Quest to identify ‘Lucky’ continues after tip suggesting he could be a missing Vancouver man proves wrong

Composite image: An image from Dutch police of the man called "Lucky" (left) and a picture of John Russell Kenny, a B.C. man who has been missing since 1993. Tips submitted to Amsterdam police suggested that Lucky could be Kenny, but an investigation ultimately determined otherwise.

Dutch police have determined that the man known as “Lucky” is not John Russell Kenny, a Vancouver man who lost contact with his family decades ago.

Lucky has been in care without a known identity since he was admitted to a hospital in Amsterdam in 2023 after suffering a brain hemorrhage or stroke. He was diagnosed with aphasia, a disorder that can impact speech as well as one’s ability to understand spoken and written language. This, compounded with a lack of identification on his person when he was hospitalized, has led investigators to be unable to determine exactly who Lucky is.

Politie Eenheid Amsterdam, or Amsterdam police, appealed to the public for help in the cold case and said more than 500 tips have been received in regard to Lucky’s potential identity, including several from online sleuths believing he may be John Russell Kenny, a Vancouver man who lost contact with his family in 1993, but wasn’t officially reported missing until 2018.

The Kenny tips led to an investigation in collaboration with the Vancouver Police Department, which saw investigators conduct a fingerprint comparison that ultimately did not match.

“It has now been definitively established that Lucky and Mr. Kenny are not the same person,” Amsterdam police said, in a statement Saturday.

“Tipsters have also provided several more specific names of people Lucky may be. Detectives are currently investigating at least nine of these leads.”

VPD Const. Megan Lui confirmed that Vancouver police are not involved in the investigation of these nine leads.

Investigators have encouraged people to continue sharing relevant information and tips with authorities but asked people to “exercise restraint when sharing their own findings on social media or elsewhere.”

“As this case clearly demonstrates, it is not possible to identify Lucky based on photographs alone,” police added. “Sharing conclusions too quickly and on a large scale can have a significant impact on people who may be involved, and the police would like to prevent this.”

Investigators have asked anyone looking to submit a tip to contact them via an online tip form.

“Surely, there must be someone who knows who Lucky is,” Amsterdam police wrote.

With files from CTVNews.ca’s Kendria Mangione and Andrew Weichel