A man who vanished 27 years ago has been found alive in his neighbor’s cellar.
Almost three decades after disappearing at the tender age of 17, Omar Bin Omran, a young man presumed lost to the brutal turmoil of Algeria’s civil strife, has emerged.
Unbelievably, he was discovered mere footsteps away from his family’s abode, concealed within a neighbor’s cellar.
But the truth unfurled as Omar, now 45, was rescued from a clandestine existence, hidden beneath layers of hay in what authorities described as a makeshift sheep pen.
His family assumed he had been killed during the civil war between the North African nation’s government and various Islamist rebel groups that raged for 10 years in the 1990s and early 2000s.
They were shocked to discover the man had been held prisoner just 200m from his home the entire time, in a hole inside a neighbor’s sheep pen.
Per the BBC, the public prosecutor’s office received a complaint against an anonymous person claiming that Omar was in the house of one of his neighbours.
A court official said: “Following this report, the general prosecutor ordered the national gendarmerie to open an in-depth investigation and officers went to the house in question.”
Khaled Rgueb, Omar’s cousin, described the family’s overwhelming shock upon discovering Omar’s survival.
“They found him in a stable, where the suspect keeps his sheep, [the cellar trapdoor] covered in hay, and he was thankfully saved,” Rgueb told Echorouk News.
“I have no information about him but according to what I saw his health condition is good, it is not critical.
“His psychological state is shocked, and more than shocked, he is afraid, especially since he was detained, meaning he is not accustomed to being (outside).
“Omar is still under therapeutic and psychological care at this minute. I see them (his family) in a catastrophic shock.”
According to Algerian media reports, Omar informed his relatives that he couldn’t escape because he believed he was under a ‘spell,’ per Metro.
Footage of his rescue shows Omar looking confused and unkempt.
According to reports, Omar informed his relatives that he had observed them walking past the location where he was being held against his will.
However, he claimed he was unable to reach out to them due to a belief that his alleged kidnapper had placed him under some form of supernatural influence.
El Khabar, an Algerian news outlet, reported that after Omar’s disappearance, his loyal pet dog remained near the neighbor’s residence for an extended period.
The newspaper alleges that the suspected captor eventually poisoned the dog in an effort to discourage the family from continuing their search in that area.
The discovery came more than a decade after his mother passed away, never knowing what had happened to her son.
Per the Evening Standard, a neighbor told Algerian TV station Bilad: “His poor mom died while he was in captivity, without knowing what had happened to him, without knowing that all this time he was really right beside her.”
The suspect, a 61-year-old man, attempted to escape when he was discovered but was restrained and then arrested.
Algerian authorities have since announced that six suspects have been detained, and two others have been placed under judicial supervision, allowing them to remain free while facing trial.
In a statement, Algeria’s Judicial Council said: “A judicial investigation has been opened against the main suspect for the crime of kidnapping and luring a person, detaining a person without an order from the competent authorities and outside the cases permitted by the law, as well as human trafficking of a victim in a status of vulnerability.”
Authorities previously described the crime as ‘heinous,’ and said the investigation was still ongoing, per BBC.
They promised the ‘perpetrator of this heinous crime ‘will be tried with severity.’
Currently, Omar is receiving specialized care as he begins his journey towards recovery.
