“Some people think I'm dead,” he said.
It's been a tumultuous couple of weeks for Mr McKenzie.
When the body of another Shepparton man with an almost identical name was found in Mooroopna on December 30, the alive and well Mr McKenzie's phone went off the hook.
“My daughter was in Torquay when it happened, she sent me texts and rang me up and I said ‘what's wrong’," Mr McKenzie said.
“She freaked out.”
Mr McKenzie said since the discovery was announced, he'd had half-a-dozen texts and calls from friends and family concerned about his wellbeing.
“People keep sending messages saying ‘are you okay, I thought it was you’," he said.
“It's funny when you think about it . . . but it's not really.”
One of Mr McKenzie's clients was baffled to see him alive on a surprise visit after the new year.
“I went in to see him and he said ‘oh, I thought you were dead’, and I said no, I'm here,” Mr McKenzie said.
Ian McKenzie shares the same name as the deceased Ian MacKenzie, with a slightly different spelling.
But before images were publicised of the deceased man, Mr McKenzie said it was almost impossible to tell the two Ians apart.
“There are a couple of us (Ian McKenzies) in Shepparton apparently,” he said.
“I didn't know the man who died but I have met one of the others at a police station.
“They're probably having the same experience.”
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