A man who disappeared 26 years ago when he was about 18 or 19 has now been found alive just 300 feet from his family’s home in a neighbor’s basement.
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According to the New York Post via Algerian media outlets, a man named Omar Bin Omran, who went missing in 1998 around 18/19 years old, was found alive last weekend in the cellar of his alleged kidnapper’s home that sits only 100 yards from his family’s home in Algeria.
Reportedly, before the missing man was rescued on Sunday (May 5) from the home of his longtime captor, he went missing nearly 27 years ago when he was on his way to vocational school. Omran, who is now 45 years old and possesses a long beard, was saved from his neighbor’s basement, which sat below a hay-covered floor in an apparent sheep pen.
As the man was being rescued, a video was being recorded and showed him looking completely confused. Meanwhile, the alleged captor, a 61-year-old man who lived alone and was previously accused of killing Omran’s dog, was taken into police custody, according to the Djelfa Attorney General’s Office. It’s reported that after Omran’s disappearance, his dog would linger outside the suspect’s home until it went missing for a month. Shortly after its disappearance, the dog’s body was found in front of Omran’s family’s home, believed to have been poisoned.
The Attorney General’s Office also revealed that investigators were reportedly tipped off by the suspect’s brother. It’s reported that the two were fighting over inheritance on social media and the suspect’s brother suggested that he was involved in Omran’s kidnapping in a post.
The victim’s family member saw the post and alerted law enforcement, which led to the National Gendarmerie reopening Omran’s investigation; during which the 61-year-old man’s home was searched and revealed a trapdoor hidden underneath hay on the floor was discovered.
After being rescued from his neighbor’s basement, the man who had disappeared was taken to a medical center for both physical and psychological treatment. Meanwhile, the unnamed suspect has been arrested and will go to trial for the “heinous crime,” per the Attorney General’s Office. It’s also revealed by Omran’s uncle, that his mother, who never stopped looking for her missing child, died in 2013.
It’s said that the victim’s mother, who had nine children including him, always believed in her heart that he was still alive. Her last wish was, “Please, do not stop searching for Omar. I am sure he is still alive.” The victim reportedly told family members that he would sometimes see them walking via a window in his captor’s home. However, he said he was unable to yell or call out to them as if he was under some sort of spell.
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