A man from Ruse, Bulgaria, vanished without a trace in 2008. With no news for years, authorities eventually declared him officially dead in 2013.
Seventeen years after he disappeared, park rangers in Pirin National Park stumbled upon an illegal tent in a restricted area. Inside, they found a man living as a hermit, wary and without any identification.
Police soon confirmed he was the same man who had been declared dead twelve years earlier. He had been living completely off the grid, voluntarily isolated and self-sufficient.
While he now faces a fine for illegal camping, the case raises serious questions about gaps in missing-person procedures and how he managed to remain invisible for nearly two decades.
