On August 23, 1912, in Opelousas, Louisiana, Percy and Lessie Dunbar set out for a family outing at Swayze Lake, hoping for a peaceful day of fishing and swimming with their two young sons, Alonzo and Bobby. What began as an ordinary summer day soon turned into a nightmare when Bobby, only four years old, vanished without a trace. Despite a desperate search and a nationwide manhunt, no trace of Bobby was found for eight long months. But the mystery was far from over.
When the Dunbars finally received a lead, it seemed like their prayers had been answered. A boy matching Bobby's description was found in the custody of a traveling handyman named William Cantwell Walters. The boy was returned to the Dunbars, and after a reunion full of uncertainty, Lessie identified him by a scar on his toe—a mark she claimed was unmistakable. The family rejoiced, believing their nightmare was over. But the return of the boy didn't bring closure; instead, it raised even more questions.
A shocking twist came when a woman named Julia Anderson, the mother of a boy named Charles Bruce Anderson, claimed that the boy the Dunbars had taken was actually her son. Julia, a poor, unmarried woman from North Carolina, had entrusted her son to Walters temporarily, only for him to vanish with the handyman on his travels. She insisted that the boy in the Dunbars' home was Bruce, not Bobby. Despite Julia's insistence, the court sided with the Dunbars, and the boy continued to live as Bobby Dunbar.
But the questions didn't stop there. Over the years, doubts about the boy’s true identity lingered, and new evidence came to light. In 2004, a DNA test revealed that the boy raised as Bobby Dunbar was not actually related to the Dunbars by blood—he was, in fact, Bruce Anderson, Julia’s long-lost son. This revelation exonerated William Walters, who had been wrongfully convicted of kidnapping, and brought a long-overdue sense of justice to Julia Anderson’s family.
However, the true fate of Bobby Dunbar remains a mystery. Some speculate that he may have drowned in the lake that day, while others suggest a darker possibility: that the Dunbars may have replaced their son with Bruce to cover up a tragedy. The case continues to captivate, and the tangled web of family, identity, and truth remains unresolved, leaving a haunting legacy that still lingers to this day.
Tune into this week’s episode as we unravel the mystery of Bobby Dunbar—a case that spans decades, raises unsettling questions, and challenges our understanding of family and truth.
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