A man at the centre of a Dutch cold case mystery could be Canadian, officials say. In May of 2023, a man was admitted to an Amsterdam hospital. He had experienced a brain hemorrhage or stroke and was unable to communicate his identity or location. He was diagnosed with aphasia, a disorder that can impact speech, as well as one’s ability to understand spoken and written language, according to the Mayo Clinic. He was unable to provide any identifying information, including his name and where he came from. He had nothing on him that could help with his identification, including bank or ID cards, according to a video released by Amsterdam police. Detectives started looking into his case. While not a criminal investigation, the police wanted to help. In a news release Monday entitled “A whole life, but no name,” police said the man was transferred to a care facility while investigators pursued “every possible avenue,” each of which led to dead ends. A pressing search for family Three years later, a cold case team in the Netherlands is still trying to find the identity of the man they’re calling “Lucky,” a name that came from a clue in the investigation. His case was assigned to two retired police officers who work as volunteers with the team. They describe their investigation as social, rather than criminal. Lucky did get some speech back, but is still unable to provide his identity or communicate much information. Experts involved in Lucky’s care are now saying that the man lacks the capacity to make decisions for himself. The cold case team wonders if Lucky’s family members are worried about him, not knowing where he ended up. His family cannot be notified, because Lucky’s identity remains unknown. A video released in an effort to solicit tips says the man spends his days lying in a bed at the care facility. “They call him Lucky, but who is he?” Clues uncovered so far As investigators try to solve the mystery, they’ve been looking into Lucky’s social life, and uncovered a variety of stories about who the man could be. The retired officers on his case, identified as Ruud and Nel, found in the course of their investigation that the man was a member of a Buddhist community on Middenweg, a major thoroughfare in eastern Amsterdam. Members told them the man went by the nickname “Lucky,” but did not have information on his official identity. Through the investigation, officials have heard stories that he was extremely wealthy, but also that he’d been seen wandering the streets of Amsterdam. He’s believed to have spent some time in North America and Nepal. He was known to attend a public square, where he bought items from shops and market stalls. He was known by a variety of names and nicknames, including Lucky, Louis, Lee, John, Ponytail and Sonny. “Through other sources,” investigators also found the name of a restaurant Lucky occasionally went to, the news release said. What they found there led officials to contact media in Canada. Lucky could be Canadian “We have reasons to believe that this mysterious man might actually be Canadian,” wrote Amsterdam police spokesperson Eline Roovers in an email to CTV News Monday. Among those reasons is that when police went to the restaurant, they were told that Lucky was known there as “Chris the Canadian,” the news release says. Additionally, investigators were told by those who’d encountered Lucky that he always spoke English with an accent that they believed to be Canadian or American. Lucky speaks only minimally, but when he does, he uses English words like “nonsense” and “definitely” to deny or confirm something, police said. “Unfortunately, he is unable to communicate much beyond that.” While his possible Canadian connection is largely unconfirmed, this appears to back that Lucky may not be originally from the Netherlands. It is also unclear how long he’s been in Amsterdam, though it’s possible he has been in the city for some time, prompting confusion from police as to why he has yet to be identified. “I simply cannot believe that nobody knows who this man really is,” the cold case team member identified only as Nel said in the news release. “Isn’t it strange that you could perhaps live under the radar in the Netherlands for 20 years?” In a request for information, police ask anyone who thinks they know Lucky’s identity to contact them.
