JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — For the past 11 years, Benjamin Kyle hasn’t known his real name. On Wednesday, he posted on Facebook that his identity has been found.
Doctors said he had retrograde amnesia after he was found beaten and left for dead outside of a Burger King in 2004 in Jacksonville, Florida, according to WJXT. He had no memory of who he was.
“Evidently, I left Indiana in ’76 and they have not seen me since then,” BK told WJXT. “Of course we haven’t been in communication. They thought I was dead.”
He called himself Benjamin Kyle, BK, for short.
Over time, he appeared on both local and national television shows to see if anyone might recognize him. But, it wasn’t until he received help from a genetic genealogist that he finally got answers.
WJXT reports that a team of people worked on Kyle’s case for more than two years and compared his DNA to databases around the nation.
BK said he will release his true identity once he’s reunited with his family. He said he’s trying to protect their privacy.
“Looking at all these names, all these people, kind of gives me a sense of belonging,” he told WJXT. I have a history. “I’m not just some stranger that materialized out of thin air”
