In August 2004, employees behind a Georgia fast-food restaurant found a sunburned, unconscious man with no clothes and no memories. For over a decade, this man lived without a name, a past, or a Social Security number, relying on the alias “Benjaman Kyle.”
The search for his true identity baffled law enforcement and medical professionals, leading to national television broadcasts and widespread internet campaigns. Ultimately, the emerging science of genetic genealogy uncovered a bizarre history that involved decades of missing time, an abandoned family, and a past he had entirely forgotten.
The Discovery of Burger King Doe
On August 31, 2004, workers at a Burger King in Richmond Hill, Georgia, discovered a naked man lying next to their dumpsters. Emergency responders rushed him to a Savannah hospital, where he was admitted as “Burger King Doe.” He carried no identification, and local police found no missing persons matching his description.
Eventually, he recalled the first name “Benjaman.” Adapting his hospital initials, B.K., he adopted the surname “Kyle.” Suffering from cataracts, Kyle finally received corrective surgery months later. Looking in a mirror, he was shocked to discover he was roughly twenty years older than he had believed.
Living Off the Grid in Florida
Psychologists diagnosed Kyle with dissociative amnesia in 2007. Because he could not provide a Social Security number, he could not secure traditional employment or government assistance. He experienced years of homelessness, bouncing between shelters and medical facilities.
Eventually, he relocated to Jacksonville Beach, Florida, where a local restaurant owner hired him as a dishwasher. A benefactor provided him with a small, five-by-eight-foot air-conditioned shack to live in while advocates petitioned the government to issue him a new identification number.
Unlocking a Forgotten Past
Despite national media coverage, his identity remained a complete mystery until 2015. A team of adoption researchers and forensic genealogists utilized DNA testing to trace his ancestry. The genetic data linked him to a family in the western Carolinas. On September 16, 2015, Kyle announced on social media that investigators finally knew who he was.
The Real William Burgess Powell
Records confirmed Benjaman Kyle was actually William Burgess Powell, born in Lafayette, Indiana, on August 29, 1948. Investigators discovered that Powell had abruptly abandoned his family, his car, and his home back in 1976. Police at the time tracked his relocation to Boulder, Colorado.
Employment records showed he worked various jobs until 1983. After that year, all official traces of Powell vanished completely until his sudden reappearance behind that Georgia restaurant in 2004. While recent television programs alleged he staged the memory loss to escape his past, his two-decade disappearance remains a documented historical fact.