Did Bradford shopkeeper fake his own death? Friends left baffled by worker who reappeared five years after he vanished without a trace

When Ismail Ali left his regular shift at a corner shop in Bradford in May 2020, nothing out of the ordinary emerged.

Colleagues assumed the ‘polite’ and ‘outspoken’ 46-year-old would be behind the counter the next morning as always.

But that modest afternoon, Mr. Ali left work in his red hooded blouse and disappeared without a trace.

As the days turned into months, detectives began to fear the worst, neighbors gradually accepted that he was gone for good, and even his mother in India began to believe that her son had been murdered.

So when the soft-spoken shop assistant walked into a local police station this week – more than five years and just hours after detectives turned a missing person case into a murder investigation – the West Yorkshire city was rocked by a very intriguing mystery.

Where had Mr. Ali – alive, uninjured and apparently unaffected – been all these years?

As the 51-year-old married man returned to the living, the city was abuzz with speculation, with echoes of the legend of John Darwin, the infamous ‘canoe hustler’ who staged his own death and lived undetected for years.

Some insist Mr Ali quietly traveled to the south of England to work. Others whisper that he may have staged his own disappearance or even been living in one of his family’s nearby homes for years.

When Mr Ali got married five years ago when he packed up Gulam Food Stores in Bradford for the last time, it was the last time any of his friends and family saw him. Everyone thought he was dead

There are also rumors that he is wandering around the city in some sort of disguise.

A friend of mine said: ‘Ismail was an ordinary face of Bradford, everyone knew him. It was popular. But then one day he disappeared from the face of the earth.

‘Nobody knew what happened to him. Everyone was talking about it, but no one seemed to know what happened to it.

‘I know you were very stressed before you disappeared. He had problems with his wife. There was a lot of fighting and stress at home.

‘Maybe she finally got fed up and started a new life away from him. Maybe he faked his own death? Nobody knows.

‘One minute he was here, the next he was gone. Everybody’s wondering where he is.’

Police were alerted after tiny Mr Ali did not return home after leaving his long-standing job at Gulam Food Stores in Bradford’s Lidget Green area on May 29, 2020.

A neighbor told a local newspaper four months after the ‘humble’ Mr Ali disappeared: ‘Everyone is talking about it. “We are worried about him,” he said.

Incomplete applications came and went but there was no sign of the bearded shop worker with links to Dewsbury, Batley and Blackburn.

Then this week, detectives with West Yorkshire Police suddenly announced they had arrested five people on suspicion of murder: three women aged 47, 54 and 55, and two men aged 27 and 51.

A strong press release exclaimed: ‘After extensive investigation we now suspect that Ismail Ali is no longer alive and suspect that he may have been murdered.’

But fast forward less than 48 hours and Mr Ali casually walked into a police station reception and told stunned officers: ‘I’m alive.’

A friend, who wished to remain anonymous, said: ‘I think he saw some people close to him being arrested on suspicion of murder and turned back because he didn’t want them to get into trouble.

‘If he thought they would go to prison for killing him, his conscience wouldn’t allow him to continue hiding.’

Businessman Rohan Patel, 59, added: ‘Everyone is wondering what happened to him and where he is.

‘He obviously didn’t want to be found.’

Meanwhile, police are now meticulously uncovering five quiet years and investigating why Mr Ali chose this moment to return.

Even Mr Ali’s mother in India believed him dead. Then last week, when five people close to him were arrested on suspicion of murder, in an extraordinary and surreal development, Mr Ali turned up at a local police station and told them: ‘I’m alive!’

Detectives in Bradford raided three properties, including these two, which were neighboring houses in the city. Police said they launched a money laundering investigation after a large amount of cash was found on the premises.

Their confusion was compounded by the discovery of large amounts of cash in raids linked to the alleged murder, sparking a parallel money laundering investigation.

One of the three houses raided by police was on the same road and just a stone’s throw from Mr Ali’s former workplace.

More interestingly, the other two properties detectives targeted were terraced houses next door.

Their significance is not yet known, but it is a detail that leads to inevitable comparisons with the case of near-dead canoeist John Darwin, who staged his own death to obtain life insurance while living in a bedroom accessed from the family home.

According to a friend, Mr Ali claimed to have been working in a shop in the south of England for the past five years.

West Yorkshire Police said he was not in custody or remand but was ‘protected’.

His former employer, who wished to remain anonymous, worked behind the counter at Gulam Food Stores.

He said: ‘Five years ago this many officers came. One after another. They checked everything.

‘They took our statements’ This time we didn’t know anything about what happened. He lived just across the road.

‘He worked for us for a long time. He was happy here. He’s gone. We don’t know what the problem is.

‘He has now been found safe and sound. That’s the good news. But we don’t know where he went.

‘We don’t even know which police station he entered.’

A neighbor said of the raid on two adjoining houses in Beckside Close: ‘They broke down the door. They were there for three days but they left today.

‘From Monday there were four or five police vans outside the property.’

Another resident said: ‘It’s like he came back from the dead.’

A West Yorkshire Police spokesman said: ‘Detectives investigating the suspicious disappearance of Ismail Ali, from Bradford, in 2020 can confirm that he attended a police station yesterday and reported being safe and well.

‘Officers are trying to understand the full circumstances surrounding his disappearance. ‘

The bizarre police investigation has sparked feverish speculation among Ali’s former neighbors about what he has been doing for the past five years; Some say Ali may have faked his own death

Mr Ali’s family has been informed that he is safe, healthy and under protection while the necessary checks are carried out.

‘Following the arrests on Monday, house searches were carried out at three properties and a large sum of money was seized.

‘Some of the people arrested were released on bail due to money laundering offences.

Investigations into money laundering crimes will continue for a while.

‘Officers would like to thank citizens who shared the appeal for Mr Ali.’