"After he went missing, we never heard from him or saw him again. "It seemed like he just disappeared off the face of the Earth. "A group of friends we used to share believed he must have emigrated to America, but we weren't sure and we never found out what happened. "Then, when I saw the newspaper articles and photographs last week, I thought, 'Here is a man with the same name as Michael and with strikingly similar features. "I dug out the old photos of him when he was the best man at my wedding and they looked very alike.