A teenager who disappeared in 1998 was discovered alive over the weekend in the basement of his suspected abductor's home, located just 300 feet from his family's home in Algeria. Omar Bin Omran, who vanished 27 years ago on his way to vocational school, was rescued on Sunday from the home of his longtime captor, according to reports from Algerian media.
Omar is believed to have disappeared in the city of Djelfa in Algeria. His family believed he had been killed during the deadly civil war between the North African nation's government and a number of Islamist rebel groups, which lasted for 10 years in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Nothing Less Than a Miracle
The missing man was found in his neighbor's house, less than 200 meters from his family's home. A 61-year-old is now in police custody after Omar, now 45, was rescued on May 12, according to the Djelfa Attorney General's Office.
Footage shared on social media and broadcast on Algerian television networks showed the moment he was found in what appeared to be a hole in the ground, described by authorities as a sheep pen, within the home of his alleged kidnapper.
Investigators were reportedly tipped off by the victim's family after the suspect's brother suggested in a social media post that his sibling was involved in the kidnapping while the pair was fighting over inheritance.
The National Gendarmerie then reopened the investigation and searched the man's home, eventually discovering a trapdoor hidden beneath hay on the floor.
Prosecutors said that they found Omar behind the door.
Operation Omar Successful
The blurry video shows torchlights shining into a pit surrounded by hay, where Omar looks up in shock at the search party surrounding him, with stray pieces of straw in his hair.
Other images circulated since then show the bearded man emerging from the hole, believed to be a sheep pen, and photos of him as a teenager, sitting with a dog and young children before he disappeared.
Omar was taken to a medical center for both physical and psychological treatment, while the unnamed suspect will go to trial for the "heinous crime," according to the attorney general's office.
Algerian news reports also indicate that the teen's alleged abductor has been accused of killing Omar's dog, which was seen in photos with him the year he went missing.
The dog lingered around the suspect's home for a month after Omar disappeared.
Shortly afterward, the dog's body was found in front of Omar's family's home and was believed to have been poisoned.
Tragically, Omar's mother, who never stopped searching for her missing son—one of her nine children—died in 2013, his uncle told Algerian media.
While other family members believed he had been killed during the country's civil war in the 1990s and early 2000s, his mother always felt 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," according to reports.
The victim reportedly told family members that he would sometimes see them walking by through a window in his abductor's home, but he was unable to speak or call out to them—feeling as if he were under some kind of spell, according to Algerian news articles.
