A convenience store worker in the UK who vanished without a trace five years ago has now shown up “safe and well” — just days after a group of suspects were arrested for supposedly murdering him, cops revealed.
Ismail Ali, who was 46 at the time, disappeared under suspicious circumstances after finishing up his shift at Gulam Food Stores in the northern England city of Bradford in May 2020.
The case went silent for years until police announced on Monday that five people had just been nabbed on suspicion of murdering the store worker.
The suspects — three women, aged 47, 54 and 55; and two men, aged 27 and 51 — were taken into custody after police conducted search warrants on multiple homes in the area, the BBC reported.
“After extensive inquiries, we now suspect that Ismail Ali is no longer alive and we suspect that he may have been murdered,” a West Yorkshire Police spokesperson said on Monday when news broke of what officers described as a “significant development” in the case.
But in a bizarre twist, investigators have now said that Ali had since shown up at a local police station and revealed he wasn’t in fact dead.
“Detectives investigating the suspicious disappearance of Bradford Man Ismail Ali in 2020 can confirm that he turned up at a police station [on Wednesday] reporting to be safe and well,” a West Yorkshire Police spokesperson said.
“Officers are working to understand the full circumstances surrounding his disappearance. Mr. Ali’s family have been notified that he has been found safe and well and is being safeguarded whilst necessary checks are being made.”
Police haven’t released any details on where the missing man has been for the past several years.
It wasn’t immediately clear if the search warrants carried out on Monday were directly tied to Ali’s disappearance or other alleged crimes.
In the wake of the arrests, cops said searches were carried out at three properties and a large amount of cash was seized.
Some of the five people initially nabbed on suspicion of murder are now being held on bail for money laundering offences.
“Enquiries will remain ongoing for some time into the money laundering offences,” a police spokesperson said.
