Bourdin had been in Linares under another identity — the details of exactly what he had been doing there and under what persona are not fully documented in the public record.

What is documented is that by October of 1997, that particular fiction was running out of room.

Spanish authorities were skeptical.

His ability to sustain his current false identity was limited.

He needed something new.

What he found, through access to the files and databases of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in the United States, was Nicholas Barclay’s case.

The specific mechanics of how Bourdin identified Nicholas Barclay as a potential target are worth examining.