Nicholas Barclay vanished from a basketball game near his house in 1994. His parents prepared themselves for the possibility that they may never see their son again, but they had hope of finding him.
Three years later, their son turned up alive and well…
The family were excited upon hearing their son’s voice, but despite the reunion, something was off…
The boy looked nothing like the boy who disappeared.
Nicholas Barclay had blonde hair and blue eyes.
This child had brown eyes and brown hair.
He also had a French accent.
Nicholas told everyone that his eyes changed due to the chemicals his captors used, his hair was dyed, and his French accent developed living in Europe for so long.
The family believed him and accepted Nicholas into their home for 6 months until the FBI took fingerprints and blood samples.
It wasn’t Nicholas Barclay. He was then a 23-year-old con-man, Frederic Bourdin.
After his exposure, Bourdin made claims that the family really knew he wasn’t Nicholas all along, and that they were just putting on a show for the police. He insisted that they killed the boy, and hid his body.
Lies upon lies, he eventually ended up in jail for 6 years…
Bourdin began his impersonations as a child and claims to have used at least 500 false identities, three of which have been of actual, teenage missing people.
Nicholas Barclay has never been found…