Missing teenager found alive 8 years later

A 25-year-old man has been found alive after he disappeared eight years ago while walking his dogs near his family’s home in Houston, Texas.

Rudy Farias, then 17, was reported missing in 2015 when his dogs returned home from the walk, and he didn’t.

On Saturday, the Texas Centre for the Missing tweeted that Farias had been found alive, with bruises and cuts all over his body and blood in his hair.

Farias was taken to hospital after 911 was called when he was found unresponsive outside of a church, just a few kilometres from his family’s home.

He remains non-verbal, and nothing is known about his whereabouts for the eight years that he was missing.

"What we do know is at the time of his recovery, a good Samaritan located him unresponsive and immediately called police and 911," the family said in a statement released through the Texas Centre for the Missing.

"My son Rudy is receiving the care he needs to overcome his trauma, but at this time, he is nonverbal and not able to communicate with us."

According to Texas EquuSearch, a volunteer search and rescue organisation, Farias was suffering from depression, PTSD and anxiety at the time of his disappearance.

NBC News reported that years before he went missing, Farias’ brother died in a motorcycle accident.

“He watched his best friend die right in front of him,” Brenda Paradise, a private investigator hired by the family, said in 2015.

“His brother was his best friend in the world. He’s just gone through so much more than anyone his age ever should.”

Tim Miller, the director of Texas EquuSearch, said Farias’ reunion with his family was a 'miracle'.

“How did this happen? We believe in miracles and this certainly was a miracle,” Miller said.

“I can’t even tell you how many times we searched and how many leads and tips came in and they just kind of faded away and now all of a sudden, this.”

Miller said he could never have imagined that Farias was still alive and in the local area.

“In the beginning, we met with the family and detectives out there and we found a backpack. We talked to someone with a catering truck that said they saw him, then there were different possible sightings in different places,” he said.

“I think now there’s a lot of questions. There’s a lot to investigate to kind of see what happened, where it happened, how it happened.”