From Amsterdam to Canada: Where efforts to identify ‘Lucky’ stand

In Amsterdam, police are still attempting to identify a man who was found collapsed on a street in May 2023. He was later diagnosed with aphasia, a condition affecting speech and language abilities. The man, known as "Lucky," had no identification on him when he was taken to the hospital and was subsequently transported to a care center in Amsterdam Southeast.

Internet sleuths from Amsterdam and British Columbia linked Lucky to John Russell Kenny, a man who went missing in 1994. However, after a thorough investigation, police concluded that the two men were not the same individual.

Despite the lack of consensus on Lucky's true identity, detectives believe he may not have Dutch roots and could potentially be Canadian or American, given his distinctive accent. Members of a Buddhist community in Amsterdam provided this information to the detectives after they discovered Lucky often visited a local restaurant called Soep en Zo.

In August 2026, Amsterdam police released a video on social media seeking the public's help in identifying Lucky, who is also known by other names such as Chris the Canadian, Louis, Lee, John, Ponytail, and Sonny. Within two days of the video's release, over 500 tips were received. Vancouver police confirmed they were also investigating the possibility that Lucky is a missing person from their city, as a man named John Russell Kenny had gone missing from Vancouver in 1994.

However, both Amsterdam and Vancouver police have since determined that Lucky is not the missing John Russell Kenny, as their fingerprints did not match.