Child Goes Missing
It all began when 13-year-old Nicholas Barkley left home early in the morning for a basketball match at the neighborhood park with his friends from school. He was supposed to be back by ten - by noon, at the very latest — but that never happened.
Nicholas' mother, Beverly, realized something was off when it was already lunch time and there was still no trace of her boy. However, even though she was deeply troubled, she wasn't all that surprised...
She Saw It Coming
It appears to be that Nicholas had always been quite a problematic kid and he would always get himself into all sorts of troubles. In fact, Nick and his family had a court hearing scheduled for that very same day.
That afternoon, the judge would determine whether or not Nicholas would be sent off to a state institution for juvenile delinquents. Therefore, the boy's mother figured he had simply run away, hoping to avoid the judge's verdict. But what had really happened?
Where's Nick?
Beverly figured that his boy would be back by dinner time, but when the night came and there still wasn't any trace of Nicholas, she really started to panic.
Beverly knew that her son hadn't planned an escape, or else he would've taken some of his personal belongings with him. However, all of his clothes were still in his room and the only thing he had taken with him was a 5-dollar bill. How far would he make it with only $5?
Looking For Their Boy
Beverly reported his son missing to the police the following morning. However, she took matters into her own hands and together with her elder daughter, Carrie, she started looking for him all around town.
"We spent 24 hours crying sick worried. You get mad and you get scared, and then you try to get empowered. Instead of crying, you do something positive and try to work towards the solution, of finding him", Carrie recalled. But no matter how hard they searched, Nick was nowhere to be seen.
Private Detective
The police opened a missing person investigation and San Antonio private investigator Charlie Parker took over the case. Even though he boasted a three-decade-long career, Nicholas' case would be like no other he had ever seen.
The PI immediately ran backgrounds on all the people in town, but this proved of little help. We found no criminal charges of any bad kind, no sexual predators at the time, no people of interest that may have kidnapped or taken the boy", Parker told in an interview.
False Alarm
The weeks passed and there still weren't any leads on Nicholas' whereabouts, but three months later, they received an unexpected call from the boy's uncle, Jason Barclay.
Jason swore he had just seen his nephew trying to break into his house through the garage, but Nicholas had already escaped by the time the police arrived. This was the only lead the police had on Nicholas' case... at least until then.
Giving Up Hopes
The days turned into weeks and then into years, but there still weren't any signs of Nicholas. Eventually, the boy's family started losing all hopes of ever finding him.
"It came to the point where you know you’re not gonna find him alive, but you just wanna find what happened to him", his sister Carrie confessed. However, three years later, Nicholas' case took an unexpected turn...
Shocking News
On October 7, 1997, exactly four years after Nicholas' inexplicable disappearance, the whole city was left baffled by a very surprising news.
The police had found a teenage boy in shock and without ID in Linares, Spain, nearly 7,000 miles away from Texas. The boy spent a few hours without uttering a word, but when he dared speak his name, the police was left baffled.
Plot Twist
When Beverly Barclay heard the phone ringing that very same day, never could have she expected that it would have something to do with her son's disappearance.
However, to her disbelief, the Police Department were the ones calling, stating that Nicholas had at last been found. Apparently, the boy found in Spain had revealed that his name was Nicholas Barclay.
Home Sweet Home
Nicholas’ sister immediately flew to Spain and reunited with his long-lost brother. After being issued an American passport, Nicholas flew back with her sister to San Antonio, where his mother anxiously awaited him.
The Barclays had kept Nick's room just as he'd left it, hoping he would come back some day. Caught up in the thrill of the moment, neither Beverly nor Carrie noticed the truth: that the boy they had just welcomed back to their home wasn't really Nicholas...
A Harrowing Story
Beverly and Carrie were horrified when Nick told them his story. Apparently, the boy had been kidnapped and been flown overseas in a military aircraft by an underground pedophile organization.
According to his story, only three years later did he manage to escape from his pimp. Shortly after making it to safety, he was discovered by the local Spanish police. Beverly was heartbroken at the thought that his son had gone through such a harrowing experience. But was all that story true?
A Whole New Person
As time went by, Beverly and Carrie noticed something was off. To begin with, the Nicholas that had gone missing in 1994 was an aggressive, ill-mannered, blond kid. However, it seemed that Nick had grown into a whole different person.
To the very contrary, the now 16-year-old boy was dark-haired and, above all, incredibly calm. In spite of these stark contrasts both in his looks and character, the Barclays insisted that the boy was their beloved son. But would time prove them otherwise?
Far-Fetched Story
Another thing that struck him was the color in his eyes. While Nick had been born with blue eyes, his eyes were now brownish. As if this weren't suspicious enough, his accent had radically changed. He pretty much sounded like a foreigner!
According to Nicholas, his captors had injected his eyes in order for them to change color. As regards his accent, he claimed that he had been forced to stop speaking English all those years, which explained his French accent. While the story seemed too far-fetched, Nick's family bought it.
They Were Blindfolded
Nick's family obviously realized that their boy wasn't the same as before. "He had changed so much that it was like mind-boggling", her mother admitted a few years later.
However, Beverly and Carrie figured that his behavior had shifted because of all the traumatic experiences he had gone through. If he really was someone else, he had definitely done a great job convincing the Barclay family otherwise. However, the truth would soon be unveiled...
Nationwide Trending Topic
The terrifying story of Nicholas' kidnapping and his touching reunion with his family became a trending topic nationwide. However, not only did it draw the attention of journalists and news outlets, but of investigators too.
Once word came out, the investigators were keen on finding out what had really happened to Nicholas, hoping to catch the culprits. This is when San Antonio PI Charlie Parker got back in the game.
Something Didn't Add Up
Once he began looking into it, Parker started growing suspicious about Nick's side to the story. His eye color was what struck him the most: he really doubted that anyone would go as far as changing a kid's eye color.
Then, one day, when Parker was comparing Nick's old family pictures with his current photos, he realized something didn't add up. There was one remarkable difference between those kids and it was impossible not to notice it...
The Shape Of His Ears
Parker realized that the shape of his ears had very noticeably changed. "we put them in an OB photo shop… people laught about that, but he didn’t have the same ear! Well, he cculdn’t change his ear, a plastic surgeon would have to tear the ear out! So we knew right away we had an impostor", the PI said.
Ever since it dawned on him that Nick was probably nothing but an impostor, Parker became obsessed with unmasking the boy's true identity. But would he manage to do that?
Suspicious Death
A few days later, Nick's case took a dark twist. Apparently, the boy's uncle, Jason, had also started doubting about his true identity, and so he asked to be interviewed by Parker.
However, the day before the meeting they had both scheduled, Jason died from a drug overdose. While there wasn't any proof, Parker doubted it had been a mere coincidence, so he vowed to get to the bottom of it.
The PI's Master Plan
Parker set up a plan: he would befriend the boy, gradually win over his trust, and then use that in his favor to unveil the truth. As he spent more and more time with him, Parker was thrown back by the stark difference in his personality.
Obviously, he knew that a boy's personality can change drastically as a result of a traumatic experience, but in spite of that, he figured it was something more than that. How could such a troubled boy adopted a totally contrasting attitude?
Feeling Cornered
Parker spent weeks subtly trying to get him to confess. "He kept up the pretense. He knew that I knew he wasn’t Nicholas Barclay and he didn’t fear me", Parker insisted.
Then, one day, Parker took the boy out to dinner with the aim of interrogating him face to face. Little did he imagine that the boy, feeling cornered, would finally reveal the truth on the spot.
Mystery Revealed
"My name is Frederic Bourdin and I’m wanted by Interpol", the boy confessed to Parker. After doing some research later that day, Parker realized that the boy was, indeed, telling the truth. That young man wasn't 16-year-old Nicholas Barclay, but a 23-year-old Frenchman named Frederic.
Parker couldn't believe how he had managed to lure his own family into believing he was their son. "I had a guy living in a house that is not the guy he’s supposed to be and the family’s accepting it. That’s unheard of", Parker said. But who was Frederic and why had he pretended to be Nick?
The Man Behind The Mask
Also known as "The Chameleon", Frederic Bourdin was a French criminal and impostor who had spent most of his life adopting false identities by impersonating missing children. After running away from his parents' at a very young age, he would always pretend to be either an orphan or a lost kid seeking shelter.
All in all, he masqueraded as 500 children. "I’ve been more than 500 persons. For 15 years, every week, I had to be somewhere else and someone else", he later confessed. But why had he chosen to pass for Nicholas?
The Frenchman's Fraud
Bourdin was living in Spain and escaping from the police when he heard that a grieving American family was looking for their missing teenage son. After he was told by a Spanish officer that he and the missing Texas boy bore a resemblance, he realized he could easily masquerade as Nicholas.
"I was going to prison in Spain, so I tried to run away, but I couldn’t. It wasn’t a decision. I was forced to do it. It was either that or go to prison", Bourdin said. However, litte did he imagine that he would manage to fool both the Spanish police, the FBI, and, most surprisingly, Nick's own family that long!
The FBI Confirm The Facts
Bourdin was immediately put under arrest by the local authorities and the Barclays were once again left without their son. Later that day, Parker called in the FBI.
The FBI corroborated that the young man that had been living with the Barclays was, in fact, Bourdin. The Frenchman's criminal record as a con artist in Europe was the decisive proof of his evil fraud. However, there would still be one final twist in this harrowing story...
A Spine-Chilling Theory
While Beverly and Carrie Barclay were in shock, Bourdin didn't believe that their sorrow was real. In fact, while still on custody, he put forward a striking and deeply unsettling theory.
According to the Frenchman, the Barclays were the ones to blame for Nicholas' disappearance. "I think something happened inside that house but I can’t prove it". But did he have any arguments to back up his theory?
Had It Been A Cover-Up?
Surprisingly, some people didn't find Bourdin's accusation that implausible. After all, Nicholas' family had struggled with his violent conduct for years and they had called the police because of his behavior more than once. Right before he went missing, nobody in his family could stand him.
According to Bourdin, Nick's uncle, Jason, was the culprit. The man had allegedly killed his own nephew before dying of an overdose, and that had left the Barclays with no choice but to cover up the murder. That also explained why Beverly had embraced Bourdin as her own son despite the fact that Nick was already dead.
Mutual Accusations
Bourdin insists that the Barclays knew he was an impostor from the start. "I knew I wasn’t Nicholas, I knew that they were pretending I was Nicholas, I knew it very deeply in my heart, and I knew they were pretending that I was pretending… it was a never-ending game", he said.
Nick's mother, on the other hand, is reluctant to admit such a thing. "We never thought it wouldn’t be him. Why would we ever think that?", she said. But what did Nick's sister, Carrie, have to say?
Carrie's Side Of The Story
"I know my mother or my brother did not kill Nicholas. Accidentally, on purpose, whatever Fredrick said, it never happened. Why would we pick up a stranger to hid something that didn’t need to be hidden?", Carrie said in an interview.
When asked how she had felt like upon realizing that the man they had welcomed to their house was actually a criminal, she said: "At first the feeling was complete sadness, because it wasn’t Nicholas, which took us back to square one".
Bourdin's Testimony
After being found guilty of fraud, Bourdin was sentenced to prison, where he served for six years. He was also interviewed a few times, both in and outside prison. Among other things, he was asked why he had gone along with the lie for so long. His answer will surprise you!
"I felt I was that person. Because in my mind, in my twisted mind, in my twisted con-artist logic, that’s what they [the Barclays] wanted", he confessed. "I never wanted to harm those people. I’m not evil", he added. But wait a moment, what about the real Nick? Was he ever found?
Many Questions, No Answers
Sadly, Nicholas' body was never found and his case remains unsolved to this day. While Parker never found enough evidence so as to frame anyone for murder, he believes that the boy was probably assassinated.
Without a doubt, this was one of the oddest cases ever seen. While Bourdin was deported to France and sent to prison, Nick's family was left heartbroken, although — as we've seen — they weren't exempt from suspicion. But what's Bourdin up to now?
A Normal Life
After serving six years in prison, Bourdin is now a free man that lives a normal life in France together with his wife and two children. Finally, his only wish is to keep on living as just one man: himself.
While he has left his con days behind, he often looks back on his teenage days escaping the law. When asked whether he was sorry for deceiving the Barclays, he answered: "yes ,I’m sorry for my entire life. Who wouldn’t be?".