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 | Life imprisonment (overturned; released after 2 years) |
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 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, Walters claimed he was willingly given custody of the child, named Bruce Anderson, by Julia Anderson, the boy's mother. Anderson confirmed Walters' account, but 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. Walters served two years of a life sentence for a kidnapping conviction, which was later overturned.
In 2004, DNA profiling established the other Dunbar siblings were not related to the returned Bobby. This discovery 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.