Naman Shrestha
When William Burgess Powell disappeared in the 1970s, he was found outside a fast-food restaurant in Georgia decades later in 2004. Diagnosed with amnesia, the police embarked on a mission to identify the man, who remained unidentified for another decade or so. In Investigation Discovery’s ‘The Many Lives of Benjaman Kyle,’ two producers follow the man on a journey where they unravel shocking allegations about his past.
William Burgess Powell Couldn’t Seem to Remember His Name After Being Found in 2004
Hailing from Lafayette, Indiana, William Burgess Powell was born on August 29, 1948, to Furman Powell and Marjorie Powell. As per the documentary, his childhood was allegedly marked by troubles with hoarding, alcoholism, and abuse. His father, Furman Powell, passed away due to a heart attack in 1969, a few years after which he reportedly disappeared in 1976. At the time, William had been living on another family’s property and had abandoned all his possessions, including his car and the trailer he had lived in. After his family reported him missing, the authorities tracked him down to Boulder, Colorado, where he lived with a coworker.
In 1996, his mother, Marjorie, passed away from cancer, while he remained missing. Nearly a decade later, around 5 am on August 31, 2004, he was found behind a Burger King restaurant in Richmond Hill, Georgia, unclothed. He appeared to be badly beaten and covered in ant bites. As the police arrived, they rushed the man to St. Joseph’s/Candler Hospital in Savannah, where he was recorded under the name “Burger King Doe” or “B.K. Doe.” When William was asked some basic questions about his identity, family, and background, he couldn’t remember much. He claimed that he knew how to fix a stove, so he might have worked at a restaurant and possibly lived in Indianapolis and Denver.
William Burgess Powell Became Popularly Known as Benjaman Kyle
Although William Burgess Powell could not remember his name, he knew he was born on August 29, 1948, exactly 10 years before Michael Jackson. Eventually, he was diagnosed with retrograde amnesia. The condition causes the affected person to forget their experiences before the event that caused the amnesia. A couple of weeks later, William was transferred to Memorial Health University Medical Center. Soon, William claimed to have remembered his first name to be Benjaman. Since he couldn’t recall his last name, he chose Kyle to match his placeholder initials, B.K. A charity allowed him to raise enough money to have corrective surgery for his cataracts, about nine months after he was found.
In the following years, he remained unidentified while the police searched their databases to help identify him. Meanwhile, he and his story gained national recognition, and he also made an appearance on a 2008 episode of ‘Dr. Phil.’ Finally, thanks to advanced genealogy and DNA testing, he was identified as William Burgess Powell in late 2015. Thanks to his identification and rediscovery of his Social Security number, William became eligible for employment. According to reports, his employment records up to 1983 were found, but none were found after that. Upon reuniting with his brother, William bonded with him as they shopped for music and ate at restaurants regularly. However, William refused to enter their childhood home.
William Burgess Powell Prefers to Stay Away From the Limelight
The documentary covers the controversial theory that William Burgess Powell may have pretended to have amnesia to escape his past. It has been alleged on the show that he might have had potential connections with a crime syndicate as well as an alleged association with George Keck, one of the prime suspects in the 1977 murder of 19-year-old Kristine Kozik. However, it is imperative to note that none of these theories has been corroborated by law enforcement officials. He claims that he can recollect about 23 memories from the mid-1980s.
During the production of the documentary, when he was driving across the Colorado mountains, he jokingly commented, “If anyone wants to get rid of a body, this would be a good place to shove one off. It’d be years before they found it.” The producers later claimed they noticed alleged inconsistencies in the stories about his past that overlap with three cold cases. Nevertheless, William has never been named as a suspect, nor has he been linked or charged with any crimes. As of today, the 77-year-old is still popularly known as Benjamin Kyle and leads a private life away from the spotlight, somewhere in or around Lafayette, Indiana.
