The press interest in a supposedly returned missing child both created pressure for resolution (people wanted to know if this was really Nicholas) and potentially created pressure against too much skeptical scrutiny (exposing a supposed victim of trafficking as a fraud would have been a very different kind of story).

Parker’s investigation, and his eventual tipping of Interpol, represented a specific kind of journalistic skepticism that was willing to follow the evidence regardless of where it led.

The Grief Of Families With Missing Children

To understand the full complexity of the Barclay family’s acceptance of Bourdin, it is necessary to understand what the experience of having a missing child actually does to a family over time.

The families of missing children — particularly those who vanish without explanation, leaving neither a confirmed death nor a definitive sighting — live in a state of perpetual suspended grief.