Leandro Almeida of Rio de Janeiro was cleaning out a storeroom at his family's home when a neighbor noticed a tortoise in a box meant for the trash. Turns out, the tortoise was Manuela, a family pet who they thought escaped back in 1982. From Edmonton Journal:

The red-footed tortoise feeds in the wild on fruit, leaves, feces and dead animals, a professor told Brazil's Globo.com, but can go up to three years without eating.

The family speculated that Manuela may have survived on termites while in the house.

"Family finds pet tortoise that was missing for 30 years as they clean out dead father's storeroom"