Parents make mistakes. However, some parenting blunders make people cringe more than others. Falling into that category: Not being able to identify your own offspring. In 1912 a scandal spread across America. The Dunbar family lost their four-year-old son, Bobby Dunbar, while camping near a lake in Opelousas, Louisiana. Eight months later, authorities found a boy they thought resembled little Bobby. But when another woman showed up claiming the boy was in fact her son, things got weird. For almost a hundred years, doubts lingered over the identity of the boy: Was he really Bobby Dunbar? Thanks to modern science, the answer to that question would finally be answered.
1. Swamp heat
Louisiana summers are an unforgivable force to behold. If the sun doesn’t kill you, the humidity will. In the summer of 1912, the Dunbar family was enduring the brunt of the sweltering late summer as the air, filled heavily with thick moisture, clung to their skin and under their clothes.
Before there was air-conditioning or ice-dispensers, the only way to keep cool during the broiling summer months was to take a dip at the local watering hole or find refuge under a shady tree. The Dunbars had enough of the heat and decided to get out of town and head on a vacation.
2. Family vacation
Born in 1908, Bobby Dunbar was the first-born child of Lessie and Percy Dunbar. With two young sons, the Dunbar family was a growing family of four. Like most parents, they cherished their children and wanted the world for them.
Before there was air-conditioning or ice-dispensers, the only way to keep cool during the broiling summer months was to take a dip at the local watering hole or find refuge under a shady tree. The Dunbars had enough of the heat and decided to get out of town and head on a vacation.
3. Gator nation
Despite its name, Swayze Lake is only a lake by name. In reality, the “lake” is really a swamp crawling with alligators. Honey, I don’t want to go on just any boring camping trip, let’s spice it up and sleep in a flimsy tent next to a nest of man-eating monsters left from the Cretaceous period! Kids, pack your bags!
Brilliant! Perhaps the Dunbars should have reconsidered their destination, but, alas, hindsight is 20/20. On the night of August 23, 1912, four-year-old Bobby snuck away from his family’s tent and wandered toward Swayze Lake. That night was the last time anyone saw or heard from him. Or was it? That question would haunt two families for generations.
4. Tragedy strikes
When the Dunbar parents realized their son was missing, they were horrified. They launched an eight-month search to find little Bobby. Mrs. Dunbar in particular was grief stricken beyond words. A Louisiana newspaper called The Caldwell Watchman wrote a story in 1914 regarding the incident.
When he [Bobby] was missed, a search traced him to the banks of Lake Swayze…At first it was feared that he been drowned, but the lake failed to give up the body and the little boy’s hat was found some distance from the lake a day or so later.” The town deeply empathized with Mrs. Dunbar’s tragedy.
5. The search
Authorities and locals searched tirelessly for the Dunbar child. Each lead and clue was followed up on, but hit a dead end. Many began to lose hope. Percy Dunbar went as far as offering up a reward to whoever could find his son. He ponied up a generous $1,000.
In 1912 that was the equivalent of $25,000 dollars. The town even pitched in and additional $5,000 dollars — over $125,000 today. As time went on, the family was beginning to lose hope. Then one day, the authorities came to the Dunbars with the news they had been hoping to hear.
6. He’s been found! Or has he?
On April 13, 1913, authorities arrested a suspect in the case. It was a traveling tinker by the name of William Cantwell Walters near Columbia, Mississippi. He was traveling with a boy matching Bobby Dunbar’s description. The same age, blonde hair, and blue eyes — it was enough to take the boy from Walters and put him on the next train to Opelousas.
When the boy arrived, the parents should have been thrilled. But there was one small — okay, maybe not so small — problem. The Dunbars didn’t recognize their so-called son when the authorities brought him home. And so began the curious case of Bobby Dunbar.
7. A town celebrates
However, after carefully inspecting the boy for identifying marks, the Dunbars were able to positively identify the child as their little Bobby. News spread around the town that Bobby had been returned to his family — but so did the news that the Dunbars weren’t quite sure initially if the boy was theirs.
Still, the whole town was thrilled that the family had been reunited. When the completed Dunbar family returned home, a brass band awaited them and a parade was held in their honor. The end. No, not really. Whispers around the town began to swirl about whether or not Bobby was really Bobby.
8. The arrest
We haven’t heard the last of the suspected kidnapper, William Walters. Kidnapping in the state of Louisiana was a capital offense. Upon his arrest, Walters claimed the child was his brother and a servant’s illegitimate son. The mother of the boy in question, according to Walters, was Julia Anderson. He said she had given him permission to take the boy with him on his travels.
LA Times reported that Walters tried to clear his name, stating: “I know by now you have decided. You are wrong…it is very likely I will lose my life. On account of that, and if I do, the Great God will hold you accountable.”
9. An unexpected visitor
The town, and more importantly, the jury at his trial, didn’t buy it. Walters was convicted of kidnapping. Then, an unexpected visitor came to town with a story people didn’t want to hear. Julia Anderson — the woman Walters claimed was the true mother of Bobby — substantiated Walters’s story.
According to Anderson, “Bobby” was actually her son, Bruce Anderson, just as Walters had claimed. However, when she was asked to identify the boy, she too was uncertain that the boy was hers. However, upon closer inspection, she said with confidence that the boy was hers. Two mothers — both claiming the same boy as their own.
10. A mother’s credibility
Reporters had already printed stories about Ms. Anderson’s initial uncertainty when seeing the boy. They called her an illiterate and a woman of “loose morals,” discrediting her claims. After being tried in the court of public opinion, Julia Anderson returned to Mississippi, leaving the boy with the Dunbars.
The Dunbars raised Bobby and had a few more kids to boot. Though it was all said and done, the story of Bobby Dunbar circulated around the country and raised doubts about whether or not he was really a Dunbar. Was the boy found by Louisiana authorities really Bobby? It would be nine long decades before anyone would know for sure.
11. A long legacy
Even after the case was put to rest, both the Dunbars and Andersons had questions and doubts about what really happened back in 1913. Margaret Dunbar Cutright grew up knowing the story of her grandfather and this grey area in the family’s lineage. The story as the Dunbar family told it was that the boy — Margaret’s grandfather — was indeed Bobby.
One day in 1999, Margaret Dunbar’s father, Bob Dunbar Jr., gave Margaret a photo album containing newspaper clippings about her grandfather’s disappearance. What began as an organization project led to an obsessive investigation of her family’s history. She began to question the narrative that had been handed down through generations.
12. A hunt for the truth
A 2008 radio show documentary entitled The Ghost of Bobby Dunbar followed the story of not just Bobby Dunbar, but the investigation lead by the Dunbar family descendants. The show, led by Tal Mcthenia, reported the following on Margaret Dunbar’s investigation: “Margaret went on an obsessive quest to small-town libraries, archives, and courthouses all over the South.”
For her birthday, Margaret’s husband gave her a card to the Library of Congress and she spent weeks in the reading rooms there. She discovered that Julia Anderson could have possibly been telling the truth — despite what her family told her. Margaret decided to reach out to the Anderson family.
13. An unlikely alliance
Linda Traver is the granddaughter of Julia Anderson. All her life, she had been told that her uncle was “kidnapped” by the Dunbar family who had raised him as the son that went missing on that fateful camping trip. However, no matter what Traver was told, she still had unanswered questions and lingering doubts.
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