Nicholas Barclay disappeared in 1994 while playing basketball, and three years later his family were delighted at his apparent ‘return’ home

Having a member of your family go missing, particularly a child, is a horrible situation for anyone to go through.

But one family in Texas had found that their situation had gotten even worse when their missing child seemingly returned home.

Nicholas Barclay had been playing basketball in June 1994 in San Antonio, Texas, when he disappeared.

A search operation failed to locate the missing child even after several years.

But three years following Nicholas’ disappearance it seemed as though a miracle happened.

To the delight of Nicholas’ family someone turned up saying that they were Nicholas and had come back to their family after all that time.

However, there were a couple of things about the sudden reappearance of Nicholas which seemed a little implausible.

For one ‘Nicholas’ now had a French accent, which is odd but perhaps not impossible.

Considerably more implausible was that the ‘Nicholas’ who showed up had brown eyes, different from Nicholas’ blue eyes.

Nicholas Barclay went missing in June 1994. (60 Minutes Australia/Youtube)

The newcomer claimed that he had survived a child sex trafficking ring who had changed his eyes from blue to brown.

It might sound ludicrous, but if you were desperate to be reunited with your missing child then you would really want something to be true.

Fortunately for Nicholas’ family private investigator Charlie Parker found the case and felt that something just wasn’t right about this newcomer.

Unfortunately, Parker’s hunch proved to be correct.

An investigation involved comparing the shape of Nicholas’ ears with those of the newcomer.

This found that the shape of the ears did not match up, indicating that this was not Nicholas at all but an imposter.

So who was it that had actually turned up three years after Nicholas first went missing?

Frédéric Bourdin aged 31. (JEAN-LOUIS DUZERT/AFP via Getty Images)

His real name is Frédéric Bourdin, a serial french con-artist.

Following his discovery Bourdin was sentenced to six years in jail, more than double that recommended by the sentencing guidelines.

Explaining why he had done it, Bourdin said: “If there is a change, there is doubt… If there is doubt, then I’ve got a chance. Something in my head decided that I could do it – that I had to try.”

But this was not the end of Bourdin’s criminal career as a con artist.

After returning to France in 2003 he took on the identity of Léo Balley, a 14-year-old boy from France who had gone missing in 1996.

Bourdin claims to taken on more than 500 identities over the course of his life, earning the nickname ‘The Chameleon’.

Nicholas Barclay remains missing.