Forensic tests rule out missing Canadian as Amsterdams unidentified "Lucky" man
Amsterdam police confirmed on Saturday that forensic testing has ruled out a widely circulated theory that an unidentified man known as “Lucky” is a missing Canadian, John Russell Kenny.
Lucky, who has lived in a care home in Amsterdam Zuidoost for three years, suffered a stroke on May 10, 2023, leaving him with aphasia, a condition that prevents him from speaking, reading, or writing. He communicates only with the English words “nonsense” and “definitely.” Police spokesperson Marijke Stor said Lucky had no identification, no digital footprint, and paid for everything in cash before his stroke. He was a familiar figure around Amsterdam’s Waterlooplein market and the Soep en Zo restaurant.
The initial theory linking Lucky to Kenny, a 67-year-old Canadian missing from Vancouver since 1993, emerged this week after an amateur investigator from Tiel compared photos of the two men using online searches and AI. The comparison went viral and was picked up by international outlets. However, Amsterdam police expressed skepticism early on, noting a 10-centimeter height difference between the two men. Two independent forensic specialists, working with Canadian police, later confirmed they were not the same person .
Police received over 500 tips after releasing Lucky’s photos on Monday. On Saturday, they urged caution in sharing speculative conclusions on social media. “Identifying Lucky based solely on photos is actually not possible, as this case clearly demonstrates. Spreading conclusions too quickly can have a major impact on anyone involved, and the police want to prevent that,” a spokesperson said .
From the tips, police are now prioritizing six missing-person cases, including Kenny’s, as potential matches. Authorities have not disclosed the other names to avoid giving false hope to families. Lucky had ties to Amsterdam’s Buddhist community around Middenweg, but DNA comparisons with missing persons databases have so far yielded no results .
Follow us for live European news
- 4
- 1
- 1
- 1
- 1
- 1
2 further sources not geolocated




