Jason Barclay died of a drug overdose before investigators could fully explore his potential role in Nicholas’s disappearance or in the acceptance of Bourdin.

His death foreclosed the possibility of resolving the question.

Beverly Dollarhide reportedly passed two polygraph examinations and failed a third — a result that is difficult to interpret definitively, since polygraphs are not reliable indicators of truthfulness and the results can be influenced by stress, medication, and many other factors.

The true nature of the family’s knowledge — whether they suspected or knew from early on, or whether they were genuinely deceived as thoroughly as the official narrative suggests — has never been definitively established.

Bourdin’s Sentence And What Came After