Nicholas Barclay was born on December 31st, 1980, the youngest of the family and known to be 'troubled' by other people where he lived in San Antonio, Texas. He was physically and verbally violent towards his mother meaning the police had been called to the family house on numerous occasions and participated in illegal activities such as shoplifting and underage tatooing. The fact he was considered 'troubled' probably contributed to the lack of attention people paid to his case when he went missing, deeming he was just a runaway or causing trouble again...
On the 13th of June, 1994 when Nicholas was 13 years old, his mother gave him $5 to go and play basketball with his friends. Nicholas later rang his mother for a lift home but, as she worked nights and slept in the day, his older brother Jason picked up the phone and told him he'd have to walk home and this was the last time they would hear from him.
Nicholas had a history of running away and considering this was the day before he was due in court to decide whether he would be sent to a rehabilitation group home for juveniles, it was assumed that he would return soon enough and that he just didn't want to attend his court date. Because of this, the police were slow to act but after a few days, it was clear that Nicholas was actually gone without a trace.3 years passed...
In the October of 1997, the San Antonio police received a call from a man in a youth shelter in Spain claiming that he knew Nicholas Barclay. The boy stated that he has escaped from child sex trafficking in Europe and Nicholas' sister flew over to Spain and confirmed that he was, what she thought to be, her brother. She sat with him going over old family photos as the boy claimed to have forgotten near enough every from his past life over the last three years...
Soon enough, he started to 'remember' things about his family and was looking to travel back to Texas with his sister. Before this could happen, they required definite proof that he was who he said he was - to do this they got some photos of family members for him to identify which he did successfully except for one mistake meaning he was allowed to go back 'home'.
The family were overjoyed but you couldn't help but question how some of his features had changed so dramatically. How could his eye colour change from blue to dark brown? How had his hair colour changed from light to dark? 'Nicholas' tried to explain this away saying that the people in the sex trafficking ring had chemically dyed his hair, eyes and skin... and the family believed him again.
One private investigator noticed the major differences that had apparently occurred during the three year period and decided to compare the photos of Nicholas before he went missing to the person claiming to be Nicholas now by looking at their ears - apparently ears act just the same as fingerprints, they have strong identifiable features which differ from person to person, staying consistent throughout a person's life. The investigator found that they didn't have the same ears at all and therefore this person could not be Nicholas! Following much suspicion and the investigation by the private detective, the court ordered a DNA and fingerprint test which actually revealed his true identity...Who was he?!
DNA tests revealed that the man was in fact 23-year-old French man, Frédéric Bourdin! Bourdin states that he claims the identities of missing people as he was raised without love and affection... not the best excuse for impersonating a missing child if you ask me. But what happened to the real Nicholas? Bourdin himself actually had his own theory on the case after the time he spent with the family...
Bourdin's theory behind Nicholas' disappearance...
The whole family seemed thrilled and eager to meet Bourdin when he claimed to be the lost Nicholas, except for one person... his brother Jason. When Jason finally came to meet him, Bourdin claims that he was not excited and didn't look at or communicate with him as a brother - he simply wished him good luck and left.
It wasn't just Jason who is now considered suspicious, in fact, the whole family is considered suspicious after Bourdin's experience. He claimed that it was obvious they knew he wasn't Nicholas but that they were very good at pretending he was. Here's a quote from Bourdin:
"They didn't believe a word that I said. But they were good at not showing it. I remember in Spain, Carey did everything for me. When I didn't know something, she told me. That's the house we used to live in. That's my daughter, your niece. Do you remember that? Remember that, remember that, remember that, over and over again. She wanted to put it in my head so I would never forget. She couldn't say that I wasn't her brother. Did she believe it or not? If you ask me, no. She did not believe for a second that I was her brother. She decided that I was going to be her brother."
There is also the fact that the family actually wanted to keep Bourdin as part of the family even after he has been found out to not be Nicholas! What logical reason could there be behind this other than they didn't want to be found out if they had something to do with his disappearance...?
In particular, it is thought that Jason could have murdered Nicholas. Jason had placed a very peculiar call to police a few months after Nicholas' disappearance claiming that he was breaking into their garage but upon arrival, police could not find Nicholas anywhere. This type of thing, police say, is very common in murder cases to give the impression that the 'runaway' person is still alive. However, Jason cannot be questioned on this matter as he died from a drug overdose although its not obvious whether this was intentional or not.
Bourdin claims that someone in the family definitely murdered Nicholas, that others knew about it and actively try to cover it up and that the rest choose to ignore it.
I guess we'll never really know what happened to Nicholas. Although he was considered a trouble-maker, his case should've got more attention from the very beginning and it's really sad that there doesn't seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel with this case.
As for Bourdin, he received six years in prison and apparently impersonated some other people before settling down and starting a family himself - he is not thought to be impersonating anyone at this time.
I'm sure you found this case really interesting, I personally think the family are really suspicious and hopefully one day we will find out what happened to Nicholas.
Thanks for reading,
Holly Amber X
Contact details for this case:
San Antonio police department telephone: 210-207-7484
Disclaimer: I will try to present the information as factually as possible and use information which I have found from credible websites/sources. In presenting the theories, these are merely speculation and do not always reflect my personal opinion. The main aim of this series is to raise awareness of cold cases and get people interested in speaking about them and keeping the story alive.
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