MovieChat Forums > The Imposter (2012) Discussion > The family killed Nicholas

The family killed Nicholas

posted 10 years ago by deppsgirl18
15 replies | jump to latest

There is just no other explanation. This guy looked older than 15. He had dark roots, wrong eye color, different nose, etc. They didnt want his blood or finger prints taken. There was no reason for the sister and mom to believe he was Nicholas. They went along with it to cover up the fact that either the brother Jason or the step father killed Nicholas. And with someone there as Nicholas, authorities would stop looking for the real Nicholas. What a crazy twist. That guy Bourdin should still be in prison for everything that he did. But someone in this family knows Nicholas is dead and who killed him and the rest are covering for them.

[–] sloveniapower1 9 years ago

no *beep*

[–] The_Boxing_Cat 8 years ago

The family seemed very uneducated- perhaps they wanted Nicholas back so badly, that they went along with the imposter being their son/brother?
I personally would be suspicious and would have investigated further...

[–] pepetoony (1780) 5 years ago

I go back and forth on this. Nicholas being killed by one of the family members indeed does seem the most obvious answer to what happened to him. On the one hand, these aren't exactly educated geniuses we're dealing with here and you can never underestimate the power of the human mind when it WANTS to believe something is true. I watch a ton of true crime shows and it never ceases to amaze me the denial close family members are able to conjure up in their brains to make it fit their narrative. But for the entire family to concurrently be in denial together? That becomes a little harder to believe. You'd think just *one* of them would've at least brought up the fact that something wasn't right!

There were some little things that make me think the family truly did just have their heads buried in the sand though. The first was the way the mom was wiping a tear from her eye in the camcorder footage from the airport upon seeing "Nicholas" again for the first time. Why would she get teary eyed if she didn't truly think it was Nicholas? It wasn't like there was a news crew there filming the event so she didn't need to put on an act. And the second thing is when the sister *claims* that at some point the family turned their grief into action and began printing flyers, etc to try and find Nicholas. Now if they truly did that or not I don't know, but if they did it'd be a pretty unusual thing for a family to do if they already knew he was dead. We see time and time again that when someone is guilty of a murder, they're mysteriously absent or keep their distance from any search efforts (OJ, Michael Peterson, etc). While a lot of the sister's commentary regarding Frédéric Bourdin made me want to slap her across the face and yell "SNAP OUT OF IT!!!", I thought her commentary on how she and her family dealt with Nicholas' disappearance all seemed kosher and jived with what you'd expect from people in that terrible situation.

[–] GordonGartrelle (1268) 4 years ago

Honestly, I could understad the mom or dad believeing that that may be thier kid because parents never want to give up, but the rest of the family? No way. What about his friends, or his friends parents?

I'm on the boat.
That the family knows Nicholas is not alive.

[–] Noirdame79 (107) 3 years ago

I think his brother killed him as well, and the mother knows or at least suspects. I urge everyone who is interested in this case to read the 2008 article, The Chameleon: The Many Lives Of Frederic Bourdin by David Grann. It goes into more detail than the documentary does. The sad fact is that Nicholas Barclay was failed by every adult in his life. By the time his teachers contacted CPS, it was too late. Notice that his family continues to paint him as the cause of all the problems, but what chance did Nicholas really have, surrounded by domestic violence and drug use? He had also been diagnosed with ADD just prior to his disappearance. And yet, the family continually defends Jason, even though he was known for heavy drug use and for having a bad temper (his mother called the police on him at least twice in the weeks after Nicholas went missing, and even briefly kicked him out of the house at one point).

[–] BugisStreetAnnie (1297) 8 years ago

What a strange story. I had never heard of this until it came up on my Facebook feed.

Yeah, I read that they believe the brother killed him but he died some years later.