On August 23, 1912, the Dunbar family, consisting of father Piercy, mother Lessie, and 4-year-old Bobby, were vacationing at Lake Swayze when the child suddenly disappeared
On August 23, 1912, the Dunbar family, consisting of father Piercy, mother Lessie, and 4-year-old Bobby, were vacationing at Lake Swayze when the child suddenly disappeared.
The first traces were found only after 8 months, when the police stopped William Walter, a craftsman in the company of a boy very similar to the widespread description of the missing child. The man said that it was actually Bruce Anderson, the son of an acquaintance of his, temporarily entrusted to him. According to newspapers of the time, however, it seems that the child, seeing Mrs. Dunbar, called her mom. Others wrote that the woman was very uncertain given the time that had passed, but that the child had recognized his younger brother. Only the following day, observing some scars after taking a bath, did she say she was sure that it was Bobby, thus reuniting the family.
A few days later, however, Julia Anderson showed up at their door, claiming maternity of the boy and confirming the theory of the alleged kidnapper. The authorities placed the woman in front of many children and at first she did not recognize Bobby as her son. Although later, after seeing him without clothes, she was able to point him out correctly, public opinion had already condemned her as a charlatan and she was thus forced to return alone to North Carolina.
During the trial, Anderson tried several times to exonerate Walters and there were also many testimonies in her favor, but they were useless: the man was convicted of kidnapping. After two years in prison he was released thanks to the help of a lawyer and until his death he always declared his innocence.
Julia Anderson instead made a new life for herself and had 7 children, without forgetting the first one who had been "kidnapped", according to the stories of her descendants. Later, Bobby Bruce's grandchildren, around the 70s, wanted to investigate the story often told by their grandfather, especially Margaret Dunbar, intent on confirming the identity of the now deceased Bobby.
Only 90 years after the event, in 2004, the mystery was solved, when Bob Dunbar Jr., father of Margaret and son of the alleged Bobby Dunbar, underwent a DNA test comparing it with that of a direct cousin. The test revealed that there was no degree of kinship between the two men.
That boy, taken away by deception from his real mother, was really Bruce Anderson, while the real Bobby Dunbar was probably eaten by an alligator on the same day of his disappearance.

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