The Disappearance of Bobby Dunbar

The Disappearance of Bobby Dunbar

I remember listening to an episode of This American Life about a four-year-old boy named Bobby Dunbar, who disappeared in 1912.

“Bobby Dunbar” and his family. (image: Wikimedia Commons)

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In 1912, Bobby Dunbar and his parents, Lessie and Percy went on a trip to Swayze Lake in Louisiana. Bobby, just four years old, played in the water but vanished.

Lessie and Percy looked everywhere for their son, but to their dismay, could not find him anywhere. They called authorities immediately.

Police began searching high and low for Bobby Dunbar. They even caught and dissected alligators in the lake, thinking one might have swallowed the child. But they never found a body.

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About eight months later, police received a tip from a man named William Walters, claiming that he found a boy matching Bobby Dunbar’s description in Mississippi. The boy, named Bruce Anderson, was the illegitimate child of Walters’ brother and a woman he worked for named Julia Anderson.

Walters claimed that Anderson left Bruce in the care of him when she left to go find work. Police found this suspicious and arrested Walters even though locals backed up his story.

A newspaper graphic showing the real Bobby Dunbar vs. Bruce Anderson, found with William Walters (image: Wikimedia Commons)

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Authorities also took Bruce Anderson into their custody and returned him to the Dunbars. There are conflicting reports of the reunion of the Dunbars and Bobby.

Some say the boy ran up to Lessie Dunbar, shouting “Mother!” Others say that the Dunbars were hesitant to confirm the boy as their son.

The Dunbars took the kid back to their home and Lessie identified him as Bobby.

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Days later, Julia Anderson showed up at the Dunbars’ home, backing up Walters’ claims. She wanted her son back, so the Dunbars called the police.

The police requested that Bobby be part of a lineup to see if Anderson could identify him. But she was unsuccesful.

But the next day, Anderson showed back up, adamant that Bobby Dunbar was her son, Bruce. Courts were hesitant to rehash the case, as the boy adjusted to living with the Dunbars.

Julia Anderson, who was poor, could not afford a custody battle over the boy. She left the Dunbars alone, leaving Bruce/Bobby with the couple.

Lessie and Percy felt confident the boy was their son. He showed signs of remembering the house and was well adjusted, playing with his brothers.

Authorities convicted Walters of kidnapping. Bobby grew up with the Dunbars and got married, having four children of his own. Bobby passed away in 1966.

Sounds like a happy ending, right?

Nope, guess again!

Bobby Dunbar’s granddaughter, Margaret Dunbar Cutright, had been researching her grandfather’s disappearance. She wanted to determine if Bobby Dunbar, her grandfather, was the “real” Bobby Dunbar who disappeared.

In 2004, Cutright took a DNA sample from her father, Bob Dunbar Jr., and compared it with the DNA of her cousin, the son of Bobby Dunbar’s younger brother.

The DNA samples were not matches, meaning the boy raised as Bobby Dunbar wasn’t Bobby Dunbar!!!

What happened to the “real” Bobby Dunbar remains unknown. There are many theories about the case.

Cutright agrees with the theory that an alligator ate Bobby Dunbar.

Some believe that Lessie and Percy did something to their son and used Bruce as a cover-up.

And some police claim they found footprints leading away from the lake and that locals said that a suspicious man had carried Bobby Dunbar away. But no one confirmed the rumors.

Bobby Dunbar’s disappearance remains a mystery to this day. Continue reading