Disappearance of Bobby Dunbar

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The disappearance of Bobby Dunbar is a missing persons case in the US. Robert Clarence "Bobby" Dunbar disappeared at the age of four on August 23, 1912 while on a family vacation in Swayze Lake , Louisiana . The case attracted a lot of media attention and resulted in an eight-month police search for the missing child. On April 21, 1913, the police finally found a child in Mississippi who they identified as Bobby and took him back to his parents, Lessie and Percy Dunbar. However, a 2004 DNA test revealed that this child was not Bobby Dunbar.

The disappearance

Bobby Dunbar disappeared on the morning of August 23, 1912. His family, who were taking a recreational vacation at Swayze Lake, held a fishing tournament with other visitors to the lake. When the participants returned to their accommodations, four-year-old Bobby disappeared. Footprints found in the muddy underground around the lake made the Dunbars fearful of kidnapping.

Residents of the hometown of the Dunbar family, Opelousas , Louisiana , offered a finder's reward of $ 1,000. The father, Percy Dunbar, reached out to local and non-state magazines to distribute a picture and detailed description of his son. The disappearance was followed by an eight-month police search that ended in April 1913.

Finding "Bobby Dunbar"

On April 21, 1913, police officers found William C. Walters, a traveling handyman, with a boy about four years old. The officers found the child looked very much like Bobby Dunbar. Walters explained that the child's real name was Charles Bruce Anderson and was the son of a worker on the Walters farm, Julia Anderson. Anderson had given her son into the care of Walters for a few days. However, Walters was arrested by the police and Bobby Dunbar's parents were summoned to Mississippi. Lessie and Percy Dunbar could not deny the physical resemblance of the child to their missing son. However, the found child initially met the parents with suspicion and did not react to his nickname. Despite lingering doubts, the city of Opelousas celebrated the return of the supposed Bobby Dunbar on April 25, 1913.

The intervention of Julia Anderson

Julia Anderson, the actual mother of the child found, contradicted the original statement by William C. Walters that she had voluntarily given her son into the care of the craftsman. According to her own statement, she agreed to a short day visit to Walter's sister, during which Bruce Walters was to accompany. In fact, however, Walters stole the child for several months. In the course of the media attention to the Dunbar case, Anderson was summoned by a magazine publisher to New Orleans to identify her child and thus confirm the truthfulness of her statement. The identification was successful. However, obvious uncertainty on the part of Julia Anderson and disinterest on the part of her son moved the court to finally grant custody to the Dunbar family and thus identify the child as Bobby Dunbar.

The fact that Anderson was unmarried and Charles Bruce was an illegitimate child also made contemporaries doubt their sincerity. William C. Walters was found guilty of child abduction .

aftermath

The child, who from then on lived as Bobby Dunbar, was later married and the father of four children. Dunbar died on March 8, 1966.

Later research

Margaret Dunbar Cutright, one of Bobby Dunbar's grandchildren, began doing her own research into her grandfather in 2000. Among other things, she conducted interviews with Julia Anderson's later children. She also arranged for a DNA analysis : the DNA sample of her father, Bob Dunbar Jr., was compared with the DNA sample of a son of Alonzo Dunbar, a brother of the missing Bobby Dunbar. The analysis showed that Bob Dunbar Jr. and Alonzo's son were not blood relatives. So Dunbar Juniors' father cannot have been the missing Bobby Dunbar. The actual whereabouts of the child has not yet been clarified.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Joseane Pereira: Aventuras na História · Bobby Dunbar: o misterioso caso do garoto substituído por uma cópia. Retrieved December 6, 2019 (Brazilian Portuguese).
  2. ↑ The Bobby Dunbar kidnapping case leaves unanswered questions. Retrieved December 6, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Bobby Dunbar mystery solved? DNA test puts 100-year-old mystery to rest. In: History 101.Retrieved December 6, 2019 (American English).
  4. ↑ Family continues search for Bobby Dunbar | Oakland Tribune | Find Articles at BNET. June 29, 2008, accessed December 6, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Family continues search for Bobby Dunbar | Oakland Tribune | Find Articles at BNET. June 29, 2008, accessed December 6, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Family continues search for Bobby Dunbar | Oakland Tribune | Find Articles at BNET. June 29, 2008, accessed December 6, 2019 .
  7. ↑ Bobby Dunbar mystery solved? DNA test puts 100-year-old mystery to rest. In: History 101.Retrieved December 6, 2019 (American English).
  8. ↑ Bobby Dunbar mystery solved? DNA test puts 100-year-old mystery to rest. In: History 101.Retrieved December 6, 2019 (American English).
  9. ↑ Family continues search for Bobby Dunbar | Oakland Tribune | Find Articles at BNET. June 29, 2008, accessed December 6, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Family continues search for Bobby Dunbar | Oakland Tribune | Find Articles at BNET. June 29, 2008, accessed December 6, 2019 .
  11. ^ Scare Street: Mistaken Identities: The Disappearance of Bobby Dunbar. July 8, 2019, Retrieved December 6, 2019 (American English).
  12. ↑ Family continues search for Bobby Dunbar | Oakland Tribune | Find Articles at BNET. June 29, 2008, accessed December 6, 2019 .
  13. ↑ Family continues search for Bobby Dunbar | Oakland Tribune | Find Articles at BNET. June 29, 2008, accessed December 6, 2019 .
  14. ↑ 352: The Ghost of Bobby Dunbar. December 14, 2017, accessed December 6, 2019 .
  15. ↑ The Bobby Dunbar kidnapping case leaves unanswered questions. Retrieved December 6, 2019 .
  16. ↑ USATODAY.com - DNA clears man of 1914 kidnapping conviction. Retrieved December 6, 2019 .
  17. ↑ 352: The Ghost of Bobby Dunbar. December 14, 2017, accessed December 6, 2019 .
  18. ↑ 352: The Ghost of Bobby Dunbar. December 14, 2017, accessed December 6, 2019 .
  19. ↑ 352: The Ghost of Bobby Dunbar. December 14, 2017, accessed December 6, 2019 .