Disappearance of Bobby Dunbar
The child raised as Dunbar (far left), now thought to be Anderson, standing in front of a car, c. 1913 | |
| Date | August 23, 1912 |
|---|---|
| Location | St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, U.S. |
| Type | Disappearance |
| Outcome | Cold case |
| Missing | Robert "Bobby" Clarence Dunbar, aged 4 |
| Accused | William Cantwell Walters (exonerated) |
| Charges | Kidnapping (dismissed) |
| Verdict | Guilty (overturned) |
| Sentence | 2 years in prison served (overturned) |
Bobby Dunbar was an American boy whose disappearance at the age of four and apparent return were widely reported in newspapers across the United States in 1912 and 1913. After eight months of nationwide searching, investigators believed that they had found the child in Mississippi, in the hands of William Cantwell Walters of Barnesville, North Carolina. Dunbar's parents claimed the boy as their missing son. However, both Walters and a woman named Julia Anderson insisted that the boy with him was Anderson's son Bruce. Anderson could not afford a lawyer, and the court eventually ruled in favor of the Dunbars. The Dunbars retained custody of the child, who proceeded to live out the remainder of his life as Bobby.
In 2004, DNA profiling established that the sons of the now-deceased Dunbar and his younger brother were not biologically related; this led the involved families to conclude that the recovered child had in fact been Bruce Anderson, and the real Bobby Dunbar had thus never been found.