Teen who was Missing for 26 Years Re-emerges
He was saved from the basement below his neighbour’s hay-covered floor
Teen who was Missing for 26 Years Re-emerges
A teenager who went missing in 1998 was found alive over the weekend in the cellar of his alleged kidnapper’s home — just 300 feet from his family’s residence in Algeria.
Omar Bin Omran was rescued Sunday from the house of his longtime captor after he went missing on his way to vocational school some 26 years ago, according to Algerian media reports.
Omar, now 45 and with a beard, was saved from the basement below his neighbor’s hay-covered floor in some sort of sheep pen, a video showing the confused-looking detainee posted on social media shows.
His accused captor, a 61-year-old man who lived alone, was taken into custody, according to the Djelfa Attorney General’s Office.
Investigators were reportedly tipped off by the victim’s family after the suspect’s brother suggested his sibling was involved in the kidnapping in a social media post while the pair were fighting over inheritance.
The National Gendarmerie then re-opened the investigation and searched the man’s home until they discovered a trapdoor hidden underneath hay on the floor.
Teen who was Missing for 26 Years Re-emerges
They found Omar behind the door, the prosecutors said.
Omar was taken to a medical center for treatment — both physical and psychological, while the unnamed suspect will go to trial for the “heinous crime,” the attorney general’s office said.
The teen’s alleged abductor has also been accused of killing his dog — seen in photos with him the year he went missing, according to Algerian news reports.
The dog lingered around the suspect’s home for a whole month after Omar disappeared.
Shortly after, the dog’s body was left in front of Omar’s family’s home — and was believed to have been poisoned.
Sadly, Omar’s mother, who never stopped looking for her missing son — one of her nine children — died in 2013, his uncle told Algerian media.
