Whether Jason actually saw Nicholas (which would mean Nicholas was alive three months after his disappearance and chose to flee rather than approach his family), fabricated the story for reasons of his own, or experienced some other kind of confusion, is not established.

The polygraph results regarding Beverly Dollarhide — passed two, failed one — are not specific to Jason.

But the general atmosphere of polygraph testing in this case, and the mixed results, contributed to the sense that the family’s relationship to what happened to Nicholas was not entirely transparent.

Bourdin’s specific accusations against Jason — which emerged after his arrest, when he had every motivation to shift attention away from himself — named Jason as potentially responsible for Nicholas’s disappearance.

These accusations cannot be taken at face value.