Feeling Lost
Benjaman Kyle suffered from an uncommon condition which made him forget who he really was. One day, he went to Dr. Phil''s TV program.
You can easily tell by paying close attention to him that he was uncomfortable and seemed to be lost. The truth was that he felt lost all the time.
A Strange Case
The case of Benjaman is incredibly weird. He couldn't remember anything about his past, so he didn't know who he really was.
His name, home, family... everything was erased from his mind. In 2004 a Burger King employee saw Benjaman lying down next to a dumpster.
Taken To Hospital
The employee called the police and Benjaman was hospitalized. The police reported that he was homeless and waited for the medical report to close his case.
Doctors evaluated him and found out that he was in good physical health, but he had a problem with his mind.
Mental Institution
When Benjaman was interrogated by doctors, he went mad. He didn't want to talk nor eat, and started saying that doctors were demons. He asked to see a priest and later called him an impostor.
Doctors diagnosed the man with catatonic schizophrenia, so he was taken to a mental institution. In there, he was interrogated but he couldn't give any answers. Benjaman was completely lost.
Vague Memories
Benjaman only had vague memories of his past. He guessed that he was from Indianapolis and that he had brothers, though he couldn't remember their names.
His mind was empty, except for one thing: his birth date! Benjaman said he was born in August 29, 1948. However, doctors thought he was faking his amnesia.
Homeless Shelter
He was called "B.K. Doe", since he was found at Burger King without knowing his identity. He later made up his mind and said his name was Benjaman, with two As.
Kyle was his chosen surname. After a couple of weeks, doctors declared him sane and sent him to a homeless shelter in Georgia, the place that became his home and work.
Hard Worker
Benjaman worked very hard in the shelter and nurses liked him. One nurse named Katherine Slater was particularly interested in finding his true identity.
But Benjaman was not interested at all. Instead, he spent his free time reading science-fiction and fantasy novels.
Obsessed With The Truth
Katherine was desperate to find the true identity of Benjaman. His picture was on the Internet and even on TV, but no one recognized the poor man.
One day Dr. Phil called Katherine, so they both went to LA to see if his appearance on live TV could spread the word to his family and friends.
Striking Detail
There was something that Benjaman said on TV that caught everybody's attention. He had gone through cataracts surgery.
When it was over, he looked himself in the mirror and expected to see a 30-year-old man, but he saw an older man. A striking narrative. After the show, no one called him back. Benjaman started losing hope.
Detective Colleen Fitzpatrick
Benjaman lost his job at the shelter and started mowing lawns to earn money. That's when detective Colleen Fitzpatrick arrived.
As Benjaman didn't have a social security number, he practically didn't exist for the government. Colleen came with a new idea: she wanted to analyze Benjaman's DNA differently.
DNA Results
Colleen was able to compare Benjaman's DNA with a private database, different from the FBI's. As a result, she found out that Benjaman shared characteristics with a family.
She immediately contacted the family, but it was too late -Benjaman took off. He left Georgia and moved to Florida.
New Life
Benjaman started working in Crazy Fish, a restaurant where he was in charge of washing the dishes. After several months, the restaurant closed down.
At that point he had completely lost hope, when he suddenly got a phone call. It was genealogist CeCe Moore, the woman who found his true identity.
Meet William Brent Powell
His real name was William Brent Powell and he was from Lafayette, Indiana. His brother Furman immediately contacted Benjaman/William to tell him the story of the Powell family.
The Powell family had searched for William for years, but thought he was dead. William headed back home to meet his family again. He was both nervous and excited.
Back To Where He Belonged
William chose to stay with his family in Indiana, in order to make up for so many lost years. Once he was settled, flashbacks of his past started coming back.
"I said all along that I wasn't an axe murderer. And, so far, I've heard nothing to contradict that," he said.
Happy Ending
William feared that some bad memories would come back, which wasn't good at all. He knew that one day everything would come back to his mind.
At least he had a happy ending, contrary to what happened to Nicholas Barclay, a troubled boy living in Texas.
Troubled Boy
Nicholas was always in trouble. Once he had a court hearing because of his disturbing behaviour, but he never appeared in court.
The previous night he went to play basketball with his friends, and that was the last time that Nicholas was seen.
He Is Missing
His parents first thought that he ran off to avoid any court proceeding. However, he never came back home.
They reported to the police the disappearance of their son and the authorities started an investigation. Unfortunately, the police didn't find anything that could lead to the missing boy.
We Found Him
The Barclay family were hopeless. Three years later, they received a phone call from the police: they found Nicholas!
He was living in Spain. Nicholas was given a phone to communicate with his parents. Later on, he was sent back to his home in Texas.
Nicholas Was Different
Nicholas said he was kidnapped and sent to Europe, where they sold him. Eventually, he managed to scape from that horror, and that's when the police found him. Such a shocking situation would certainly affect a person's behavior.
His mother realized that his hair and his eyes were different, but Nicholas said that he had his hair dyed by his kidnappers. They also changed his eye color so he was unrecognizable.
Detective Into The Scene
Even though he wasn't the same Nicholas, his family was happy that he returned home. But a private detective, Charlie Parker, started digging into Nicholas' case.
He didn't buy the story that Nicholas had his eye color changed. Besides, if such story was true, Parker believed that he wouldn't be as relaxed as he was.
New Discovery
The detective had a close look at pictures of Nicholas before and after he disappeared. That's when he found something really interesting: the ears were totally different!
It's impossible that ears change in three years. So, who was the person pretending to be Nicholas Barclay?
True Identity
This person, who called himself Nicholas Barclay, was Frederic Bourdin. He was a 23-year-old Frenchman who pretended to be 16 years old. Interpol was looking for him, they even gave him a nickname: "The Chameleon".
Interpol was after Frederic because he had impersonated missing children hundreds of times.
Desperate
Detective Parker told the truth to Nicholas' parents, who were in shock. How can a person do such a thing? How couldn't they even notice such a deceit?
Frederic fooled the whole family, who thought that his son had finally come back home.
New Story
The first person to notice that Nicholas wasn't Nicholas was uncle Jason. Unfortunately, he passed away after being interviewed by the police.
When interrogated, Frederic revealed that the Barclay family knew he wasn't Nicholas, but pretended otherwise to cover up for Nicholas' murder.
Unsolved Mystery
As crazy as it may sound, detective Parker started an investigation based on Frederic's accusations. He truly believed that the Barclay family was hiding something.
However, he couldn't find evidence of a murder. The family denied such accusations, but Parker never believed them.