The man who posed as a missing boy | Forensic Files

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Carey Gibson cast a sideways glance at her 16-year-old brother Nicholas Barclay as they sat
in a Spanish airport awaiting their flight home. He appeared on edge and didn’t make eye contact,
nervously jiggling his leg up and down. Leaning over, Nicholas whispered to his older sister
that he was anxious about the impending long flight to their home in San Antonio, Texas.
Carey tried her best to comfort him. As the loudspeaker advised the waiting passengers that it was time to board, she playfully elbowed Nicholas in the ribs.
“Are you ready to go home?” she asked. Nicholas nodded. “Well, let’s get the f**k out of here,” she replied.
Following a 15 hour flight, the siblings’ plane touched down in Texas on October 18
1997. Carey waited while Nicholas grabbed a small suitcase - which contained his
only belongings - from the plane’s overhead compartment. Carey coaxed her younger brother
from the plane, explaining that their whole family was at the airport to welcome him home.
Nicholas’s mother Beverly Dollarhide waited in anticipation. She watched from the jet bridge
as passengers disembarked from the plane, craning her neck to spot Nicholas and Carey.
Other family members stood back, one with a video camera in hand to capture the momentous occasion.
After nearly three and a half years, Nicholas Barclay was finally home. More passengers emerged from the jet bridge and gradually the crowd began to thin.
Carey was amongst the last to disembark when Beverly spotted her. She pointed and waved,
walking up the jet bridge with Nicholas, who ambled along with a slight limp. As they approached their waiting family, Carey’s 14-year-old son, Codey rushed up
to them to help Nicholas with his suitcase while the rest of the family gathered around in awe.
Beverly studied her son. Nicholas’s shaggy blonde hair fell around his eyes, which were concealed by sunglasses. His mouth was covered by a handkerchief wrapped around his face.
He looked older, but his nose was still the same, just like his Uncle Pat’s. Beverly went
up to her son and embraced him tightly. She felt him bristle and told herself that given
his suffering over the past few years, he might be resistant to human touch. “I love you,” she told him. “I love you too, mum,” Nicholas whispered.
Three years and four months earlier, 13-year-old Nicholas Barclay left his family’s San Antonio
home in frustration. With a reputation for being a troubled teen, Nicholas frequently
skipped school and when he did attend, he was often in trouble for being disruptive.
His home life was equally unstable. Single mother Beverly Dollarhide was a high functioning heroin
addict who worked seven nights a week at a local donut store to provide for her family.
Nicholas often lashed out at Beverly, hitting and cursing at her, and the police had been called out on a number of occasions to break up arguments.
In an attempt to control Nicholas’s outbursts, Beverly asked her eldest son, Nicholas’s brother
Jason, to move in. Having Jason there initially diffused tension between Beverly and Nicholas. But
as time went by, Jason - who was in his early 20s and also struggling with drug addiction - became
caught up in the family fighting. Their arguments could be heard from neighbouring properties.
On June 13 1994, Nicholas decided to blow off some steam after a fight with his mother by
shooting a few hoops at the local park. He had a lot on his mind. He already had a juvenile record
and was due to face a sentencing hearing the following day. This was to address a recent event
in which he had broken into a convenience store and stolen a pair of tennis shoes.
One possible outcome of the hearing was that Nicholas could be placed in a group home;
a prospect that greatly distressed him. Before Nicholas left, Beverly pressed a five dollar bill
into his hand. Her only instructions were for him to be back home for dinner. She then retired to bed to sleep in preparation for her night shift at work.
Later that afternoon, the phone rang at the house. Jason answered. It was Nicholas, asking if his mother could pick him up from the park.
Jason told Nicholas that Beverly was still sleeping and he would have to walk home.
Nicholas Barclay never made it home for dinner that night. The next morning, following her night shift at the donut store, Beverly reported Nicholas missing to
local police. Nicholas had a history of running away from home and the officers were initially
unconcerned by his disappearance. They speculated that Nicholas was avoiding his sentencing hearing
and reassured Beverly that he would likely show up after a few days as he had done in the past.
Beverly couldn’t shake the feeling that something more was amiss. She and Nicholas’s older siblings, Jason and sister Carey, went about the neighbourhood
putting up fliers and door knocking in the hope someone had seen the blonde haired, blue eyed,
slim teen. Police interviewed Beverly’s neighbour, who told of the many arguments she heard coming
from the house, particularly after Jason had moved back in with Nicholas and his mother.
Weeks passed with no leads. Nicholas’s disappearance gained little media attention.
His family felt that authorities had minimal interest in trying to locate the missing teen.
Diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder and naturally trusting of strangers, Beverly thought
that Nicholas might have accepted a lift home with an unknown person and met with foul play.
She spoke of her son’s loving nature to anyone who would listen, hoping to sway the local perception that he was an unruly teenager.
She remembered how affectionate he could be and thought about his tight, warm hugs often.
Three and a half months after his disappearance, a small glimmer of hope that Nicholas Barclay was alive and well presented itself. Jason was returning home
one afternoon when he saw Nicholas trying to break into the garage of their low set, modest,
brick family home. When Nicholas caught sight of Jason, he ran, disappearing down the street.
Jason phoned the local police and an officer was dispatched to the house. He conducted a search of
the premises and the street blocks surrounding their home but could find no sign of Nicholas.
Despite this promising lead, there were no further sightings and the case turned cold.
As the months and years went by, Nicholas’s family came to the conclusion that he had most
likely died. Had he been alive, they were certain he would have reached out to them.
Jason’s cocaine addiction spiralled out of control after his brother’s disappearance and he checked
himself into a rehab facility. Nicholas’s sister Carey, who was 27 when her little brother went
missing, told the media: “It came to the point where you know you’re not going to find him alive
but you just want to find what happened to him.” On October 7 1997, the San Antonio
Police Department in Texas received a phone call. It was from a police officer in the bustling city of Linares, 300 kilometers south of the Spanish capital of Madrid.
He introduced himself as Officer Johnathon Dorian and told the police he had some important news.
Nicholas Barclay had been found alive and well, wandering the streets of Linares.
Jonathon Dorian advised the police that after questioning, Nicholas would be transferred to a
local homeless shelter for children outside of Linares in the Spanish countryside,
while he waited to be reunited with his family. He gave the San Antonio Police Department the
contact details for the shelter, telling them that he was overseeing Nicholas’s case there.
An officer from the San Antonio Police Department phoned the donut shop where Beverly Dollarhide worked to tell her the news. Beverly wasn’t working at the
time so an employee scribbled down the contact details of the children’s shelter in Linares.
Comprehending the gravity of the situation, the employee phoned Beverly immediately
and over the next few days, Beverly tried desperately to contact Officer Johnathon Dorian.
However, every time she called the shelter she was met on the end of the line by someone who spoke no english, causing Beverly to hang up in frustration.
After a few days, Nicholas’s sister Carey tried calling. The phone was answered by Officer Johnathon Dorian. He told Carey that he actually had
Nicholas sitting right beside him, however he was too scared to talk to her on the phone.
In his strong French accent, Officer Dorian explained to Carey that Nicholas had confided
in him that he had been abducted from his home town in San Antonio and taken all over
Europe in secrecy. He had been sexually abused as part of a pedophile sex ring.
Nicholas didn’t recall much of his life prior to the abduction. Carey began to cry and Officer Dorian held out the phone to Nicholas so she
could tell him how much she loved him. In response Nicholas whispered: “Take me home.”
Nicholas’ family wasted no time in organising to get Nicholas back. Due to Beverly’s fear of flying, Carey volunteered to go to Spain to be reunited with Nicholas.
Money was tight in the family so Carey’s workplace paid for her ticket allowing
her to be with Nicholas as soon as possible. It was the first time Carey had left the country.
One week after the initial phone call from the San Antonio Police Department, Carey Gibson arrived in Spain. She was met at the airport by employees of the shelter
and driven out of Linares down the remote and winding roads into the Spanish countryside.
Carey was nervous to set eyes on Nicholas after nearly three and a half years. She wondered what he had gone through to end up so far away from home.
Arriving at the shelter, Carey greeted the staff and was escorted to a concrete courtyard.
She watched as children ran and played around her. Surrounding the courtyard were tall stone buildings that accommodated the children at the shelter.
Looking up, she saw the curtains rustle to one of the rooms and Nicholas’s face peered out.
She waved to him, calling for him to come down so she could see him. 10 minutes passed before Nicholas arrived in the courtyard, wearing baggy clothes, a scarf,
sunglasses and a cap. He walked up to his sister apprehensively as she studied his face and touched
his nose, commenting that it was just like his Uncle Pat’s. They hugged and Nicholas whispered
to Carey how much he loved her. The two were escorted to a quiet visitor’s room where Carey
showed Nicholas photographs of their family that had been taken in the years he had been absent.
Nicholas declined to reveal how he had ended up in Spain and Carey didn’t push him,
certain he would open up when he was ready. Carey held Nicholas’s hand as they sat side by side,
studying the familiar small tattoo of the letter ‘T’ he had between his thumb and forefinger.
Once they had spent some time reacquainting themselves, Carey Gibson along with the employees
of the shelter organised getting Nicholas home to U.S soil. Carey phoned San Antonio FBI agent
Nancy Fisher who listened in disbelief as Carey explained their situation. In all her years
working in the investigation of child abuse, the Special Agent had never heard of a child
going missing in the USA to turn up wandering the streets of a European Country years later.
Although a Spanish judge had cleared Nicholas to return to the USA, immigration wouldn’t allow it
because he didn’t have a U.S passport. Working with the U.S State Department and the U.S
Embassy in Madrid, an emergency passport was organised for Nicholas the same day.
In return for her assistance, Special Agent Nancy Fisher requested that Nicholas be
interviewed promptly after he arrived home, so his abductors could be investigated by her team.
On November 4 1997, Nancy Fisher stared at the teenage boy sitting across from her desk
at the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children in San Antonio. He appeared very nervous
and uncomfortable as Nancy questioned him about his ordeal. Little by little Nicholas Barclay
opened up and shared the terrifying details of his abduction from the very beginning.
On June 13 1994, he had been playing basketball at the local park when two young men approached him.
They began talking to Nicholas and the next thing he knew, a cloth was pressed to his face and he
passed out. Through the use of military planes overseen by high ranking military officers,
Nicholas had been taken to Europe and constantly moved to various locations. He wasn’t alone. With him were dozens of other boys who had also been abducted
and like him were being shipped around European countries to be used in the pedophile sex trade.
Nearly every night Nicholas was drugged with chloroform and raped. His hands had been broken
with a baseball bat, his left foot had been broken with a crowbar and he had been tortured
and experimented on. One such experiment involved his eyes being injected with various needles.
Nicholas detailed the tactics that his captors used to confuse, disorient, and force him and
the other boys to behave. He was beaten if he spoke English and was forced to wear headphones
that contained screaming voices saying: “You are not you,” in different languages over and over.
In order to disguise the boys, Nicholas Barclay told FBI Agent Nancy Fisher that their hair was coloured and a solution placed into their eyes to change their colour.
As a result, his had changed from blue to a deep brown. Nicholas made his escape when someone left a door slightly ajar to the room in which he was being
held captive. Sensing an opportunity, he ran out the door and found himself in a long corridor.
Praying he wouldn’t be seen, Nicholas ran the length of the corridor, finding an exit door at the end that opened out onto a street. He then ran for his life.
After a few hours, he came to the realisation that he was in Spain. Nicholas found a phone booth and called the police station who picked him up.
Nancy Fisher was deeply shaken by Nicholas’s recount of the events he had been subjected to.
She told him she was very sorry he had been through such a traumatic ordeal and vowed to him
that they would find Nicholas’s captors and work to free the other children who had been abducted.
Nancy instructed Nicholas and his family to refrain from any media interviews, explaining that it could compromise her team’s investigative efforts if word got out
that they were actively searching for Nicholas’s captors. Nicholas Barclay and his family agreed.
Following the FBI interview, Nicholas’s family decided a routine approach would be the best
way to help Nicholas adjust to his previous life. Because of Beverly’s long work hours, he moved in
with Carey and her husband Bryan in their secluded trailer park on the outskirts of San Antonio.
Due to a lack of space, Nicholas slept on a mattress on the floor of Carey’s son Codey’s
bedroom. He enrolled in the local high school, catching the bus to and from school every weekday.
Popular in his classes, Nicholas quickly and easily made new friends. After school
he and Codey would hang out at the local skate park. It wasn’t long before Nicholas had his
first crush - a local girl named Amy, and the pair talked on the phone for hours. His family
were extremely supportive of Nicholas and did their best to accommodate his every request.
However, it wasn’t long before Nicholas’s unruly side began to show again. Two weeks
after returning home, he stole Carey’s car and went on a road trip, blaring his favourite pop
artist - Michael Jackson - from the car speakers. He was arrested for speeding by local police in Oklahoma who agreed not to prosecute Nicholas due to his troubling history.
He also got suspended from school and on occasion would fight with Carey’s son, Codey.
Nicholas’s family forgave him every time, blaming the outbursts of behaviour on his harrowing ordeal
while kidnapped. Following his trip to Oklahoma, Nicholas moved back in with his mother Beverly.
The one family member Nicholas hadn’t seen in his first few weeks back home was his older brother Jason. Struggling with drug addiction,
Jason was in a rehabilitation centre but six weeks after Nicholas arrived home,
he went around to see his little brother at a barbecue organised by the rest of the family.
Jason regarded Nicholas in a standoffish manner, looking him up and down and refusing to hug him.
After a few minutes, Jason beckoned Nicholas to go outside where they could have privacy
from the rest of the family. He gave Nicholas a gold cross on a necklace and said, “Good luck.” He then walked away, leaving Nicholas surprised and confused.
Despite Nicholas’s family remaining tight-lipped about his return, it wasn’t long before local
media got wind of the missing San Antonio teen who had been found in Spain and reunited with
his family. In November 1997, a producer from the tabloid television show “Hard Copy,” hired
private investigator Charlie Parker to do some digging around in the hope he could
identify and meet the teenager for an exclusive interview. Charlie Parker, a former police officer
with a special interest in tracing missing children was well and truly up to the task.
Known around the area as “Gumshoe,” the amiable Charlie Parker phoned FBI Special Agent Nancy
Fisher to enquire about the child. She confirmed that the story told to him by Hard Copy was
correct, however refused to give out any details about Nicholas Barclay or his family. Undeterred,
Charlie began looking through missing persons in the area of San Antonio when he came across
Nicholas. He tracked down Beverly Dollarhide who confirmed that it was her son who had returned
home. Against the FBI’s wishes, Nicholas agreed to give a television interview.
Reclined on the lounge in Beverly’s house, Nicholas sat while camera crews set up around him.
Wearing a tan leather jacket, sunglasses, and a wide brimmed fedora style hat, Nicholas explained the details of his capture to the listening reporter. As well as featuring on
Hard Copy, excerpts of the interview were taken to play on that evening’s local nightly news.
Sitting behind the camera crews, private investigator Charlie Parker watched on.
Aged in his 50s, the well liked detective watched as the interviewer asked Nicholas about details
of the rape he had been subjected to. Charlie spent many hours of his own time working for
a charity that dealt with unsolved children’s murders and as he observed Nicholas before him,
he knew something wasn’t right. There were many inconsistencies that struck Charlie as odd
about the teen’s behaviour. He spoke with a thick French accent, although Nicholas explained
this was because he was not allowed to speak English while being held captive. Noticing a photograph of Nicholas Barclay as a child nearby, Charlie picked it up.
As he studied it, he felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Charlie was immediately struck by the stark difference in eye colour
between the photograph and Nicholas sitting on the lounge in front of him. Charlie recalled an article he had read. The piece was about how Scotland Yard identified
Martin Luther King Junior’s assassinator, James Earl Ray, at London’s Heathrow Airport by
comparing a photograph of his ears. A person’s ears are as unique as a set of fingerprints.
Later that night, on his personal computer, Charlie compared a still taken from the day’s interview with a missing poster depicting Nicholas
at the time of his disappearance. Using Adobe Photoshop, he aligned the ears for comparison.
They were close but not a match. He had no idea who the person was who had given the interview
earlier that day, but Charlie Parker was sure of one thing. It was not Nicholas Barclay.
Charlie phoned Special Agent Nancy Fisher. She listened to his theory but initially dismissed it,
as Nicholas’s own family had identified him and were certain that the teen was Nicholas Barclay.
Recalling the FBI interview with Nicholas, Nancy remembered that she was initially struck
by his appearance. She was expecting a teenager with light features and was surprised when someone
who seemed much older than a teen with dark eyes and a five o’clock shadow presented himself.
Although his hair was blonde, he also had dark roots coming through as regrowth.
Conducting some research, Nancy learned that there was one drug to treat glaucoma that could alter
eye colour but certainly not to the extreme where they would change from blue to brown.
Meanwhile, the investigation into Nicholas’s kidnapping as part of an international sex ring
was going nowhere. Although going into great detail about the physical and psychological
trauma he endured, Nicholas could not recall any details that would assist the investigation such as locations or descriptions of his captors.
In February 1998, four months after Nicholas returned home, Special Agent Nancy Fisher spoke
with Dr Bruce Perry. She needed advice from the world renowned forensic psychiatrist who
specialised in children suffering from trauma. Dr Bruce Perry was the husband of Arlis Perry,
featured in episode 137 of Casefile. Nancy organised for Dr Perry to interview Nicholas.
The hope was he could extract from him some useful information that would further the investigation.
Dr Bruce Perry also agreed to assess whether Nicholas was an American and put to end the speculation that he was someone else.
Nicholas was flown to the Texas Children's Hospital and met with Dr Bruce Perry.
As soon as Nicholas introduced himself, alarm bells rang for Dr Perry. He listened
as Nicholas recounted his ordeal, noticing that he did not display any of the physiological or
behavioural features commonly associated with those recounting traumatic events,
such as dilated pupils, edginess, and an upright posture. Instead, it appeared that Nicholas was retelling a story. One that had not happened to him.
After interviewing Nicholas for several hours, the biggest red flag to Dr Perry that Nicholas was not
who he claimed to be was his French accent. Dr Perry phoned Nancy Fisher, explaining that had
Nicholas spent the years before his abduction in the USA he should have reverted to an American
accent, not the thick French accent he was unable to drop. He told Nancy that he could guarantee the
person presenting as Nicholas Barclay was not raised in an English speaking family.
As Nicholas boarded the flight back to San Antonio, Nancy Fisher called Carey. She told Carey that the male person who returned to them could not possibly be Nicholas Barclay
because there was no way that this person was born an American. In response, Carey screamed
and yelled out “Oh my God!”. Nancy warned Carey not to meet Nicholas at the San Antonio airport
as she had planned to do, advising that he could be an extremely dangerous individual.
Instead, Nancy would meet him at the airport and handle the situation herself. She calmed Carey and
told her that on no uncertain terms would she be required to take this person back home with her.
As Nancy Fisher organised her plan, she was left with one major lingering question.
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FBI Special Agent Nancy Fisher waited at the San Antonio airport for the man posing as Nicholas
Barclay to land following his psychiatric interview with Dr Bruce Perry. She planned
to detain him for the purpose of obtaining a DNA sample and fingerprints as a means of identifying
him. To her surprise, she saw Carey Gibson waiting for him to arrive despite her warning that he
could be extremely dangerous. She approached them as the imposter and Carey embraced.
Carey showed no signs of being frightened nor did she question him about his identity.
She seemed excited to see him and enquired about his trip to Houston. It was as though the whole conversation between herself and Carey had never taken place.
After seeking advice from the assistant U.S attorney, Nancy allowed the imposter to return home to Beverly’s house with Carey Gibson.
Nancy knocked on Beverly Dollarhide’s door a few days later. The imposter voluntarily agreed to go with her to get a blood sample for DNA testing. Once inside
the clinic, he became infuriated, stating that the nurses were staring at him as if he were a freak.
The imposter left the clinic, refusing to cooperate with Nancy’s request. Beverly was also not cooperating, refusing to give a blood sample to Nancy so she
could confirm the two were related. Instead, she threw herself on the floor of her home
telling Nancy that she knew he was her son and didn’t have to prove it. Openly hostile,
Beverly accused Nancy of trying to take Nicholas away from her for a second time.
The imposter continued to protest that he was Nicholas Barclay and, unable to force the family
for DNA testing while she waited for a search warrant, Nancy decided to employ a different
tactic to prove to Nicholas’s family that he wasn’t their son. She took photographs of him and
other family members to a forensic artist at the FBI to compare bone structures of the individuals.
To her surprise, the artist concluded that the photographs showed more similarities
than differences. In addition, the imposter, whose case was still being pursued by private
investigator Charlie Parker, agreed to sit for a polygraph test on television. When asked if his identity was Nicholas Barclay, he passed.
In early March 1998, Nancy Fisher received a search warrant enabling her to take blood
samples and fingerprints from the imposter. With no other option, he angrily obliged
and Nancy sent the results to Interpol in the hope they would find a match. While waiting on the Interpol results, the imposter shared some further information with
Nancy Fisher about his abduction. According to The Age, when he had been abducted he was held for a
time with a teenage boy named Till Kratzsch from Berlin who had been kidnapped a year after him
in July 1995. When Nancy checked the records, she found the missing boy. She contacted his mother, who agreed to fly from Berlin to San Antonio. Till’s mother sat
with the imposter and P.I Charlie Parker. Charlie drew the outline of a body to test the imposter
and asked him to mark on the outline any distinctive markings or scars the boy had.
The imposter took the paper and marked some scars on various parts of the outline.
As soon as Till’s mother looked at what he had done, she knew he was lying. Till had a prominent
scar on his forehead that would be immediately noticeable to anyone who had seen her son.
The next day, the imposter met with Charlie Parker in a local diner. The private investigator was of the opinion that the imposter was a terrorist or a spy
sent to infiltrate the USA through an American family. Charlie asked to meet to discuss a phone
call he had received the night before from Beverly. She had called Charlie in tears,
explaining that a friend had given Nicholas a lift in her car and driven past a block of flats they
used to live in for years. Nicholas had loved living there and knew nearly all the residents.
To her surprise, he mentioned nothing about his life there and Beverly admitted to Charlie that she was having her doubts that it was Nicholas after all.
They ordered hotcakes and took a seat at a booth as Charlie explained to the imposter the details of the call, concluding, “Your mother’s real upset.”
In response, the imposter stared Charlie in the eyes and said, “My name’s not Nicholas and you
know it.” Charlie felt his heart beat faster as he asked the person in front of him who he was.
He replied, “I’m Frederic Bourdin and I’m wanted by Interpol.” Like Nicholas Barclay, Frederic Bourdin also had a troubled childhood. He was born in
Nantes, France on June 13 1974 to 17-year-old Ghislaine Bourdin and an Algerian father whom Ghislaine met at the margarine factory where they worked.
When Ghislaine discovered she was pregnant, she also found out that the father was married
with children so she quit her job and never told the man about the pregnancy. Frederic suffered a miserable childhood. He inherited his father’s olive skin, dark hair, and
dark eyes and often dealt with racial insults for being the son of an Alegerian living in France.
As a young child, Frederic did not receive much love from his mother and when he was approximately
five-years-old, his mother sent him to live with his maternal grandparents in Mouchamps,
a region of France 400 kilometres south west of Paris. He would make up stories to his
classmates as to why he was fatherless, including that his father was a British secret agent.
At 12-years-old, Frederic Bourdin became difficult to handle and frequently misbehaved. Unable to
look after him anymore, his grandparents sent him to live at a private facility for juveniles
in Nantes. Frederic enjoyed his time in the home and lived there until he was 16 when he was moved to another home for older children. In this home, Frederic began to rebel,
running away for short stints only to be picked up and returned to the home by local police.
He began to lie to the police, telling them tall tales and watching how they would respond.
Dreaming of a life in England, Frederic hitchhiked to Paris and told officers he
was a British teenager named Jimmy Sale. The police officer discovered that Frederic spoke
little English and he soon confessed to the lie and returned to the youth home.
This was the start to years of deception. Once Frederic turned 18, he was released from the children’s home to build a life for himself.
Frederic missed the comfort and care of the children’s home so he began to pose
as various children, creating fake aliases and moving from shelter to shelter around Europe,
leaving before his true identity was uncovered. He was caught out multiple times and had his fingerprints on record with Interpol for ease of future identification.
In October 1997, Frederic Bourdin, aged 23, phoned the local police in Linares,
Spain. He remained anonymous, telling the police that he was a tourist who had come across a frightened teenager in a phone booth who wouldn’t speak to him.
He estimated that the boy was approximately 14-years-old. Police officers arrived at the
named phone booth to find Frederic Bourdin posing as the terrified teen inside.
After being coaxed out of the phone booth, Frederic was taken back to the police station
where he refused to talk to officers and barely made eye contact. Dressed in baggy clothes with a basketball cap pulled over his eyes, Frederic eventually
confessed that he had been sexually abused but refused to elaborate or identify himself.
With no reason to keep him at the station, the police organised for him to be transferred to a local children’s shelter in Linares.
At the shelter, Frederic Bourdin was questioned further about his identity. Refusing to name himself, his case was handed over to a child welfare judge who told Frederic
he had 24 hours to prove he was a teenager or he would be photographed and fingerprinted.
Given that Frederic’s prints were on record, he decided he needed to come up with a plan to
prevent this from occurring as he would likely face jail time. He considered running away but
the staff at the shelter were keeping too close an eye on him for him to make a break.
Instead Frederic Bourdin felt he only had one option. He needed to become someone else.
Frederic Bourdin had always dreamed of going to the United States of America. In the land of the free, he figured he could reinvent himself and live a life of opportunity.
Frederic told the staff at the children’s home that he was an American who had run away from
home. He promised them that he would identify himself but asked if he could phone his family
in the U.S first. The concerned staff agreed and allowed Frederic to spend the night in the office
so he could use the phone overnight to allow for the time difference between the two countries.
Frederic thought of where he wanted to live. Seattle was of interest to him, so when he was alone in the office he phoned local police stations of Seattle, introducing
himself as police officer Johnathon Dorian. He explained he was calling from Spain and that he
had found a teenager he was sure was from the USA but was not cooperating with him. Frederic listed
off his own features. He was careful to keep them vague enough to match the descriptions of multiple
missing teenagers - short, slim build, prominent chin, brown hair and a gap between his teeth.
He was put through to the Centre for Missing and Exploited Children in Arlington, Virginia.
He gave the same story to the woman on the line and waited while she looked through her records.
After a moment she told Frederic that she had a missing child who might be the teenager they were looking for. She read out the details of Nicholas Barclay,
missing from San Antonio, Texas for 3 years and 4 months. Although not in his dream city of Seattle, Frederic asked the woman to fax through a
photo of Nicholas and anxiously waited as his details came through to the office fax machine.
It was of poor quality and as Frederic studied the photograph, he thought he looked
familiar enough to pass as the teen, later speaking on the documentary, The Imposter:
“If he’s been missing for 3 or 4 years, guarantee one thing, there will be a change.
If there is a change there will be doubt. If there is doubt then I got a chance.”
He told the Centre for Missing and Exploited Children that the teen he had in front of him
was indeed Nicholas Barclay and he was given the number of the San Antonio police department,
who in turn contacted Nicholas’s family. He also finally told the staff at the children’s home his name - Nicholas Barclay.
The next day, Frederic intercepted an urgent letter sent from the Centre for Missing and Exploited Children addressed to Jonathon Dorian
at the children's home. It contained a higher quality image of Nicholas Barclay.
When Frederic Bourdin first laid eyes on the photograph, his heart sank. With blonde hair,
blue eyes, and fair skin, Frederic did not come close to resembling Nicholas. He was told by center employees that the U.S Embassy was on their way to meet with him and
in a panic, Frederic tried to run. He was picked up trying to hitchhike out of Linares by the U.S
Vice Consulate and a staff member of the shelter and returned to the home. Not seeing any other
way out of his predicament, Frederic set about trying to disguise himself to look like Nicholas.
He dyed his hair blonde, and noting Nicholas had a visible tattoo, met with a teen at the shelter
who did small tattoos. She tattooed the letter T on his left hand between his thumb and forefinger
with the ink from a pen and a needle. The final result looked just like Nicholas’s.
Although it remains unclear how, Frederic was present in the staff office alone when Nicholas’s
sister Carey phoned the shelter looking for him. He pretended to be Officer Johnathon Dorian.
Because Carey was so desperate to speak with Nicholas, he pretended to be him, whispering
“Take me home,” to her. Within the next few days, Frederic was informed by the director
that Carey was on her way to the shelter to come and get him. Certain that he would be uncovered, Frederic locked himself in his room.
When Carey arrived, he donned the baggiest clothes he could find, as well as sunglasses, a scarf,
and a cap to try and disguise his features. To his utter surprise, Carey Gibson did not balk when
Frederic approached her in the courtyard, instead accepting he was Nicholas Barclay immediately.
As they sat together looking at family photos, Frederic made vague comments like,
“Mum looks the same,” to the delight of Carey. Frederic couldn’t believe he made it this far
but he still had one final hurdle before he could make it to the USA. The child welfare
judge responsible for sending Nicholas home was not convinced Frederic was Nicholas Barclay.
He ordered Frederic be shown five photographs from Carey’s photo album in his presence so he could
watch Frederic identify those in the images. The judge was unaware that Carey had already shown the
photos to Frederic and so he was able to correctly identify people in the first four photographs.
In the last photo, Frederic made an error but by that time, the Judge was already convinced
the 23-year-old French Algerian man before him was 16-year-old American, Nicholas Barclay.
Carey Gibson was equally as convinced, believing that his mannerisms including speaking with a French accent and whispering were due to the trauma he had suffered.
On October 17 1997, Frederic was photographed and given an emergency U.S passport under the name Nicholas Barclay. He was free to go.
Arriving in Texas, Frederic was stunned when the rest of the family accepted him as Nicholas.
Although life on the outskirts of San Antonio was not the streets of a bustling
city that Frederic had pictured, he felt like he was living the American dream.
He played the part of Nicholas, rummaging through drawers when he was alone, studying photos of him dotted around the house and copying his mannerisms. Once he gave the interview
to FBI Agent Nancy Fisher he was certain he had got away with the deception. Over time,
Frederic began to relax but was forever concerned that the real Nicholas Barclay would come home
and he would be found out. He agreed to give the television interview with the hope that the media
attention would further cement the belief he was Nicholas Barclay and endear the public to him.
After Frederic Bourdin’s confession at the diner, Charlie excused himself and phoned
Nancy Fisher who had also received the same information from Interpol, after his fingerprints were positively identified. She asked Charlie to keep him talking at the diner
while she arrived with an arrest warrant. While he waited, Charlie stalled Frederic
by getting him to open up about his life and the previous identities he had stolen.
Frederic was taken into custody soon after, four and a half months after coming to America.
He was held in the Wilson County Jail in Floresville, Texas on counts of perjury and attempting to steal a passport. While awaiting trial,
Frederic used the phone at the jail to call hundreds of families of missing children.
By using call collect, he convinced these families he had information about their lost children,
information that was completely false. When asked in a television interview why he did this
to such vulnerable families, Frederic didn’t answer, instead just shrugging his shoulders.
Nicholas Barclay’s family were bereft. In the documentary, “The Imposter,” Carey Gibson said
her first feeling was complete sadness because they were back to square one. Her second feeling was how could she be so f**king stupid?
As Frederic Bourdin sat in his jail cell, he had plenty of time to mull over his life as Nicholas Barclay.
He was surprised himself that he was accepted so easily into the family with no questions asked.
He thought back to his first meeting with Carey at the Spanish children’s home. At the time he
hadn’t thought much about it but looking back, he remembered how Carey had spoon fed information to
him about his relatives in the photographs, telling him who they were and important facts
about each person. He also thought back to the family barbecue where Nicholas’s brother
Jason had wished him good luck and said nothing further, as if he knew Frederic was an imposter.
Frederic could also never understand why Nicholas’s mother Beverly was so against having
blood taken to confirm a familial link between the two. Especially when there was evidence that
the person she called her son was not so. If it were the other way around, Frederic would have
had the blood test to put the matter to rest once and for all. After Beverly visited Frederic in the
county jail one day, Frederic picked up the phone and called the San Antonio Police Department.
He knew that Nicholas was deceased and he knew who was responsible. The San Antonio Police officer listened as Frederic explained
Beverly Dollarhide had visited him in his cell and confessed that she and Jason had
killed Nicholas and disposed of his body. According to the New Yorker, Bourdin also alleged that one night prior to his arrest, Beverly got drunk and screamed at him,
“I know that God punished me by sending you to me. I don’t know who you are. Why the f**k
are you doing this?” That, along with Frederic’s other recollections of his time with the family
was enough to warrant the opening of a homicide investigation into the murder of Nicholas Barclay.
Nicholas’s family were outraged that law enforcement would believe the word of a conman.
Beverly angrily denied telling Frederic that she or Jason was in any way responsible
for Nicholas’s disappearance or death. Despite this, Nancy Fisher and private investigator Charlie Parker both believed his claims warranted further investigation.
They were of the opinion that Jason’s sighting of Nicholas breaking into the family garage months
after his disappearance was a red herring so officials would still believe he was alive.
Beverly took a polygraph test. The question asked was whether she currently knew the
whereabouts of Nicholas Barclay. Beverly answered “no” and passed. Nancy Fisher wasn’t convinced so had the test repeated a second time. Beverly passed that one
too. Repeating the test a third time with the same question, Beverly Dollarhide failed the
test badly. The polygrapher told Beverly that it appeared she knew what happened to her son,
causing Beverly to run out of the room screaming. She claimed that if Jason had done anything to
Nicholas, she wasn’t aware of it. Nancy believed Beverly passed the polygraph the first two times
because she was under the influence of drugs, while the third time she was clean.
When interviewed, Jason appeared apathetic towards his brother’s disappearance. According
to the New Yorker, during the interview Nancy Fisher developed “a very strong suspicion that Jason had participated in the disappearance of his brother.”
Several weeks later, Jason died from a cocaine overdose. Having been off drugs for more than a year, Nancy and Charlie believed it was a suicide.
When Charlie asked Beverly her opinion, she simply said, “I don’t know.” The homicide investigation was eventually closed due to lack of evidence. There were no witnesses,
no DNA evidence, or even proof that Nicholas Barclay was deceased. Prosecutor Jack Stick concluded that Jason’s death had all but “precluded
the possibility” that Nicholas’s disappearance would ever be solved. Carey Gibson, who suffered a nervous breakdown after Frederic Bourdin’s arrest, remained furious
at him. She told the documentary, The Imposter: “He put us through enough already and then for him
to do this, while he’s in jail for what he’s done and cause more pain for our family, F**k Him!”
P.I Charlie Parker went down a different investigative route, under the strict belief that someone in Nicholas’s family was responsible for his disappearance.
As filmed for the documentary, The Imposter, Charlie arrived on the doorstep of Nicholas’s former home and spoke to the new resident. The
owner took Charlie out to the backyard, indicating a spot in the corner against the boundary fence,
explaining that when he first moved in, his pet dog would constantly dig at the area.
He was mowing the area one day when he uncovered a piece of tarpaulin material in the ground.
With the owner's help, Charlie Parker dug up the area himself but failed to reveal any evidence in Nicholas’s disappearance.
Beverly Dollarhide agreed to speak to The New Yorker and told them that when Jason
was on cocaine he became, “totally wacko, a completely different person and it was scary.” Whilst she believes he falsified the account of seeing Nicholas at
their garage months after his disappearance, she didn’t believe Jason could have hurt Nicholas.
Frederic Bourdin spent the remainder of his time in jail phoning local media and offering stories
of how he had been able to dupe the family of Nicholas Barclay. Coincidentally, also a diehard
fan of Michael Jackson, Frederic passed the time by copying his famous choreography in his cell.
Charlie Parker explained he had been able to pass the polygraph test on television
because he was so good at lying that he had convinced himself he was Nicholas Barclay.
Frederic also confessed he had seen information about missing Berlin teenager Till Kratzsch
when he had been interviewed by Nancy Fisher at the Centre for Missing and Exploited Children.
Using the limited information he constructed the tale of knowing Till in an attempt to solidify his failing alias as Nicholas Barclay.
On September 9 1998, Frederic Bourdin accepted a plea bargain claiming responsibility for
fraudulently obtaining a passport and perjury for posing as Nicholas Barclay. The sentence of lying to an FBI agent was dropped. He faced a maximum of 25 years
imprisonment and 750,000 dollars in fines. At the hearing, Carey said: “He has lied,
and lied, and lied again. And to this day he continues to lie. He bears no remorse.”
According to the New Yorker, prosecutor Jack Stick compared Bourdin to a “flesh eating bacteria.”
On November 30 1998, Frederic Bourdin was sentenced to six years imprisonment in an
American jail. Afterwards, he would be deported to France where he was also wanted by Interpol to
face a four month jail sentence for insulting a magistrate. Frederic told the courtroom,:“I
apologise to all the people in my past for what I have done. I wish, I wish that you believe me,
but I know it’s impossible...whether in jail or not, I am a prisoner of myself.”
Frederic Bourdin was deported to France in October 2003. After serving his time and living only three
months as a free man, he was caught trying to pose as 14- year-old missing child, Leo Balley.
On May 3 2005, 30-year-old Bourdin approached a child welfare office in France claiming
to be 14-year-old Spanish born Francisco Hernandez Fernandez. He was sent to a St Vincent De Paul shelter where he became most popular with the young children
housed there. Frederic was uncovered five weeks later after a staff member working at the shelter
recognised him from a television show she had watched the night before about the imposter.
According to the New Yorker, one of the police captains assigned to the case said:
“When he talked in Spanish, he became a Spaniard. When he talked in English, he was an Englishman.
Of course, he lied, but what an actor!” Authorities were unsure what crime Frederic had committed, as it was not done for any criminal
purpose but due to Frederic wanting attention and affection from others. He ended up receiving a 6 month suspended sentence.
Frederic had over 18 child aliases known to Interpol, impersonating children in Europe from all over the world, including Mexico and Australia.
His ability to speak five different languages greatly aided him in deceiving others.
Frederic himself claims to have created over five hundred different aliases in his lifetime.
On his right forearm Frederic bears a tattoo - caméléon nantais”—“Chameleon from Nantes.”
When asked why he stole identities, Frederic told The Age: “I never really accepted to be an adult.
I am not a criminal. I am just a boy who will do anything that his brain knows how to do,
to get attention and love. My work is to get love. This is my work. I don’t do drugs, don’t
kill people, rape children. I tell stories that will get people to care for me. This is my job.”
On August 8 2007, Frederic married a Frenchwoman named Isabella. She was studying to be a lawyer and tracked Bourdin down after seeing him on television in France,
where he has since acquired a somewhat celebrity-like status. According to the New Yorker, he invited his mother and grandfather to the wedding ceremony,
however both declined to attend thinking that it was another one of his lies. Frederic and Isabella moved to a small town in France. He became a father and
now has five children. Videos on his Youtube channel show him and his children dancing happily to Michael Jackson’s music.
The whereabouts of Nicholas Barclay remain unknown.

Case 165: Nicholas Barclay

In October 1997, the family of Nicholas Barclay received good news. 13-year-old Nicholas had disappeared from his home state of Texas three years earlier. All hope was lost until his family got a call from a police officer in the Spanish city of Linares. Nicholas had been found wandering the local streets, alive and well...

CREDITS

Narration – Anonymous Host Research and writing – Jessica Forsayeth Creative direction – Milly Raso Production, scoring – Mike Migas and Andrew Joslyn

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RESOURCES

For all credits and sources please visit https://casefilepodcast.com/case-165-nicolas-barclay

Brief Summary

Nicholas Barclay's disappearance leads to shocking revelations about an imposter and unresolved family dynamics.

Key points

Shipstation: The E-commerce Solution. Shipstation simplifies shipping for online sellers, making it easier to manage orders.
Nicholas Returns Home. After three and a half years, Nicholas Barclay is finally reunited with his family.
A Family's Despair. Nicholas's family struggles with the pain of his disappearance and the hope of finding him.
The Distressing Truth. Nicholas reveals the horrifying details of his abduction and abuse to the FBI.
The Investigation Begins. FBI Agent Nancy Fisher interviews Nicholas about his abduction, uncovering shocking details.
The Imposter's Identity Questioned. Nancy Fisher discovers alarming signs that the boy claiming to be Nicholas is not who he says.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

“I love you too, mum,” Nicholas whispered.

Nicholas responds to his mother's affection after returning home.

4:49WatchFeb 15, 2021

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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