The Missing Person Living in Savannah

Benjaman Kyle, pictured above, is missing.

Benjaman Kyle also lives in Savannah, Georgia.  If you had his address, you could go visit him, and he’d be there, doing whatever he does each day.

But if you go to the Doe Network, an organization which helps locate missing people, he’ll be there.  In fact, his case file is 1007UMGA and can be seen here.  But unlike most everyone else in the Doe Network’s database, Kyle is not in there because no one knows where he is — but rather, because no one knows who he is.

On August 31, 2004, Kyle was found unconscious behind a Burger King, near a dumpster.  He was naked, beaten, and bitten by fire ants.  His wallet and ID were gone — as was much of his memory.  He could not recall any of the events of the past twenty years.  He did not know what his name was, where he was from, and did not even recognize his own face.   The mystery man adopted the name “Benjaman Kyle” in part because the initial — B.K. — are also Burger King’s.  He believes that his true first name is “Benjaman” (with the curious spelling) and therefore uses that name, but there is little to no evidence that he is correct.

His memory is shattered, but over the course of the last few years, he and others have pieced together some likely information about his life before the summer of 2004.  He recognizes certain landmarks from Indianapolis, Indiana, which others have used to conclude that he lived in the area sometime in the late 1950s to early 1960s.   His spotty but detailed recollection of certain parts of the University of Colorado, Boulder library and other locations around the campus strongly suggests that he attended the University in the late 1970s or early 1980s.  Together, this makes him approximately 60 years old.

Kyle also has extensive knowledge of how the restaurant and food preparation business works, including how to operate the machinery.  (While he lost his memory, many of his acquired skills remain intact.)  Unfortunately, because he cannot remember his Social Security number — and does not have any ID with which to get it re-issued — he cannot gain legal employment.  (Why there hasn’t been an exception made for his situation is anyone’s guess.)

If you have information about Mr. Kyle’s true identity, you can contact FBI agent Bill Kirkconnell at 912-232-3716.

Update (September 2017): He knows who he is now. Read more, here.

Bonus fact:  Ben Pridmore of England is a memory champion.  He can memorize the order of multiple decks of playing cards in a matter of minutes and once memorized the order of 27 decks of cards — 1,404 cards total — with only an hour of study.  But most incredibly, Pridmore once committed to memory the correct order of a single deck of cards — in 26 seconds.

From the Archives: The Bourne Identity: Not Jason, but Ansel Bourne, and his strange failure of memory.

Related: “The Memory Book: The Classic Guide to Improving Your Memory at Work, at School, and at Play,” by Harry Lorayne.  4.5 stars on 120 reviews.  Not available on Kindle.