COLD CASES: WHERE IS NICHOLAS BARCLAY AND WHO WAS HIS IMPOSTER!?

Today's cold case is a really interesting one.
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.

COLD CASES: WHERE IS ANDREW GOSDEN?

Andrew Gosden was a 14-year-old boy when he went missing on the 14th of September, 2007 from his home in Doncaster.

Andrew got dressed into his school clothes and left the house as he always did to catch the bus to school. However, this didn't seem to be his plan on this day as, when his parents had left for work and his sister was at school he returned to the family home, put his school uniform in the wash and got changed into a Slipknot t-shirt, jeans and some trainers before packing a bag and leaving his house with the intention to catch a train. 

On his way to the train station, Andrew went to a cashpoint and withdrew £200 worth of cash (his parents have put money into his account since this day but there have been no more withdrawals made). When he got to the train station, he bought a one-way ticket to London's King Cross station. The man who served him his ticket did ask Andrew if he'd like a return ticket for only a few pounds more but Andrew insisted that he just wanted a one-way ticket.

A man who was on the train to Kings Cross station from Doncaster recalls sitting near a boy matching Andrew's description playing on his PlayStation console, however, Andrew did not take the charger for his console which suggests he did not plan on using it after this time, but why?
The very last sighting of Andrew was on a CCTV image from Kings Cross station the same day at 11:20am so it is at least known that he got to London, but why was he travelling there?

Theories surrounding his disappearance

The first theory is a very sad one that I personally don't believe, that Andrew had travelled away from the family home to commit suicide. The situation could be interpreted in this way as he didn't seem to take many clothes(if any - his parents reported that they didn't notice any of his clothes to be gone except the ones he changed into), he didn't take his console charger and he didn't purchase a return ticket so it seems he didn't have any intention of returning back home. However, Andrew's parents don't seem to believe this theory - why would he withdraw £200 if that was his intention? Why would he travel all the way to London?

Some people speculate that Andrew actually intended to run away and start a new life in London, however, I don't believe this theory has much supporting evidence. How did he plan on starting over with such a small amount of money? If this was his intention, why wouldn't he have taken the £100 worth of birthday money in his bedroom? What would have made him want to leave his family home and go to London specifically?
The theory that I find most probable is that Andrew was actually travelling to meet someone in London who he had met online. In terms of the train ticket, he may not have purchased the return as the person he was meeting may have said they could drive him back home or that they would pay for his ticket home after they had spent the day together. Also, this may explain why he didn't pack a lot of things or take his console charger as he could have planned to go for a few hours/the day and then return home. In this case, it may be that Andrew ran into some trouble in London - that the person he thought he was meeting wasn't actually that person. Although Andrew was academically smart, was he street smart?
Although police could not find any evidence of Andrew speaking to someone online from looking at his computer at home, it is very possible that he used an internet cafe or school computers instead. This theory is also backed up by the fact that he only took £200 with him - why would he have withdrawn this amount of money if he had intended on committing suicide or never coming back? This was probably enough for his trip to London, whatever he had planned to do there and then his trip home.

Andrew's parents still hold onto the hope that he is alive and well 10 years on from the day he disappeared and that one day he will resurface which I don't think is completely out of the question. You can find the contact details for his case on this website. At the time of his disappearance, he was 5' 3" tall, of slim build with light brown hair and eyes. He also has a very unique "double ridge" on his right ear and wore very strong prescription glasses.
Thanks for reading,

Holly Amber X

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.

COLD CASES: WHAT HAPPENED TO DANIEL ENTWISTLE?

I've been wanting to start a new series on my blog for a while now surrounding cold cases which are yet to be solved. Some of these have really interesting theories surrounding them but the main idea behind this series is to raise awareness of the cases yet to be solved, of which there are A LOT, as it is really sad that their families and loved ones still don't have closure on their situations.

So let's jump right in with the missing person's case of Daniel Entwistle. 
Daniel, a 7-year old boy from Great Yarmouth, went missing from his home at Copperfield Avenue on Saturday the 3rd of May, 2003 which was the May bank holiday weekend. He had gone out on his red BMX bike in the day and then came home and asked for some money to get some sweets before going back out. His parents, Paula and David Entwistle, became concerned when he did not return home for tea later that evening when they began searching for him.

Daniel was identified on a CCTV image at 5:05pm at the local convenience store near his home called Blencowes. He was then thought to be seen on a nearby CCTV camera riding along on his bike. This was the only proven sighting of Daniel since he left his home earlier that day although there have been other possible sightings - he was possibly seen around 3:30pm that day playing with a group of other boys near the river at Trinity Quay. In the early hours of the next morning, Daniels' red BMX was found abandoned near the river as seen in the image of the area surrounding his home to the left.

There have been no clues or sightings of Daniel since this time which is really sad and makes this case really hard to pursue due to the lack of leads, espcially due to the lack of funds and coverage of his story. The media stopped reporting on him only a few days after he went missing and the case was closed only 3 months later.
He was last seen wearing a blue Adidas t-shirt, blue jogging bottoms and grey trainers and is described as being of pale complexion, 3' 2" with light brown hair and slim build when he disappeared.

Theories surrounding his disappearance

The first theory as to how Daniel disappeared is that he simply ran away. Some people, including one of his teachers, believes that this could be a possibility as Daniel had ADHD (Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). However, it is unusual for children even with this disorder to go for a long amount of time. It may be the case that he did run away and got into some trouble which links to the next theory.

This next theory states that Daniel could have been abducted which I think it the usual theory people jump to in missing children's cases and is of course very possible. With a child as small and young as Daniel, it seems that it would be easy to snatch him away, especially if he was alone around the area he lived.

Another theory states that he may have fallen into the river Yare off the harbour wall where he bike was found propped up and, if this had been the case, he would have experienced some trouble as he was not able to swim. However, there have been extensive searches in this river using various types of equipment and nothing has been found and no remains have ever swept up in the long time since his disappearance. In terms of the police, this seems to be the theory that they believe is most likely and the one that I also think is most likely as he may have been swept out to sea which is maybe why he has never been found.

Hopefully one day Daniel is found and his family can have some closure. Daniel's father actually died a few years ago which is really sad as he will never know what happened to him. I'll leave below the contact details of the Norfolk Police force who deal with any information people may have which can contribute to the case.

Thank you for reading as always, hopefully my writer's block has now ended.

Holly Amber X

Senior Investigating Officer: Detective Inspector Andy Guy
Cold Case manager: Mr Tony Deacon
Contact Tel: 01953424520
Email: coldcaseteam@norfolk.pnn.police.uk
Alternatively, you can contact crime stoppers anonymously on 0800555111

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.