And on top of that loss came the specific violation of having a stranger in their home, sleeping in their child’s room, sitting at their table, claiming an intimacy and a history that was entirely fabricated.

The invasion of that pretense — the extent to which a stranger had access to the private domestic world of their family — adds a dimension to the harm that goes beyond the technical fraud.

Bourdin has said, in various contexts, that he was sorry.

Whether his expressions of regret are genuine or are themselves performances is impossible to determine with confidence.

The Hard Copy Investigation And What It Tells Us