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'Murder victim' found alive in woods after going missing five years ago

Ricardas Puisys has been found after going missing for five years in a bodiless murder investigation. (Cambridgeshire Police)
Ricardas Puisys has been found after going missing five years ago. (Cambridgeshire Police)

A man who police feared dead has been found alive in the woods after going missing nearly five years ago.

Detectives in England launched a murder investigation in November 2015 after Ricardas Puisys, a Lithuanian who was 35 at the time of his disappearance, was not seen for a number of weeks.

Police were told he was being exploited and had moved addresses in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire. The last confirmed sighting of him was at work in late September 2015.

He was believed to have been in the company of a small group of Lithuanian men the same day he went missing.

It emerged late last year that messages and photos were being posted on Ricardas’s Facebook page and police began appealing for witnesses as they tried to find him.

Puisys was located living in a wooded area. (Cambridgeshire Police)
Puisys was located living in a wooded area. (Cambridgeshire Police)

Potential sightings were recorded in Wisbech and King’s Lynn, Norfolk.

Last year, DCI Adam Gallop of the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Major Crime Unit said the disappearance was a “complete mystery” and that one person had been arrested on suspicion of murder but not charged.

Police received information in June that led to officers finding him in a wooded area in Wisbech.

DCI Rob Hall said Ricardas was “eventually found living in undergrowth, very well concealed after having deliberately hidden and having not spoken with anyone for some time.

“We made the decision not to publicly announce we had found Ricardas alive until now in order to protect him and put safeguarding measures in place.

“He is safe and we are working very closely with him to ensure he remains safe, but also to ensure he gets the support he needs after having lived through extremely difficult circumstances during the last five or more years.”

An investigation into Ricardas’s potential exploitation has been started.

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