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One of the most chilling documentaries, The Imposter has been released on Netflix UK and tells the story of Frédéric Bourdin, who stole the identity of Nicholas Barclay.
Barclay, a teen from San Antonio, Texas, was 13 when he disappeared in 1994, and is still missing, nearly three decades later.
Bourdin was nicknamed "The Chameleon" for his ability to assume the identity of his victims with ease. He began assuming false identities very early in his life and claimed to have assumed at least five hundred false identities, out of which three were missing teenagers.
The disappearance of Nicholas Barclay still remains a mystery
1) Nicholas Barclay was 13 when he went missing
On June 13, 1994, 13-year-old Nicholas Barclay was playing basketball with his friends in his hometown of San Antonio, Texas. The teenager was Caucasian with light brown hair, blue eyes, and weighed around 79 pounds (36 kgs) and was 4'8'' tall.
Three years after Nicholas went missing, Frédéric Bourdin strategically took over his identity and managed to convince the former’s family that he was Nicholas.
2) Bourdin found out about Nicholas Barclay through an American hotline for missing children
Before assuming the American teen's identity, Frédéric Bourdin learned to impersonate the director of a Spanish children’s shelter.
He called an American hotline for missing children and provided an accurate description of himself. Following this, the person on the other end gave him Nicholas Barclay's name.
Pleased with the information he got about the boy, Boudin told the operator:
“I have some good news. Nicholas Barclay is standing right beside me”.
This happened in 1997 when Nicholas was supposed to be 16.
3) On the day of his disappearance, his elder brother denied him a ride home
Nicholas Barclay was the youngest of three children, and had an older brother and sister. Nicholas often got into trouble with the law and even had a juvenile criminal record from an early age. Most of these were for stealing, or breaking and entering.
On the day he disappeared, he was playing basketball with his friends when he called his elder brother Jason for a ride back home. However, Jason refused the ride and asked Nicholas to walk home. That was the last time the family saw or heard from Nicholas, who had only $5 on him at the time.
4) Frédéric Bourdin lived with Nicholas' family for almost 5 months
After obtaining Nicholas' details, Bourdin realized that he was trapped in his own lies. Even though he convinced the phone operator that he was Nicholas, there was no way he could convince the teenager's family that he was indeed their child.
Additionally, Bourdin didn't look like Nicholas and had different features than him. However, at the end of the day, he prepared himself and managed to fool the Barclay family for nearly five months.
5) Bourdin gave himself a fake tattoo to become Nicholas Barclay
Along with wearing blue contacts and dyeing his hair to match Nicholas, Bourdin also began using a Texan accent. When Frédéric learned that Nicholas had a distinctive finger tattoo, he managed to get himself a similar tattoo.
Frédéric originally had brown eyes, dark hair and a French accent, none of which stopped him from taking up Nicholas' identity.
He then came up with an insane story about his kidnapping, and attributed his accent and eye color to living in Europe for two years. He also said that it was a result of a child pr*stitution ring he was trapped in.
The American and Spanish governments had no doubts after Carey, Nicholas' elder sister, claimed that he was her younger brother. Frédéric ended up living with the family for nearly five months before he was caught in his own lies and the family began questioning him and his story.
You can now stream The Imposter on Netflix UK.
