Murder With My Husband - 143. Nicholas Barclay - The Mysterious Discovery

Episode Date: December 19, 2022

On this episode of MWMH, Payton and Garrett discuss the disappearance and mysterious discovery of Nicholas Barclay. Links: https://linktr.ee/murderwithmyhusband Case Sources: “The Imposter,” documentary, directed by Bart Layton, released 2012 Ksat.com, “Case of missing San Antonio boy from 1994 remains a mystery,” by Erica Hernandez, May 2, 2019 History101.com, “The incredible, disturbing true story of Nicholas Barclay and his masterful imposter,” copyright 2022 Wise Elements Inc. Allthatsinteresting.com, “The Mystery of Nicholas Barclay and His Impostor, Frederic Bourdin,” by Katie Serena, March 6, 2018, updated October 18, 2018 Websleuths.com, TX – Nicholas Barclay, 13, San Antonio, 13 June 1994, Noirdame79, October 27, 2021 Brenmar71.medium.com, photo of Nicholas Barclay Historybyday.com, “The True Story of a Missing Boy and His Imposter.” Livingmgz.com, Living Magazine, “Social Media Photo Brings a Breakthrough in Missing Persons Case,” by Hadar Gerlitz, no date provided Mysanantonio.com, “These San Antonio residents vanished and have never been found,” by Mark Dunphy, November 13, 2020, updated September 22, 2021 Newyorker.com, The New Yorker, “The Chameleon; The many lives of Frederic Bourdin,” by David Grann, August 4, 2008 Charleyproject.org, The Charley Project, “Nicholas Patrick Barclay,” last updated July 16, 2022 U.S. Census Bureau, San Antonio population (1994) Assisted research and writing by Diane Birnholz Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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I'm the husband. Well, happy holidays, everyone. I hope you guys are all having a good week. I really hope that December has been a good month for everyone. It's currently snowing outside where we are. At least at the time of recording this. Yeah, it's kind of been snowing all day. Yeah, it's been snowing off and on all day.

So we've been hunkered inside. Peyton and I don't love this snow. Nope. You know, I know this would never work, but I wish that you could go to amusement parks, Disneyland, and Universal Studios, whatever it is. And there's only a set amount of people, and it's just not crowded. You know what I'm saying?

I think they have maximum capacity. For example, maybe I'm the only one in Disneyland that day. Okay. Maybe you want to be a Kardashian? Maybe not that far, but you know what I'm saying? I know they have a capacity, but I mean, it's not like it makes a difference that the lines are still 10 hours long.

And I'm sure from a business standpoint, I get it. It's extremely difficult. They want to make money and all that. But it would just be nice whether we like, okay, the day that we bought tickets to go to Universal or the day we bought tickets to go to Disneyland, I can get on a ride in 20 minutes

It kind of did used to be that way. I feel like so growing up or growing up in California Granted, this is when Disneyland was a lot cheaper and buying a pass was like 100 bucks for the entire year Mm-hmm And I could just go as a Southern California resident as much as we want. It was way less credit I get on splash mountain in like 15 minutes, space mountain in like 15 minutes. Grand I was like eight to 14 years old.

But it's not like that anymore. You said you would go to Disneyland because that was all, those were the only season passes that your family would buy. So you said you would go there. Oh, we go all the time. So much that you like didn't like Disneyland. Yeah, we go there so much.

I mean, $100 for a year. Yeah, I mean, that's a lot, but considering that you can go every single week. I mean, it's a lot, but considering you got to eat three times, yeah, spend a hundred bucks, then all of a sudden you're going to Disneyland for a year. Yeah, especially as kids. It's not like that anymore though, but anyways, I guess what I'm saying is if you work at Disneyland or you work at Universal Studios and you want to show Peyton and I around, we are not opposed to it. All right, our case sources are the Imposter documentary, ksat.com, history101.com, all

it's interesting.com, websluse.com, historybyday.com, livingmagazine.com, mysanantonio.com, the New Yorker.com, and theitoneo.com, theNewYorker.com, and theCharlieProject.org. Okay, our episode today begins quite simply with the birth of a little boy named Nicholas Barclay. He was actually born on December 31, 1980, a true New Year's Eve baby. Now Nicholas was born in Utah to his mother Beverly Dollar Hide, but Beverly already had two children from a previous marriage, both of whom weren't much older than Nicholas. A sister named Carrie and a brother

named Jason. Now Nicholas's mother wasn't married to Nicholas's father, and according to the New Yorker, Nicholas had almost no relationship with his father, who for a long time didn't even know that Nicholas was his son. And as Nicholas or Nikki, which his family called him, grew into a child, he became a huge fan of Michael Jackson, and proudly wore a jacket around that was just like Michaels. Nicholas had blonde hair and blue eyes, and weighed only 80 pounds at 13 years old. He was very, very small for his age.

He had a gap between his two front teeth that was very memorable. And at some point during his childhood, Beverly and Nicholas ended up together in San Antonio, Texas, where they would become Texans. But according to those in Nicholas' life, the older he got, the harder of a child he became. According to the 2012 documentary about the case called the imposter, his mother Beverly said that it was hard to discipline Nicholas. In 1994, he was 13 going on 30, she said, and that he always did what he wanted to.

And according to all its interesting dot com, Nicholas had quote, a violent temper and an unruly attitude problem. At 13, Nicholas also had now gotten three tattoos. He had a cross, also described as the letter T on his right hand, a J on his left shoulder, and the letters L and N inside of his right ankle. Nicholas also had gotten into trouble with the law. He had a court hearing coming up at just 13 years old. And according to Livingmagazine.com,

he managed to accumulate a juvenile criminal record for felonies, like breaking and entering, stealing, truancy, and threatening his school teachers. Nicholas struggled in school. He was frequently truant, and when he went to school, he did get in fights with his teachers. According to CharlieProject.com, Nicholas had been diagnosed with ADD and had run away from home before during the night. This didn't lead to much work for the family though because he was described as a street smart boy despite his young age. Whenever

he would run away, it's not like they would immediately call the cops because they knew he was going to come back. And at this point in his life, things were dysfunctional in the dollar-hide barclay household. So with him and his mom, according to websluse.com, their reports that Nicholas had hit his mother during their fighting. All was just not well in the household. There were phone calls to police to come out to the house as a result of domestic disturbances. And I do think it's important to note here, according to the New Yorker, Beverly worked the night shift at a Duncan Donets 7 nights a week during this time period. She also struggled with a heroin addiction,

which she was actively trying to kick. In spite of this, Beverly was a hard worker and Nicholas always had food and shelter, but despite what could be called a hard shell, Beverly had a hidden kindness to her. She dropped leftover Donets at the homeless shelter every morning after her shift. So despite their home life being hard and violent

and turbulent, she was always providing and working hard for him. They lived in a typical suburban San Antonio neighborhood with sidewalks, grass and trees, but because of the turbulent home, Beverly decided to bring her older son, Jason, to help her with raising Nicholas. Things had just gotten so bad that she said,

can you please come live with us and help me with him? He's only 13 and causing this much trouble. You're right. So just because he's at a control. Yes. That would be really hard as a single mother. Mm-hmm. Props to that. To be raising a child teenager who's acting like that.

That's a boy I don't know what you do. I don't either. And't, I don't know what you do. I don't either. And again, I don't know. She had, you know, she was struggling as well in her personal life with her heroin addiction that she was actively trying to take. Sure, yeah, I mean, I guess I got a,

so I don't mention that. I think that I only add that so you know that it wasn't all just Nicholas's fault as well. No, 100%. I mean, he's gonna feed off of where she's doing and if he's not raised in a good household and quotations because she's doing heroin while raising him, then that makes it even harder.

I mean, I think they're both actively trying, but it's just hard, life's hard. Yeah. And then when she brings her older son, Jason, in the situation, he also had his own drug issues, though, and introducing him into the mix seem to in the situation. He also had his own drug issues, though, and introducing him into the mix seemed to make the situation even more volatile. And this is what 13-year-old Nicholas' life looked like during the summer of 1994. He had a court date soon for his

mishaps. He was fighting with his mother often, and his older brother had just moved in to kind of help remedy it. It was June 13th, 1994, when our case really began. Nicholas is reportedly at the park in San Antonio playing basketball with his friends. This actually might have happened a few days earlier, but most sources claim this happens on the 13th. Either way, it's the same ending. He's playing ball within a couple miles of home at Fort Sam Houston, which is a military base pretty much in the center of San Antonio.

According to his family, his mom told him to be home for dinner that night, and she gave him $5 just in case he would need it with his friends. Now when he was done playing basketball, Nicholas used a pay phone, again, 1994, kids didn't just have cell phones, and he asked to be picked up. His mom was sleeping. Again, she works the night shift, so it was Nicholas's older half-brother Jason who answers the phone. According to Jason, although Nicholas wanted a ride, Jason reportedly didn't want to wake

his mom up to go get him. So he said, no, Jason tells Nicholas, hey, just walk home and please get here in time for dinner. Beverly says, a little while later later she woke up to find that Nicholas had not listened and was not home. She asked Jason about it and Jason told her what he knew. Nicholas had called him a while back while he was playing basketball and asked for a ride home, but he told them to just walk home. But Nicholas should have made it home by now. And early enough, Nicholas would never make it home that night because he had

disappeared. Okay. With everything in mind about Nicholas' home life and past, understand that his family didn't report him missing immediately. Remember, he's run away from school. Also, his court hearing was actually scheduled for the next day that would be June 14th. So there was almost this thought that he was just skipping out on that, because there was a possibility he would be sent to Juvee as a result of it. So his mom can't help but go, well, maybe, you know, he just doesn't

want to go to court tomorrow. Everyone thought it was very possible. And even likely that he'd run away to avoid these impending consequences. It's possible that as many as three days went by before Nicholas's family contacted the police about him not coming home. However, according to his family, his time went on, they reportedly realized that he was missing in the sense that something bad could have happened to him. Maybe he hadn't just run away, maybe he wasn't just out on the streets, like they're like, okay, I think he's gone. After all, he only had $5 on him, which clearly wouldn't last long. Nicholas hadn't taken any of his personal belongings or clothes with him either.

And because of the situation, the police initially don't take it very seriously when Nicholas is finally reported missing. Plus, this was a tough missing person's case. There was no cell phone to trace back then. Nicholas didn't have any credit cards. He was only 13 years old. He only had $5 and wouldn't be able to buy a ticket or any sort of thing. The police figured the only way he could have left would have been on foot or by hitchhiking.

Needless to say, even as time passed, police weren't taking Nicholas's missing person report very seriously. And for some reason, the police continued to be called out to the house after Nicholas disappeared over domestic issues. These calls would apparently have involved Beverly and Jason as they seem to be the only two still living in the household. Interesting. According to websluse.com, Beverly called the police on July 12, 1994. This would be a month after Nicholas went missing. When an officer arrived, though, she insisted she was all right. Jason

told the officer that his mother was drinking and screaming at him because her other son ran away. A few weeks later, the police were called out to the house again by Beverly about what authorities described as family violence. The officer on scene reported that Beverly and Jason were exchanging words. So what were they now all of the sudden fighting about when originally they claimed Nicholas was the reason for all of their legal troubles. So they're always like, oh, Nicholas is the reason the cops are coming. Nicholas is the one causing the fights, but then Nicholas disappears and these fights

are still happening. I could be wrong. I just really hope that one of them did not go and kill Nicholas because I don't know, that would be pretty crazy. After these visits from police, something weird happened. Three months after the family reported Nicholas missing, Jason called police and said that he saw his younger brother, Nicholas, trying to break into the family's garage.

He said Nicholas fled when Jason caught him doing this. So maybe he really had been a runaway all along. According to websluse.com, this happened on September 25th, 1994. But when police responded to this call that Nicholas had been found and he was trying to break into the garage, they didn't find any evidence of a break-in or any evidence that Nicholas had been there at all. According to Ksat.com, police searched all over for Nicholas, but there was no trace of him. They came to believe that his brother never really saw him that night. He just said he did. This was the first time police began to believe that something else was going on in this case. According to the Charlie

Project, even Beverly doesn't believe Jason's story about the break-in and Nicholas showing back up. Why would Jason lie about Nicholas being there, though? They had no clue. And with no evidence, his disappearance would go cold. And Nicholas's case fades further into the background. His brother, Jason's own life begins to deteriorate. There's a report that his drug usage is escalating and that he used force against a police officer. In late 1996, Jason Barkley went to rehab for his cocaine addiction. Now, was this complete change in life natural drug addiction? Was this the woes of his brother's tragic disappearance weighing him down? Or is this something else entirely? Why do Beverly and Jason fall apart?

Which is interesting because as of now, there is no way in my mind that Beverly would have killed Nicholas. Jason maybe, I just don't know why. Like why would they have done it? Doesn't seem like Jason's any better than Nicholas is, so why would they want him gone, you know? Exactly, where's the motive here? Maybe they don't need one though. Parents kill their children all the time.

Guess that's true. And although Nicholas had seemingly vanished, police really weren't working on his case besides logging him into missing persons. They never really actively followed up on anything. That wasn't until October 7, 1997, when the unthinkable happened. The thing that never happens in these cases. Jason is still living at rehab when he hears the news. His missing brother Nicholas had been found. It's October 1997 and you are about to be even more confused because police claim to have found Nicholas Barclay in Spain. Alive? Yes. No way, there's no way. has police claimed to have found Nicholas Barclay in Spain. A life?

Yes. No way, there's no way. You heard me. It's been three years since he went missing and police are saying it's in Spain. In Spain? Hey, Spain's not a bad place though, I'll take it. So he went missing in Texas and he was found three years

and four months later in Spain. And here's how it all went down. Jumping into an ad and it is native. I use their body wash. I use their shampoo. We use their sunscreen, everything. Or deodorant. We are big native fans over here. And the funny thing is is I caught myself wanting to buy native products at stores. And then I was like, why am I doing that? Murder with my husband literally has a code. You can use promo code husband and get money off your native

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And like Payton said, I'm always on it, checking things out, seeing what's going on, seeing how many Amazon packages patent her by. Is that how you find out about my Amazon packages? No, I just get emails. Oh, my email on your account. Over 3 million people have already used Rocket Money, saving the average person up to $720 a year.

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He seemed scared, dirty, and hungry, and he also had no form of identification on him. When the tourists realized that the young boy wasn't talking, they knew they couldn't just leave him like that and so they decided to call police to come and help. Police responded to the call and initially the boy won't speak. He seems too scared to even try. Because they can't find any information on him, the police decide the best thing to do would be to transfer him to a children's home so he could at least get a bed and some food. While trying to work this out, they finally get the boy to talk.

But the only thing that he will say is that he's been hurt. He's been sexually abused for a while now. Oh. No more details. OK. Now through the process of getting the boy into the group home, police discover that the shelter won't let a kid stay there who doesn't have a proper ID.

He either needed to tell them his name or they would fingerprint and photograph him to try and run it. At a standstill, the boy breaks down and tells authorities that he's an American boy who had run away. Because of the time change, the boy asked to stay in the shelter's office until they would be able to contact his family the next day. The next morning, Nicholas' mom, Beverly Dollar Hide, all the way in Texas, gets a call at work that someone in Spain had found her missing son, Nicholas. His mom called her daughter, Carrie Gibson. This is Nicholas's half sister, at work, to tell her what just happened.

Everyone was so excited, but also they were completely baffled and shocked. But it's been three and a half years since he went missing. So he's just, he wasn't living in Spain for three and a half years. He showed up in Spain three and a half years. He hasn't told anyone. He's just said that he's been sexually abused and he's missing Nicholas.

But his family's like how the freak didn't Nicholas get to Spain. Together, his family calls an official in Spain who confirms that the kid has said he is Nicholas Barclay who went missing from San Antonio, Texas back in 1994. According to Nicholas, he had been walking home from the park that day, when suddenly someone from behind him put a bag over his head and chloroformed him. Oh my gosh.

He said he was brought to Spain where for the past three years he had been abducted into a child's sex ring. He was tortured, abused, and experimented on. He says his kidnappers had injected his eyes with chemicals and he had been forbidden to speak English. He eventually escaped from a walk room in a house in Spain when a guard carelessly left the door open and now here they were. Eventually, Carrie, Nicholas's sister, was allowed to speak to him, and then Beverly, his mother. They are sent photos of Nicholas now, who looks somewhat like his old self.

His hair is a bit darker, his eyes are brown, but the experiments had done that. He still even has the tooth gap and the tattoos. I'm going to be so livid if they sold him for money. His family. Yes. I'm going to take that as a no because he looked a little surprised. So never mind. That's a good thing. Then keep going. So everyone sets up a meeting for Kerry, his sister to come and get him.

But it would take some time. She's going to fly to Spain to pick him up. You would just have to wait a little bit longer. On October 14th, 1997, Nicholas's sister flies to Spain to make sure that it's really him and to bring him home. She goes to see Nicholas along with a diplomat from the US embassy because you have to realize this kid was kidnapped from America so you're now involving the government in this.

According to the New Yorker article, in addition to filling the pressure of having received money from her company to make the trip, she had the burden of deciding, as her family's representative, whether this was her long-lost brother, what had happened, is everything okay, and it's all a miracle. She gets there and identifies them. Him. This is her brother, Nicholas. She knows it, and now she's hugging him. Carrie begins showing Nicholas photos of everything at home to ask if he remembers anything after what he'd been through.

And he does. Carrie can't help but notice how different Nicholas is now after going through what he did. He's quiet, he's calm, he's no longer the angsty teen that she wants new. Also, he had a slight French accent now Which made sense, but it was still hard to look at him and see him as her brother One or more judges in Spain had a hearing to make sure that there was a legal basis that this individual was really Nicholas Barclay and that he could leave the country with his sister. The judge insisted on separate interviews with Nicholas and with Kerry and Kerry stated under oath that this was her brother and the judge confirmed everything this

was Nicholas. He can go home. The officials took his current photo and allowed him to go back to the US with his sister, Kerry. Nicholas Patrick Barclay's passport was issued on October 17th, 1997 at the US Embassy in Madrid, Spain. It feels like from the get-go, everything was kind of already not good. Eniclus' life against him. Against him. And then he gets kidnapped into a sex trafficking ring. That's insane.

You're smiling. Something is going on that I don't know about. So you keep going, because I don't understand what's happening right now. Let's keep going. Okay. On October 18th, 1997, the plane lands in the United States. Back in the US, the whole entire family went to the airport to greet Nicholas. Everyone except his older brother Jason who's still in rehab.

They can't all help but notice the slight changes. They could tell how bad the last three years had been on their family member. He's covered from head to toe when he arrives. He's got scarf, sunglasses, a hat, jacket. Kerry explains that he's been like this the whole time. People note that while the entire family runs up and embraces Nicholas at the airport, Beverly his mom hangs back. She seems bother or skeptical.

What is happening? But how do you analyze this situation? It's so weird. Beverly can't get over how different he was. He doesn't seem like her son that she wants new. But the entire family acknowledges that this is Nicholas and that he's been through things that will change a person. Nicholas went to live with Carrie and her husband, Brian,

rather than with his mom at this point. It was crowded as Carrie and Brian and their two kids lived in a trailer home. But slowly, he started hanging out with the kids at school and he befriended a girl. He's going back to school. He's doing his homework. He's playing video games with his half sister, son Cody.

He calls Beverly Mom. Meanwhile, the FBI needs to be involved in this case now. I mean, this kid has been kidnapped and flown overseas. They need to interview him to get evidence of the crime. They need to figure out who did this to him. On the documentary, FBI Special Agent Nancy Fisher said that to find a child who's been missing for years is extremely rare.

But they find it hard to work with the family once Nicholas gets home. Despite the first initial interview, the family isn't inviting. They don't want any tests done. They don't want him interviewed. Nothing. And there's not much they can do if the family isn't willing to work with them. Maybe they thought we should just let them be.

I mean, what are the chances this kid comes home? Maybe we should just let them be and be happy. Three weeks after Nicholas returned home, another man is catching wind of this incredible story. Charlie Parker, he's a private investigator. He's in his office on November 1st, 1997, when he gets a call from a TV producer from Hard Copy. They've heard about Nicholas's story,

and they want to begin working on a documentary immediately. It's amazing. They want Parker to begin working the case and hopefully figure out what happened in Spain over the last three years and who had done this to this kid. And drawn to the story, Charlie Parker, private investigator agrees.

Nicholas agrees to talk to Charlie, despite his family asking him not to, and they don't want to talk to anybody. But after the interview, Charlie is unsure how to proceed with Nicholas Barclay's story. He expected to meet Nicholas and to be odd, to see the inspiration and to fill his resilience in the pain of what he'd been through. But that just wasn't what happened. Charlie actually didn't think the story made much sense at all. And he felt that Nicholas was really off-putting. First, he couldn't understand how an American 13-year-old could return home to the US with such a strong French

accent. You also noticed that the shadow of a beard was coming in on 16-year-old Nicholas. Holy crap, if this is not Nicholas, I don't even know what to say. Where do you, first of all, how do you not know it's not your son? I mean, I better fit the doubt there or your brother. Second of all, I don't know what is going on. What is going on right now? Stop looking at me like that. Well you and Charlie Parker are wondering the same thing. Okay. He's like, is it possible that Nicholas has a beard?

Sure. But Nicholas was a natural blonde and 16 is kind of young considering that Nicholas was always small and a late bloomer if you will. Why does he have a beard all over the sudden? He also still wore a hat, sunglasses, a scarf. Charlie can't help but wonder why he's covering up so much. In the middle of the interview, he decides to ask the cameraman to zoom in closely on Nicholas's ears. The hunch had taken over, and as an investigator, he knew that ears were almost as distinct as fingerprints. He was now unsure about this whole entire story.

After the meeting, Parker compares a still from the camera to a picture of 13-year-old Nicholas. The ears were as different as could be. And people's ears don't change. Is this an imposter? Charlie Parker believed so, and he was now set to prove it. Frederick Pierre Borden was born on June 13th, 1974. Frederick Pierre, no freaking way.

Nicholas Barclay would be reported missing exactly 20 years later. Nicholas Barclay went missing on Frederick Pierre's birthday. Okay. Borden was 23 years old at the time that he pretending to be 16-year-old Nicholas Barclay was found. He was French. And Borden was a prolific serial impersonator. Okay. His ammo was that he pretended to be missing children and he created fake identities. Incredibly, he went by at least 500 different identities before becoming Nicholas Barclay.

According to LivingMagazine.com, three of those identities were of real missing teenagers. One of those boys was Nicholas. Interpol even had a nickname for Borden, the chameleon. In the documentary, Borden stated, for as long as I remember, I wanted to be someone else, someone who was acceptable. He had a rough childhood and home life that he wanted to get away from. Borden turned 18 in 1992. He didn't want to be an adult. He didn't want to be turned out loose to be on his own. He wanted to be taken care of. Because of this, Borden would take on various identities at this point, and this is when

he turns into a full blown imposter is now his career. Borden provides an explanation in the documentary as to how he became to impersonate Nicholas Barclay. He said that after the tourists found him that day on the streets, he lied and said he was a missing American boy, even though he had no idea where he was going with this one. He didn't know a name that night before he was to call his family the next morning. He sneakily called American police from the office, indeed different police stations in the US. And he impersonated being a Spanish police officer telling them that

they'd found a boy from the US who'd been missing for a few years. The US police said, okay, well, we'll give you the information from the Center for Missing and Exploited Children which is located in Alexandria, Virginia. Boarding called the center and said a child had been found but no one knew who he was. He loosely described himself all the way down to the gap between his front teeth. He was vague enough to keep open many possibilities. And the center said, oh, we do have a missing kid from 1994 in San Antonio. His name is Nicholas Barclay.

He sounds like the description you've given. So Borden asked for a fax to see what the kid looked like and to get his case file. The center sends Borden impersonating an official, a color photo of Nicholas Barclay and his missing person file. Borden looked at it and decided it was close enough. This would be the next person that he wouldn't posture. He told the Americans, this missing boy is here in Spain. This is Nicholas. This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. Have you ever found yourself at a crossroadsroads unsure of which direction to take in life? We all face those moments of uncertainty where the right path seems elusive.

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family, he had a few weeks before Carrie, his supposed half sister, would be there to get him. He would spend these weeks still at the children's home in Spain, pretending to be Nicholas. He died his hair. He had a roommate use pen ink and a needle to replicate Nicholas's tattoos. He had every detail about the disappearance because he was sent the case file. I can't believe someone helped them like do all this. At one point, he even got scared that it wouldn't work and he tried to run away, but was found and brought back. He came up with the story to explain the different eye color that this

alleged sex ring had performed experiments on his eyes, but there was still so much he didn't know. He didn't know family names. He didn't know if Nicholas was right-handed or left-handed. But when Kerry shows up and embraces him, he can't believe his plan is working. He decided to stay covered up in case anyone would notice the subtle differences. His hairline was also starting to recede because he's 23, which wouldn't work if he was supposed to be 16, so a hat would be necessary to wear at all times.

According to the New Yorker, after moving in with Carrie, their cramped trailer home was not exactly the vision of America that Borden had imagined from the movies. He shared a foam mattress on the floor, but Borden knew that if he were to become Nicholas and to continue to fool this family, he had to learn everything about him. And he began to mine information, secretly rummaging through drawers and picture albums

and watching home videos, studying Nicholas's behavior. When Bordin discovered a detail about Nicholas's past from one family member, he would repeat it to another. He pointed out, for example, that Brian once got mad at Nicholas for knocking Cody out of a treatises the people that he lived with. He knew that story, Cody recalls, still amazed by the amount of intelligence that Borden required about the family. Beverly noticed that Borden, Nell, in front of the television, just like Nicholas had.

Various members of the family said that when Borden seemed more standoffish than Nicholas or spoke with a strange accent, they just assumed that it was because of the terrible treatment that he had suffered and that he had spent three years overseas. Okay, so how did the family react? Like, what happened? Well, enter private investigator Charlie Parker, who feels like he has caught on to Borden's act.

Parker said he called several ophthalmologists and asked if it was possible for eyes to be changed from blue to brown by injecting chemicals. The doctor said no. Parker also spoke to a dialect expert who told him that even if someone was held in captivity for three years, he would regain his native accent rather quickly. Now that Charlie Parker himself has concluded that he believes Nicholas was a fraud, he has to come up with a reason that Nicholas would do this and he concluded that Nicholas was a spy from Spain. He decided to call the FBI and inform them of his suspicions, and they didn't believe him. The family had ID'd him, for heaven's sakes. The local police had Ideed him.

Why would they interfere? In around early December 1997, about a month and a half after Nicholas, whose boarding returns. According to the documentary, Borden said the only family member he hadn't met yet was Nicholas's half-brother, Jason. Borden thought this was odd. After Borden was with the family for one and a half months, Jason, his brother, finally showed up to see him. Borden later said that Jason wouldn't even look him in the eye.

According to WebSloose, Jason just looked at him wearily and left. Jason told him, good luck, and would never return to see him again. There's gotta be something that Jason knows. There has to be something else going on. According to Borden, it was clear that Jason knew what had happened to Nicholas and knew that he wasn't Nicholas. Which is so, see, they're both gotta be involved.

Jason has to be involved somehow, which is why he's not saying, I know this isn't Nicholas, or something going on. For the first time, Borden began to wonder who was conning who in this family. Yep. According to LivingMagazine.com, after two months of being held in America, Borden started to fall apart. He was moody, he was a loof, and he was weirdering out his Cody put it. He stopped going to his classes, and he got suspended. In December, he took Brian and Carrey's car and drove

to Oklahoma. The police pulled him over for speeding and he was arrested. Shortly before Christmas that year, Borden went into the bathroom, grabbed a razor, and began to mutilate his face. He was then put in a psychiatric ward for several days of observation. It was after this visit that he wrote in a notebook, when you fight monsters, be careful that in the process you do not become one yourself. After this, FBI Special Agent Fisher took Borden to Houston to supposedly deal with the trauma he'd suffered.

In actuality, it seems like the FBI was taking him to an expert who could help determine if Nicholas was a fraud or not. So at this point, the FBI has caught on. The only people who are saying no, no, no, no, he's not a fraud is Nicholas's own family. Borden was taken to Texas Children's Hospital in Houston. The expert who was to interview him was Bruce D. Perry. Borden repeated all of his stories about being kidnapped, but Dr. Perry didn't see the psychological signs you should see if someone's relating to actual trauma.

Also, he couldn't speak English without an accent, which was weird at this point. Dr. Perry thought this wasn't possible given that Nicholas was raised in Texas. This PhD knew that this Nicholas wasn't raised in an English speaking family. He knew that this individual couldn't be Nicholas Barclay, and this is what he reports back to the FBI. But the big question is, how could the family not know this, but everyone else is catching onto it? No, the family knew it. 100% everyone in the family knew,

and they're covering up for something. The FBI decides to confront Carrie, who bored and is living with. In the documentary, Fisher states that she told Carrie that Nicholas is not American, not actually Nicholas, and could be dangerous. This is not who you think it is. Fisher and the FBI tried to get Beverly and Nicholas to give their blood samples so they

could see once and for all whether this Nicholas was Nicholas, but it wasn't. It was born in and they both adamantly refused to. We know why Bordin's refusing to give his blood sample. But why is Nicholas's mother refusing to give her blood sample to compare to this now-niculous? According to LivingMagZine.com, by the middle of February, four months after Bordin arrived, special agent Fisher was able to obtain warrants to force the family to cooperate. They were suspicious enough. I go to her house to get a blood sample she says and she lies on the floor and says she's not going to give it up. The mom, Beverly.

Special agent fisher looks at her and says yes you are. The FBI of course is now even more suspicious. There was no reason to accept a stranger into their lives unless they had something too hide because everyone else at this point knows this man is a stranger, and they're the only ones insisting this is their son. So the FBI gets a warrant to get blood samples from the family and to get Bordin's fingerprints. Several special agents at this point go to pick up Nicholas, who is Borden, and they get his fingerprints,

and they send them to Interpol and to embassies to see if they'd get a match. Borden had lived with the family as Nicholas for three and a half months at this point, but authorities compare and realize that it can't be the same person. Fingertrins identify Nicholas as the chameleon Frederick Pierre Borden, and they fax records to the FBI. Now Borden is arrested at this point, four and a half months after arriving into the FBI. Now, Borden is arrested at this point. Four and a half months after arriving into the US, the news stories are huge because first it was, oh my gosh, missing kid found and now it's like, oh my gosh, he's not real. While all of this is going on,

it seems like the FBI and the local police are less concerned about Fredrick. And now, more than ever, more concerned about Nicholas, a boy who they originally thought was a runaway, but because of everyone's behavior when Borden arrived, they now believe that he had been harmed that day by someone who knew about it. The investigation turns on to the family, who almost knowingly accepted a stranger into their home pretending it was their own family member. Beverly's home is searched, her yard is dug up, and nothing comes of it. As this is going on, Jason, who refused to come see his found brother for two months,

dies of an overdose. Frederick was sentenced to six years in prison for conning the family, more than three times what the sentencing guidelines suggested. It just seems strange to me that there's people who sexually assault younger kids and don't get six years in prison. But he cons a family who I'm not sure what's happened yet, but likely knows that their son is dead. Knows they're being conned. And he gets six years in prison.

Yeah. That's that's kind of ridiculous. Anyways, keep going. The homicide investigation into the disappearance of Nicholas Barclay at this point is closed due to lack of evidence. Although they believe they know who harmed Nicholas Barclay that day, they have no evidence to prove it.

According to LivingMagasing.com, in my 22 years on the job, I've never seen a case like it. Eric Marl, a prosecutor, said, usually people con for money. His profit seems to have been purely emotional. He just wanted a family. In 2004, three months after he's released and reported, according to the documentary, Frederick Borden then went on to attempt

to steal the identity of missing 14 year old Leo Bay. Oh, okay, I mean, maybe you, he's got to stop doing that. The documentary ends with Borden living in France. He now has a wife and three kids. And the documentary ends with Nicholas Barclay still missing in his family with a huge suspicion. According to a missing person flyer, he was last seen wearing a white t-shirt, purple pants, and black tennis shoes, and he was carrying a pink backpack.

And that is the disappearance of Nicholas Barclay and the mysterious story of his imposter. The family has to know something about it. There has to be something going on that. Why would Jason look at him and say good luck? And then overdose. And then he overdosed. And then the mom just went along with it.

The mother wouldn't even hug boredom at the airport Do you think this sister knew? I don't know. She's the one who took him in or do you think she really wouldn't let him? I don't know. I mean, this is all purely speculation. Yeah, I thought purely speculation because but the FBI is I mean the case is closed because they don't have any evidence They won't have the body nope. Oh my gosh. He's still Missing technically, but because of Jason and Beverly's constant fighting after the disappearance Supposedly over him and then Jason refusing to come see Borden when who's apparently his brother who's found and then them so easily Saying oh yeah, yeah, yeah, it's him and then Beverly not allowing him to live at her home and being so cold to him the whole time. There's obviously some some dynamic that's weird that's going on. Yeah, but how crazy was that? That's some guts.

Okay, you guys, well, that is our episode for this week. And we will see you guys next week with another regular one. I love it. I hate it. Goodbye.