The kidnapper’s house was about 300 feet from the home of the Algerian, who had been kidnapped as a teenager and locked in a cellar for almost thirty years.
On Sunday May 12, Omar Bin Omran was released from the home of his long-time kidnapper, his own neighbor who lived not far from his family’s home in Djelfa, Algeria.
After Omar was discovered living in the 61-year-old homeowner’s basement, under a hay-covered floor in what appeared to be a sheepfold, images of the rescue of the victim, now aged 45, went viral.
After 27 years missing since the age of 17, a man was discovered captive in his neighbor’s cellar.
The Djelfa public prosecutor’s office issued a statement, quoted by The Sun, saying, “The Djelfa public prosecutor’s office informs the public that it found the victim Omar B., aged 45, in the cellar of his neighbor, B.A., aged 61, on May 12 at 8pm local time.”
The victim disappeared without a trace on her way to a vocational school. She would have been only 17 years old.
Omar, the eldest of nine siblings, disappeared and was thought to be dead. The family came to believe that the teenager had died during Algeria’s civil war between the government and other Islamist rebel factions, after a search was conducted for him.
Man who disappeared 27 years ago found in neighbor’s basement