Disappearance of Bobby Dunbar
Unsolved disappearance of 4-year-old boy / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about Bobby Dunbar?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
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 that 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, both Walters and a woman named Julia Anderson insisted that the boy with him was Anderson's son Bruce. Julia Anderson could not afford a lawyer, and the court eventually ruled in favor of the Dunbars. Percy and Lessie Dunbar retained custody of the child, who proceeded to live out the remainder of his life as Bobby Dunbar.
This article needs additional citations for verification. (December 2017) |
Date | August 23, 1912; 111 years ago (1912-08-23) |
---|---|
Location | St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, United States |
Type | Disappearance |
Outcome | Cold case |
Deaths | 1 (Dunbar, in absentia) |
Missing | Robert "Bobby" Clarence Dunbar, aged 4 |
Accused | William Cantwell Walters (exonerated)[1][2] |
Charges | Kidnapping (dismissed) |
Verdict | Guilty (overturned) |
Sentence | 2 years in prison served (overturned) |
In 2004, DNA profiling established in retrospect that the boy found with Walters and "returned" to the Dunbars as Bobby had not been a blood relative of the Dunbar family. This makes most believe that the boy was in fact Bruce Anderson and had been wrongly identified by Dunbar's parents. Julia Anderson had no means to contest the Dunbars' decision but always maintained the child was her son. However, this does not solve what happened to the true Bobby Dunbar, who is presumed dead in absentia.