Family Believed Dead in Civil War After Failing to Find Them
Police Begin Searching Neighbor's House Following Anonymous Tip
A man who went missing at the age of 17 was found after an astonishing 27 years. Among the shocking details, the man was discovered confined in a neighbor's house, shocking the international community. On the 16th (local time), British daily The Sun and other foreign media reported on the disappearance case that occurred in Algeria. The disappearance dates back to 1998. At that time, Omar Bin Omran, who lived in the city of Jelpa in Algeria, went missing while on his way to a vocational school. Omar was 17 years old at the time.
After Omar went missing, his family searched for his whereabouts for a long time. As time passed helplessly, the family eventually assumed that Omar Bin Omran had died during the civil war between the North African government and Islamic rebels that lasted for about 10 years from the 1990s to the early 2000s, and gave up searching for him. Then, on the 12th, the Algerian prosecution received an anonymous tip through the National Gendarmerie branch in El Jadid. The tip stated that Omar was trapped in the basement of a neighbor's house.
The police began searching the neighbor's house located only about 200 meters from Omar's home. During the search, the police found Omar confined under a haystack in the basement. The suspect, the homeowner, was arrested while trying to escape. The suspect is a 61-year-old man known to live alone and work as a public official. A video showing Omar being found in the basement where he was confined spread on social media, becoming a hot topic. The video shows Omar, with straw covering his head, cautiously looking up at the search team surrounding him, appearing startled.
A man who went missing at the age of 17 was found alive in the basement of a neighbor's house where he had been confined for 28 years, British daily The Sun and other foreign media reported on the 16th (local time). The video shows the moment the man was rescued, which spread on social media. [Photo by X (formerly Twitter)]
Omar's mother, believing her son was dead, had already passed away in 2013. The police in Jelpa, a mountainous city with a population of 500,000, stated, "Omar heard the news of his mother's death while he was confined in the basement," and added, "Omar will receive psychological treatment, and the perpetrator will face a strict trial." The Sun reported that this case, with a disappearance period close to 30 years, may be the longest kidnapping case in the world.
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