An Irish property developer has been found wandering along a country road in a dishevelled state and with an insult carved on his forehead eight months after he was reported missing, police say.
Kevin McGeever, 68, was discovered by a startled couple with a scruffy beard and long fingernails wandering along an isolated road in County Leitrim in the west of Ireland.
He had been reported missing to police near his mansion in County Galway last May, more than 160km from where he was found on Tuesday.
He was very thin and had an abusive word carved on his forehead, although police have not revealed what it was.
McGeever, who made his fortune selling exclusive properties in Dubai, told police he was abducted by three masked men at gunpoint from the garden of his mansion.
Catherine Vallely, who discovered the missing man on Tuesday, said he was just "skin and bones" when she found him.
"He had red trousers that made me think it was a cone in the middle of the road," she told the Irish Independent newspaper.
"When the man got into our car, he told us he had no shoes on. He said three men threw him out of a van," she added.
"The man said his name was Kevin and he didn't realise he was in Leitrim. He didn't even know the month," she said.
"He had a pair of enormous eyes in a very thin face and his cheekbones stuck out.
"He was rubbing his beard with fingers that had long nails. He was very well-educated, well-spoken and polite and articulate."
He ran a successful property company, KMM International Properties, selling luxurious commercial and residential properties in Dubai, mainly to wealthy Irish and British people during the economic boom of the last decade.
McGeever is recovering in hospital in Mullingar, in the Irish midlands.
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