Kevin Michael McGeever was one of Ireland's premier property developers, making millions from investing in the UAE, and had personally prospered from the Celtic Tiger's boom years. He built a lavish, €3 million mansion called Nirvana and drove around in a JT22 Porsche, one of his many cars, the Irish Independent notes. He apparently even had his own helicopter.
However, the 68-year-old disappeared without a trace eight months ago in Galway, causing his family to fear for his life — and his reappearance this week is providing more questions than answers.
According to the BBC, McGeever was picked up by a couple on Tuesday night around 70 miles from Galway, near the town of Ballinamore. He was walking on a quiet country road by himself. Local Sinn Féin Councillor Martin Kenny, who knew the couple that picked him up, describes the strange scene:
"They noticed something on the road and, at first, they thought it was a traffic cone, but he was wearing red trousers."
"He looked dishevelled. He did not know what county he was in, what day it was, what month it was. They noticed he had no shoes."
Various reports suggest that McGeever was wearing a "plastic bag" and had no money on him but a torch and a phone.
The couple then took him to the station, Kenny says:
"They went to the local garda station and they got him tea and biscuits. He gobbled up the biscuits as he was ravenous so they got him some curry chips. They discovered he had been missing for the past eight months and that he was in fact an international high flyer. He was well spoken, intelligent and well educated."
The Irish Independent reports that McGeever told police he had been abducted by armed men 8 months before but cannot remember after that. According to some reports he had an insult, possibly the word "thief", carved into his forehead, though Councillor Kenny told the BBC that there was "no clear evidence of that". One source told the Irish Herald that he had "sustained injuries to his body".
If McGeever was abducted, the obvious questions are: who by and why? According to an Irish Daily Mail source, McGeever has told police that he was abducted because he owed money to "Russian gangsters and the IRA".
However, the woman who found him has reportedly cast doubts upon this story, telling police that he told her it was "mistaken identity" and that McGeever may have "Alzheimer’s or something like that".
The Irish Independent notes that McGeever is listed in legal proceedings in a case being taken against his company, KMM Properties, which began in 2009.
McGeever is now recovering in hospital, where he is being protected by armed guards.
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