Le Caméléon
August 17, 2012 10:06 PM Subscribe
On June 13, 1994, blond-haired, blue-eyed Nicholas Barclay was
reported missing from his home near San Antonio, Texas. He was 13 years old. In October 1997, the family received a call from a man in Spain informing them their son had been found after having escaped from a child prostitution ring.
Nicholas' half-sister immediately boarded a flight to Spain, where she was reunited with her brother and brought him back with her to Texas. There were a few things though, that seemed a bit off...
Nicholas' hair was now bleached blonde with dark roots. He had brown eyes and spoke with a thick accent. He described horrific torture at the hands of his captors and claimed that he had not been allowed to speak English. His captors had chemically altered his eye and hair color. The family were horrified at his tales of what he had endured.
"Nicholas had changed so much it was mind-boggling," said his mother, "but he’d been through so much he was going to be different.’ His diffidence, his reluctance to talk about what had supposedly happened, his off-key behaviour – all of this she says she attributed to his three-year ordeal. "He was traumatised. So much had happened to him."*
Nicholas' story made national headlines. He eventually aroused the suspicion of lumber-salesman-turned-P.I. Charlie Parker, who investigated Nicholas further and finally confronted him while they were eating at a diner, saying "You gonna tell me who you are?". The boy sitting across from him looked at Charlie and said,
“I’m Frédéric Bourdin and I’m wanted by Interpol.”
The stranger-than-fiction story has now been made into a
documentary called
The Imposter.
Meet
Frédéric Bourdin, a 38 year old conman who has impersonated hundreds of people, mostly children - often missing children, in 15 countries and five languages. Having served short stints in prison, he is a free man today, now married and with three children. He
talks openly about his crimes on his
Facebook and
Twitter.
In the midst of all this, Nicholas Barclay has never been found. The P.I. Charlie Parker believes he is dead and
will continue to search for his body.
(previously) 
posted by jquinby at 10:15 PM on August 17, 2012 [1 favorite]