This is a strange but true story of Nicholas Barclay. In 1994, Nicholas Barclay went missing. This wasn’t alarming to his family because the 13-year-old boy was fond of disappearing after doing wrong to escape punishment.
In 1994, he was last seen playing a basketball game with his friends at the park in the neighbourhood. His parents didn’t report him because he was a troubled kid and had a court hearing the day after his disappearance to decide if he would be sent to a home for juvenile offenders.
After a while, it became even more obvious that something was off. He only had $5 with him at the time of disappearance and he hadn’t taken any clothing. His family realized that if he had preconceived the disappearance, some of his personal items would be missing but none of his belongings was unaccounted for.
Soon enough, a missing person investigation was opened but there was no clue as to where Nicholas had gone or the chances of finding him. A few months later, Jason Barclay, Nicholas’ uncle called. He claimed that he saw Nicholas attempt breaking into his garage but he fled.
Three years later, the Barclay family received a call that Nicholas had been found in a Spanish village. They then flew him back to be reunited with his family. The family was overjoyed at his return that they didn’t notice the inconsistencies with his looks and character.
The blue-eyed, blond-haired Nicholas that went missing, returned as a dark-haired, brown-eyed boy of 16 with a very calm personality to contradict his previously unruly attitude. His parents, however, maintained that the returned person was their Nicholas.
Nicholas, on the other hand, had an answer to every question and soon enough was able to convince everyone that regardless of the differences, he was the same person.
A private investigator, Charlie Parker remained suspicious and his investigation led him to discover that the imposter wasn’t Nicholas Barclay, but a Frenchman named Frederic Bourdin.
Frederic Bourdin, known as “The Chameleon” by Interpol, was a French criminal and serial imposter. He spent his life impersonating missing children and creating false identities and names. He’d been wanted by Interpol for several years and was believed to have used about 500 false identities.
He was arrested by the police but he wasn’t one to go down without a fight. He proposed that the Barclay family had a hand in their son’s disappearance. He went further to say that either one or all of the Barclay family members had murdered Nicholas and adopted him, to cover up the murder.
For over 25 years, Charlie Parker has worked to prove the evidence of the Barclay family’s participation in their son’s case.
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