When 13-year-old Nicholas Barclay vanished, his family assumed the worst. Three years later, Nicholas returned home safe and sound. His grief-stricken family was so overjoyed that they didn't seem to register the countless red flags...
Gone Without a Trace
When a child disappears, it is critical that they are located within 24 hours of their disappearance, or their chance of survival substantially decreases. 13-year-old Nicholas Barclay went missing in 1994. At first, his family wasn't concerned. Nicholas had run away from home before.
By the time they contacted the police, all leads had gone cold. The Barclays accepted his fate—Nicholas was gone forever, presumed dead.
Home Safe
The years wore on, and the Barclays adapted to their life without Nicholas. Every day was an uphill battle for the mother and siblings he had left behind; they wanted nothing more than for Nicholas to return home. Three years after the teenager vanished, Nicholas' family received a call from law enforcement. They were stunned to learn that Nicholas had been found alive.
When Nicholas finally came back to San Antonio, accompanied by the sister who identified him, the Barclays were overjoyed. In the wake of their excitement, a seemingly obvious feature had been conveniently overlooked: Nicholas' eye color had somehow changed from blue to brown.
Troubled Teen
On June 13, 1994, Nicholas Barclay was out playing basketball with his friends. He called home, asking if his mother would pick him up, but she was sleeping and Nicholas' older brother, Jason, didn't want to wake her.
Nicholas and his mother, Beverly Dollarhide, had a contentious relationship. The police had been called to the Barclay residence on a number of occasions due to domestic disputes. Nicholas often cursed at Beverly, resorting to physical violence when he didn't get his way.
Anger Issues
Beverly was a single parent who struggled with drug addiction. She worked a graveyard shift at the local convenience store and had two children from a previous marriage, both of whom were significantly older than Nicholas. By the time he was 13, Nicholas had already accrued a juvenile criminal record.
Acting Out
The troubled boy had several run-ins with the law, including truancy, breaking and entering, theft, and threatening his teachers with bodily harm.
Eventually, Beverly asked her oldest son, Jason, to move back in with the family. She hoped his presence would help deter Nicholas from acting out. However, Jason had demons of his own—which only fueled Nicholas' bad behavior.
Escalating Tension
Jason was a cocaine addict with a violent temper. He and Nicholas frequently fought—which is why, when Nicholas never arrived home on the evening of June 13, the Barclays were unfazed. Nicholas had run away before, but he never left for long. This time, however, Nicholas had a legitimate reason to flee.
Reason to Leave
On June 14, 1994, the day after he disappeared, Nicholas Barclay was scheduled for a sentencing hearing. The teenager had been caught breaking into a convenience store and stealing a pair of shoes. If convicted, Nicholas would potentially be sent to live in a group home.
Did Nicholas skip town to avoid being stripped of his freedom?
Typical Behavior
Jason told Nicholas to walk home from the basketball court alone. It was only a mile or two from their house in San Antonio, Texas. Nicholas never made it back.
When Beverly reported her son missing, the local authorities took their time to respond. Nicholas hadn't exactly been favored among law enforcement, and with his upcoming trial, police figured that he wouldn't be gone for long. He was only carrying $5 on him. Twenty-four hours passed, and then forty-eight. There was still no sign of the 13-year-old.
Three Months Later
Nicholas was small for his age, only 4'8" and eighty pounds. On the day of his disappearance, Nicholas had been wearing a white shirt, purple pants, and a pink backpack. Authorities thought his outfit would attract attention, but there were zero reported sightings of Nicholas Barclay—until September of 1994.
Four months after he went missing, Jason called the police. He said that he had seen Nicholas attempting to break into the garage.
Searching for Nicholas
For hours, police scoured the neighborhood. According to Jason, Nicholas had bolted as soon as he noticed his brother, but neither Beverly nor the authorities believed Jason's story. It looked like the investigation was back to square one.
The months wore on with no sign of Nicholas. The Barclays had all but given up. Then, in 1997, the family received a phone call that would change their life forever.
Victim of Abuse
Three years after Nicholas' disappearance, law enforcement officials were contacted by a man from a youth shelter in Linares, Spain. According to the caller, Nicholas Barclay had escaped a child sex trafficking ring. Nicholas, now 16 and living at the youth shelter, had been the victim of heinous abuse for years.
Reclaiming Their Son
The Barclays were in disbelief. Nicholas' sister Carey was flown out to Spain with the help of her employer; it was her first trip out of the country. Carey identified the boy in the youth shelter as her baby brother. The pair flew back to Texas, ready to be reunited with their family for the first time since 1994.
However, when Nicholas arrived home, not everyone was pleased to see him.
The New Nicholas
Nicholas told the authorities that he had been kidnapped on the way home from the basketball court. From there, he was flown to Europe, where his abductors forced him into a child sex trafficking operation. After years of abuse, Nicholas escaped to the youth shelter and informed Spanish law enforcement of his identity. Despite this elaborate story, several things didn't add up.
The blonde-haired, blue-eyed, ill-tempered Nicholas Barclay who disappeared from San Antonio returned a brunette, brown-eyed, eerily calm teenager with a French accent.
Drastic Changes
Nicholas claimed to have picked up a French accent during his formative years in Europe. He told the Barclays that his kidnappers had dyed his hair and altered the color of his eyes in order to conceal his identity. They had also removed his tattoos: the letter "J" on his left shoulder, a "T" on his left hand between the thumb and forefinger, and the letters "L" and "N" on the outside of his left ankle.
The Barclays were just happy to have their boy back in one piece—but not everyone was keen on Nicholas' strange story...
Reliving Memories
For hours, Nicholas and Carey sat together, poring over old family photos. Nicholas' memory had supposedly been wiped clean by years of trauma. Eventually, snippets of the past seemed to come back to him. He was able to identify friends and relatives.
Still, as easily as the Barclays had welcomed this version of Nicholas back into their lives, his new appearance and demeanor aroused suspicion in others.
Growing Doubts
How had Nicholas been smuggled into Spain without a passport? Wasn't it ophthalmologically impossible to alter the color of an individual's eyes? How had he developed so severe an accent in only three years?
Among the disbelieving parties was a private investigator named Charlie Parker. To him, Nicholas hadn't just become quieter with time—he seemed more mature. Far too mature, in fact, for a 16-year-old boy.
The Investigation Begins
At first, the family did their best to keep Nicholas away from the media frenzy. Finally, after three months, the Barclays authorized their permission for Hard Copy, a tabloid news TV show, to film a segment on Nicholas.
Along with the interviewer came P.I. Charlie Parker, who had been part of Nicholas' original case. Parker was wary of Nicholas. In his gut, he knew that something wasn't right.
All in the Ears
Parker lingered in the background while Nicholas was interviewed. Nicholas was handed an old photograph of himself as a child. That's when Parker saw a critical difference between the boy in the photograph and the man sitting before him.
"Zoom in on his ears," he said to the cameraman.
Caught in a Lie
The cameraman, confused, heeded his orders. Parker studied Nicholas' ears, comparing them to the ears of the boy in the photograph. They didn't match. From years of experience as a private investigator, Parker knew one thing was for certain: the one part of your body that never changed with age was your ears.
Nicholas had refused to name his abductors, allegedly out of fear. He also wouldn't submit to blood tests, nor did the Barclays force him to have his fingerprints analyzed.
Now, Parker had evidence that Nicholas Barclay wasn't Nicholas Barclay at all.
The FBI Intervenes
Parker was able to obtain a court order from the FBI for Nicholas' fingerprints and DNA. There was nowhere left to hide. In February of 1998, the Barclays learned the truth about the man who had been living in their home since December of the previous year.
Frederic Bourdin
23-year-old Frederic Pierre Bourdin was a French citizen posing as 16-year-old Nicholas Barclay. Bourdin was known by Interpol as "The Chameleon."
Interpol had been in pursuit of Bourdin for years. Bourdin spent his entire life impersonating missing children, posing under at least 500 different false identities and aliases. When Bourdin got wind of the Nicholas Barclay case, he knew it was the perfect ruse.
Why Did He Do It?
When a Spanish police officer commented that Bourdin bore a slight resemblance to the missing Barclay boy from America, he embraced the persona with ease. Bourdin was able to masquerade as Nicholas for three-and-a-half months, and no one was the wiser. Bourdin successfully duped the FBI, Spanish law enforcement, and even the Barclays themselves—but Parker knew of an outlier.
Someone in the Barclay family suspected Bourdin had been lying about his identity.
Tragedy Strikes
In February of 1998, right before Bourdin was outed to the world, Parker had approached Jason Barclay, Nicholas' older brother, to ask if he was convinced by Bourdin's performance. Jason admitted that he had begun to question the identity of his alleged "younger brother."
However, as soon as Parker attempted to interview Jason, he overdosed on cocaine. Jason's death was considered a suicide by the FBI.
Jason Knew Something
Jason was the last known person to have spoken to Nicholas Barclay. He had been questioned by authorities several times, including P.I. Parker, regarding his brother's case. Jason was also the only person to supposedly see Nicholas four months after he vanished.
What had Jason been hiding—and why had he taken it with him to the grave?
Bourdin Had Information
After Bourdin was exposed as a fraud, he pleaded guilty to passport fraud and perjury in 1998, confessing that he had pretended to be Nicholas Barclay after gathering his information from a missing child center. He was sentenced to six years in prison, which was over three times what the sentencing guidelines recommended. The harm he had done to the Barclay family was irreparable.
Then, Bourdin claimed that he knew more about Nicholas Barclay than he was letting on.
Contradicting Statements
Bourdin first told authorities that he had met Nicholas, still alive, while he was living in Spain. He then said that he had proof that Nicholas was deceased. Later, Bourdin denied having met Nicholas in the first place, insisting that he knew nothing at all about the Barclay case.
Although these opposing theories were clearly a product of Bourdin trying to save his own skin, he then proposed a disturbing theory—one so convincing that it caused authorities to dive deeper into Nicholas' disappearance.
The Barclays' Secret
Bourdin didn't believe the Barclays' grief was authentic. While in police custody, he offered this unsettling caveat: Why had the Barclay family welcomed him into their home with open arms when it was so painfully obvious that he wasn't their son?
Bourdin was visibly older. He had different hair, eyes, facial features, and a mysterious French accent. He "couldn't remember" anything about Nicholas' childhood in San Antonio. It just didn't add up.
The only reason the Barclays allowed Bourdin to pose as their son was because they had no other choice.
Murder and Lies
Bourdin told authorities that he believed a member of the Barclay family had been responsible for Nicholas' murder. The Barclays knew Bourdin was an imposter from the start, but they accepted him as their son in order to cover up a crime. The only Barclay that didn't seem to buy Bourdin's act? Jason Barclay.
He couldn't pretend that Bourdin was his brother because he knew the truth.
Supporting Evidence
Bourdin's theory was so convincing that even Charlie Parker took it seriously.
Parker discovered that there were several police reports documenting domestic disturbances at the Barclay household following Nicholas' disappearance. Between July and September, the authorities were contacted twice by Beverly Dollarhide, but she dismissed them upon arrival. Each time the police paid the Barclays a visit, Beverly and Jason were "exchanging words."
As time went on, Jason's behavior became increasingly unhinged.
Grief and Guilt
Jason was arrested for using force against a police officer. Beverly, fed up with Jason's actions, kicked her eldest son out of the house. Nicholas' disappearance had unearthed something dangerous in Jason; he went on a drug bender to assuage his guilt. The following year, Jason checked into rehab. He remained at the facility after completing the program as a counselor.
Even after "Nicholas" had been found, Jason declined to meet him at the airport. He refused to see him for the first six weeks after he arrived.
The Long Con
Finally, Jason came back to the house to face Bourdin. Even then, Bourdin described Jason as "standoffish." In front of his family, Jason felt pressured to hug Bourdin. He invited Bourdin inside alone and handed him a gift: a gold cross necklace.
"It was like he had to give it to me," Bourdin said. Jason clasped the necklace around Bourdin's neck, said goodbye, and never came back.
For the first time, Bourdin grew suspicious of Jason, despite the fact that Bourdin himself was the fraud. "It was clear that Jason knew what had happened to Nicholas," he said.
Denying the Truth
Parker was in communication with veteran F.B.I agent Nancy Fisher, who shared his original conviction that Bourdin wasn't Nicholas Barclay. When Fisher tried to inquire whether Beverly might know who abducted and sexually abused Nicholas, she became "surly and uncooperative."
Fisher understood that Beverly and the rest of the Barclays missed Nicholas dearly, and they would go to any lengths cling to the illusion that he had returned—but when Fisher tried to persuade Beverly and Bourdin to submit blood samples for a DNA test, she was met with tense resistance.
"How dare you say he's not my son," Beverly told Fisher. Later, when Fisher returned with a warrant, Beverly had begun to spiral.
They Knew He Wasn't Nicholas
"I go to her house to get a blood sample, and she lies on the floor and says she's not going to get up," said Fisher. "I said, 'Yes, you are.'"
Fisher managed to obtain both Bourdin and Beverly's fingerprints, which she sent to the State Department. Meanwhile, Bourdin's ruse was rapidly deteriorating. Bourdin claims that Beverly seemed cold when she greeted him at the airport. Jason had only seen his "brother" once since he returned from Europe. As time wore on, Beverly had begun to treat Bourdin like he didn't belong.
Bourdin cites that Beverly, drunk and enraged, screamed at him, "I know that God punished me by sending you to me. I don’t know who the hell you are. Why the **** are you doing this?"
Someone Was Lying
While in custody, Barclay proposed his theory, alleging that Beverly and Jason had been complicit in Nicholas' murder. The authorities couldn't trust a pathological liar like Bourdin, but he raised their suspicions nonetheless. Jack Stick, a federal prosecutor, began working with Fisher. The two edged toward the possibility of a homicide investigation.
Stick and Fisher compiled evidence suggesting that the Barclay household was violent and unsafe. Beverly had been a high-functioning heroin addict, and officials at Nicholas' school had expressed their concern for Nicholas, who was often covered in bruises. They believed that he was being abused. In fact, directly before Nicholas disappeared, the school had alerted child-protective services.
The Polygraph Test
Beverly was asked to take a polygraph test. She complied, and Fisher observed from a nearby room. Beverly was asked twice if she knew the whereabouts of Nicholas Barclay, which she denied. According to the test, Beverly was telling the truth—but the polygraph examiner told Fisher that Beverly might be lying. If she was on drugs, the test would be inaccurate. They decided to wait several hours until the effects of any narcotics, including methadone, had diminished.
The test was administered once more. Beverly was asked the same question. This time, the machine went wild, indicating that Nicholas' mother had told a lie.
We Need to Talk About Jason
Beverly ran out of the room, exclaiming that she "[didn't] have to put up with this." Next, Fisher wanted to interview Jason, but she found it nearly impossible to get ahold of him. When they finally met, several weeks after Bourdin's arrest, Fisher asked why Jason had avoided seeing his supposed brother for almost two months.
"I said, 'Here's your brother, long gone, kidnapped, and aren't you eager to see him?'" Fisher recalled. "He said, 'Well, no.' I said, 'Did he look like your brother to you?' 'Well, I guess.'"
Fisher was confused by Jason's begrudging response. She began to suspect that Jason had indeed been, in some way, responsible for the disappearance of Nicholas Barclay. Stick agreed.
The Final Accusation
After their initial meeting, Jason refused to be in contact with the authorities without the presence of a lawyer. However, as a P.I., Parker wasn't bound by the same legal restrictions. He repeatedly pursued Jason, pressing him for answers. Finally, Parker outright accused Jason of killing his brother.
"I think you did it," Parker said to him. "I don't think you meant to do it, but you did."
Parker said that Jason didn't respond; he just stared at him in silence.
Weeks later, Parker saw Beverly while driving around San Antonio. She told him that Jason had died of a cocaine overdose. Before the interview with Parker, her son had been clean for over a year.
The World's Worst Liar
A decade after Bourdin's arrest, Beverly got clean and stayed that way. She admitted that she might have taken something—"probably" a cocktail of heroin, methadone, and alcohol—prior to the polygraph exam. Parker said that Beverly "looked like someone whose life had taken everything out of her."
"I'm the world's worst liar," she said. "I can't lie worth crap."
When asked whether she thought Jason hurt Nicholas, she hesitated before saying that she didn't think that was the case.
This Is Who I Am
Beverly did recognize that when Jason was on cocaine, he transformed into a "[total] wacko—a completely different person—and it was scary." At one point, Jason even physically assaulted his father. She added that Jason's drug habit only got out of control after Nicholas vanished.
As of now, Nicholas' whereabouts remain unknown. Beverly has to live with the loss of her sons, and Frederic "The Chameleon" Bourdin has been released from prison. In 2008, Bourdin started a family; he and his wife had five children together, but he made a Facebook post in 2017 stating that she had left him for another man.
At first, Bourdin claimed that he would "never impersonate anyone again." However, after the birth of his first child, The New Yorker staff writer David Grann asked Bourdin if he was a new person after becoming a father and a husband.
Bourdin replied, "No, this is who I am."