Bobby Dunbar - Disappearance

Disappearance

Bobby Dunbar was the first son born to Lessie and Percy Dunbar of Opelousas, Louisiana. In August 1912, the Dunbars took a fishing trip to nearby Swayze Lake in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana. On August 23, while on that trip, Bobby Dunbar disappeared.

After an eight-month search, authorities located William Cantwell Walters, who worked as a peripatetic handyman, specializing in the tuning and repair of pianos and organs, and traveling through Mississippi with a boy who appeared to match the description of Bobby Dunbar. Walters claimed that the boy was actually Charles Bruce Anderson, generally referred to as Bruce, the son of a woman who worked for his family. He said that the boy's mother was named Julia Anderson, and that she had willingly granted him custody. Nonetheless, Walters was arrested and authorities sent for the Dunbars to come to Mississippi and attempt to identify the boy.

Newspaper accounts differ with regard to the initial reaction between the boy and Lessie Dunbar. While one account indicated that the boy immediately shouted "Mother" upon seeing her and the two then embraced, another said only that the boy cried and quoted Lessie Dunbar as saying she was unsure whether he was her son. Other newspaper accounts quote both the Dunbars as initially stating doubts as to the boy's identity. There were similar contradictions in newspaper accounts of the boy's first sighting of the Dunbars' younger son, Alonzo, with one newspaper claiming that the boy showed no sign of recognizing Alonzo, while another saying the boy recognized him instantly, called him by name and kissed him. The next day, after bathing the boy, Lessie Dunbar said she positively identified his moles and scars and was then certain that he was her son. The boy returned to Opelousas with the Dunbars to a parade and much fanfare celebrating the "homecoming".

Shortly thereafter, Julia Anderson of North Carolina arrived to support Walters's contention that the boy was, in fact, her son, Bruce. Anderson was unmarried and worked as a field hand for Walters's family. She said that she had allowed Walters to take her son for what she said was supposed to be a two-day trip to visit one of Walters's relatives and that she had not consented for him to take her son for more than a few days.

According to newspaper accounts, Anderson was presented with five different boys who were of the same approximate age as her son, including the boy who had been claimed by the Dunbars. When the boy in question was presented, he gave no indication that he recognized her. She asked whether he was the boy recovered, but was not given an answer and finally declared that she was unsure.

Upon seeing the boy again the next day, including undressing him, she indicated a stronger certainty that the boy was indeed her son Bruce. However, word had already spread about her failure to positively identify him on the first try. This, combined with the fact that newspapers questioned her moral character in having had two children (the other two deceased, by that point) out of wedlock, led to Anderson's claims being dismissed.

With no money to sustain a long court battle, Anderson returned home to North Carolina. She later returned to Louisiana for Walters's kidnapping trial to attest to his innocence and push for the court to determine that the boy was her son. At the trial, she became acquainted with the residents of the town of Poplarville, Mississippi, many of whom had also come to proclaim Walters's innocence. William Walters and the boy had spent quite a bit of time in Poplarville during their travels and the community there had come to know them well, with a number of them asserting that they had seen Walters with the boy prior to the disappearance of Bobby Dunbar. Despite their testimony, however, the court reached the determination that the boy was in fact Bobby Dunbar. Walters was convicted of kidnapping, while the boy remained in the custody of the Dunbar family and lived out the remainder of his life as Bobby Dunbar.