguez and other family members also accused Santana of not presenting an accurate picture of herself to people and of not caring about family members.

Court records show Santana has used at least three different names and was accused of mistreating her mother while they lived together. During a 2020 dispute over her mother's guardianship, Santana's sisters accused her of forcing their mother to live in a home that had "animal urine and feces throughout" and causing her to have "significant bed sores" because she "did not have a bed and slept on the couch."

In a 2011 affidavit filed in a court case in which Santana's marriage was declared "null and void" because a judge concluded she was married to another man at the time, Rodriguez said her sister "has always been a pathological liar. She lies about everything."

Rodriguez said she and other family members have yet to speak with Farias and they remain worried about him.

"I just want him safe," said Sylvia Sanchez Lopez, another aunt of Farias.

But Zamora, with the police department's Missing Persons Unit, said Farias was safe and he had decided to stay "with his mother by choice."

Police Chief Troy Finner said when Farias was reported missing, he was 17 years old, which is considered an adult in Texas. Now in his twenties, Farias is "a grown man," he said.

After police announced that Farias had been found, Santana released a statement saying, he "is receiving the care he needs to overcome his trauma, but at this time, he is nonverbal and not able to communicate with us." She also asked for privacy.

Finner declined Thursday to answer questions about the mental health of Farias or his mother and would not say what might have motivated their actions. He said police are "right at the beginning" of their investigation into what happened.

Police also said patrol officers responded to a burglary call Wednesday night at the family's home and that it is now part of their investigation.

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Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70

BOSTON, Mass. — New moms often have a hard time finding their rhythm when they begin parenthood, and a new study suggests that the pandemic has made it even harder for first-time moms to bond with their babies.

Chrissy Athens gave birth to her daughter Seeley back in February. Both are perfectly happy and perfectly healthy, but navigating COVID-19 with an infant isn't always easy.

"I'm just trying to create as normal of a childhood as I can despite the pandemic," Athens said.

On a recent morning, that bit of normalcy came from a music class in downtown Boston park. It was a chance for parents to bond with their babies. And while finding the right chord for first-time moms has always been tough, COVID-19 has added another layer of uncertainty and stress these last two years.

"I think it was harder when I was pregnant trying to protect myself and her," Athens said.

It turns out the pandemic has really impacted moms and infants perhaps more than most people realized.

Dr. Carmina Erdei and her colleagues at Brigham and Women’s Hospital just wrapped up a year-long study. What they found was many mothers reported lower ratings of infant bonding because of experiences related to COVID-19.

"There are various psychological risks to maternal mental health and well-being," Dr. Erdei said.

Many new moms said they were feeling symptoms of depression through the pandemic, which in turn made it harder for them to bond with their new baby.

"It’s really a vicious cycle. When mothers are depressed, they have a harder time engaging with their baby," she added.

Dr. Erdei and her team are using all this information to help new and expecting moms. Brigham and Women’s is one of the first hospitals in the country working to establish a perinatal mental health program embedded into their NICU. The hope is it will help new moms who are struggling even before they give birth.

"For us, the lessons learned is that it’s really important to screen for postpartum depression," Dr. Edei added.

As for Chrissy Athens, a lot of the pressures she was dealing with during her pregnancy have subsided. These days she's just trying to spend as much time as she can watching her daughter grow up.

"You can only stress so much. I just want her to not feel like there’s a pandemic happening."

LAKEVILLE, Minn. (Video: KARE via CNN) —

Many people opt to stay indoors when temperatures dip below freezing.

Not Jessica Montenegro.

She found a way to make her Lakeville, Minnesota, neighborhood a little brighter.

"We've been loving the negative weather," Montenegro told KARE.

That's because all the snow and ice inspired her to create a colorful igloo with her sons.

Montenegro used food coloring to create ice blocks in cake pans, along with mortar made from slush.

When the igloo is complete, her sons want to eat pizza inside.

"We're going to have the pizza delivery guy deliver it to the igloo," Montenegro said.

Winter doesn't seem to be the only season Montenegro shows off her creativity.

In her neighborhood, her detailed driveway chalk murals "make the neighborhood a nice place to be," neighbor Dale Arlt told KARE.

Montenegro chose to find the positives of subzero temperatures with her newest project.

"It's cold, but at least we have the sun," she said. "I think it's going to be really cool."

ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. —

A Missouri mother’s TikTok video is now at the center of new conversations surrounding access to childcare.

Suited up and with a resume in hand, 1-year-old Mylo Mundwiller joined his mother, 38-year-old Maggie Mundwiller, on her job interview last Wednesday. Mundwiller documented the whole journey with a compilation of videos on TikTok, KMOV reported.

"I knew people would relate to it; I just didn’t quite know how many," said Mundwiller. "Now I think we’re probably [at] almost to 8 million views, which is insane and awesome."

Six weeks after Mylo was born, Mundwiller says she was laid off from her job. Since, she has struggled to find work during the pandemic while also taking care of her newborn.

"A lot of people are not able to pay for the childcare if they’re unemployed even if there is one parent that is employed," she said. "You have so many other bills that you have to pay for."

Mundwiller recently interviewed for a new job position, but then she got a last-minute call to go in for a second interview. At the time, her husband, older son and the rest of her family were unavailable to watch Mylo while she attended. She thought she would have to forgo the opportunity to interview.

"I was just honest and let them know that I wasn’t able to have childcare, so I may need to schedule it for another time. So, immediately their response was, we’re child friendly. So, I just let them know, OK we’ll be there in a few hours and Mylo will be interview ready."

Mylo’s resume, she said, was an added touch.

"Hopefully make a good impression and make light out of a situation that’s a little bit different than what we’re used to," she said.

A January Pew Research study says about half of employed parents with children under 12 say childcare responsibilities have been difficult to handle during the pandemic.

Working women were also more likely than men to reduce their hours and not feel like they were giving 100% on the job.

Mundwiller says this video sheds light on the struggles families like her have faced.

"It feels exciting, it feels scary. It feels wonderful to be able to give people a voice," said Mundwiller. "Hopefully employers all over will start listening to this conversation and read the comments."

Comments all over her TikTok are now calling for more employers to normalize child friendly offices or offering childcare access.

"It’s just such an important thing to continue this momentum to talk about it, hopefully be better as a country," said Mundwiller.

Mundwiller says she did get offered the job and plans to post TikTok updates about it and highlight her journey as a working mom.

"You can tell that there’s just so many people that relate and there hasn’t been a voice for them, and so I feel like finally there’s a voice for people who are struggling in the same way that I have been," she said.

Kelly McGough of Carnegie can't stop thanking her son Christopher. The sixth-grader jumped into action when she went into labor two weeks early at their home.

Before the paramedics could arrive, Christopher helped deliver his baby brother, then got himself to school.

Watch the full story in the video player above.

"I heard her yell, 'I need help' so I rushed downstairs to see what she needed, and the baby was just like coming out. So I had to run up and down the stairs getting towels for her to wrap around the baby," Christopher said.

The newest member of the McGough household, Damien Thomas, couldn't wait until the due date of May 6.

Kelly called 911, and Christopher did too while his mom had her hands full.

"He was like 'Well the paramedics are coming' And I pushed again and kind of just caught the baby and put him like on my chest then 2 or 3 minutes later the paramedics come walking in," Kelly said.

Christopher saw the ambulance arrive at their home.

"It was a huge relief, I just started taking deep breaths," Christopher said.

"He was surprisingly calm for the whole situation that was going on," Kelly said.

"I needed to make sure you were OK, that was all I was worried about," Christopher said.

After he knew his mom and baby brother were going to be OK, Christopher got on the bus.

Tuesday ended up being a big day in a very busy week for the sixth-grader.

"On Monday, Wednesday and Thursday of this week we had a baseball game. So a very busy week," Christopher said.

Christopher, a pitcher, got six strikeouts during Wednesday's game.

Kelly also expressed gratitude for the paramedics who rushed her and baby Damien to the hospital.