A man discovered bare and unconscious behind a Burger King in Georgia in 2004 had spent years insisting he could not remember who he was or how he ended up there.
The bizarre case turned him into one of America’s most puzzling unidentified people after he claimed to suffer from a rare form of amnesia and adopted the name “Benjamin Kyle.”
Highlights
- A man found bare and unconscious behind a Burger King in 2004 claimed he suffered from severe amnesia and lived as "Benjamin Kyle" for over a decade.
- Genetic genealogy later identified him as William Burgess Powell, a man who mysteriously removed his license plates and vanished from Indiana in 1976.
- A new docuseries reveals that Powell put up roadblocks during filming and may have connections to 1970s organized crime and cold cases.
More than two decades later, Investigation Discovery's new docuseries, The Many Lives of Benjamin Kyle, which premiered May 25, has revisited the mystery, as filmmakers believed the story behind the man may be far darker than anyone first imagined.
The mystery behind an unidentified man found behind Burger King claimed he woke up with no memory of his identity
Image credits: Investigation Discovery/YouTube
The mystery began on August 31, 2004, when an employee discovered a middle-aged man lying behind a Burger King in Richmond Hill, Georgia.
Initial reports described him as n*ked, bloodied, and unconscious.
Hospital staff temporarily referred to him as “Burger King Doe,” later shortened to “B.K. Doe.”
When he regained consciousness, the man reportedly claimed he had no memory of his real identity or past life. He later chose the name Benjamin Kyle based on the initials of Burger King.
Kyle believed he may have been born on August 29, 1948, and said he had only a handful of blurry memories of Colorado and Indiana. Beyond that, he insisted he remembered almost nothing.
Image credits: Red Tape Crime Files/YouTube
Doctors eventually diagnosed him with retrograde or dissociative amnesia, a rare condition involving severe memory loss connected to trauma, illness, or injury.
Without identification or a Social Security number, Kyle struggled to legally work, access services, or rebuild a normal life.
His unusual story later drew widespread attention through television appearances and media coverage.
But over time, some people close to the case began questioning whether his memory loss was genuine.
The new docuseries featured filmmakers searching for answers after Benjamin Kyle’s story began to make little sense
Image credits: Investigation Discovery/YouTube
The new four-part Investigation Discovery docuseries, The Many Lives of Benjamin Kyle, follows filmmakers Eric and Shannon Evangelista as they attempt to help Kyle reconnect with his forgotten past.
The series premiered on Investigation Discovery on May 25 and 26 and streams on HBO Max.
At first, Shannon Evangelista believed the investigation would eventually reunite Kyle with loved ones.
Image credits: Red Tape Crime Files/YouTube
“I had this dream that I was going to reunite him with his wife, who was going to be crying as the kids were like, ‘Dad!’” she recalled.
But during filming, the couple began noticing strange inconsistencies in Kyle’s behavior.
According to the filmmakers, he seemed able to remember highly specific details about certain places and events while refusing to visit locations where someone might recognize him.
Image credits: Investigation Discovery/YouTube
“He didn’t want to go anywhere where there was a person who could recognize him,” Shannon explained.
Eric later said Kyle’s condition did not resemble the type of amnesia he expected to see.
“His form of amnesia was a very outdated form of amnesia that you only found in old movies and soap operas,” he said.
According to Eric, Kyle also became increasingly defensive as filming continued.
“When we began questioning Benjaman, he didn’t want to be found,” he claimed. “It became obvious that there were roadblocks he was putting up.”
Image credits: Investigation Discovery/YouTube
The filmmakers said things became even more unsettling during a trip through the mountains of Colorado, where Kyle led producers to a location he claimed to remember from decades earlier.
While standing near a steep drop, he reportedly joked, “If anyone wants to get rid of a body, this would be a good place to shove one off.”
Producer Alexander Block later admitted the comments left the crew disturbed.
“This guy’s sense of humor is morbid,” he said in the documentary. “This guy is starting to f--- with us, and it’s making our crew uncomfortable.”
The mystery deepened further after genetic genealogy finally revealed Kyle’s true identity
Image credits: Investigation Discovery/YouTube
For more than a decade, investigators struggled to determine who Benjamin Kyle actually was.
That finally changed in April 2015 when genetic genealogist CeCe Moore and Parabon NanoLabs identified him as William Burgess Powell, an Indiana man who vanished in 1976.
Powell disappeared from Lafayette, Indiana, after abruptly leaving home in March 1976.
A missing persons report filed by his brother stated that Powell’s car was later discovered abandoned in a rural area north of Lafayette with its license plates removed.
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“To anybody who’s been in law enforcement, people just don’t take the license plates off their car and then drive all night with a friend to Colorado,” retired FBI assistant special agent Ken Maxwell said in the documentary.
“They were fleeing from something.”
The identification solved one mystery but immediately created another.
Investigators still had no explanation for what Powell had been doing between the late 1970s and 2004, when he appeared behind the Burger King in Georgia.
“There’s no paper trail on this guy between 1983 and 2004,” Maxwell said.
Medical records obtained during filming also raised further questions.
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According to Maxwell, Powell’s injuries reportedly did not match the original story that he had been beaten and dumped behind the restaurant.
“There wasn’t a single abrasion or scratch on his body other than the infected ant bites on the soles of his feet, skin mites, and some sunburn,” Maxwell claimed.
Still, experts have noted that memory disorders can be difficult to fully verify or disprove.
Powell has consistently maintained that he suffered genuine memory loss.
The docuseries also explored alleged ties to crime families and unsolved Indiana cold cases
As the investigation continued, filmmakers uncovered claims that Powell may have had connections to dangerous people in Lafayette during the 1970s.
The series explores alleged ties between Powell and individuals connected to organized crime and several unsolved cold cases in Indiana.
One episode specifically examines George Keck, a man once investigated in connection with the 1977 killing of Purdue University student Kristine Kozik.
Both Powell and Keck reportedly worked as janitors at Purdue University during that time. Kozik’s mu*der has never been solved.
“We had a few people tell us that he was a hitman,” Maxwell said. “There were some pretty nefarious characters with criminal records.”
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However, the filmmakers and investigators emphasized that Powell has never been arrested or charged with any violent crime, and no public evidence has linked him directly to homicide or organized crime activity.
Shannon said the biggest unanswered question remains the nearly three decades Powell spent off the radar.
“Families have arguments all the time,” Maxwell reflected in the series. “They don’t run away for 21, 22 years.”
Powell’s current whereabouts remain unknown years after he disappeared again
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According to the filmmakers, they last interacted with Powell in December 2016. Since then, they said he has vanished once more.
“There’s no listing of him,” Shannon explained. “He just went MIA as far as we are concerned.”
Investigators believe Powell may still be living in the Lafayette, Indiana, area, though they have not been able to confirm his location. Maxwell described him as “masterful at laying low.”
The Evangelistas said they are still actively investigating the case and hope members of the public may eventually help fill in the missing years of Powell’s life.
“We want answers,” Eric said. “This is not the end.”
"Intriguing to say the least", the case quickly sparked curiosity among netizens
