In August 1912, a wealthy family’s fishing trip to Swayze Lake in Louisiana turned into a national spectacle when four-year-old Bobby Dunbar vanished without a trace. The events that followed created one of the most perplexing identity puzzles in American history.
For nearly a century, the world believed that the boy had been recovered and returned to his parents. However, a modern scientific investigation revealed a shocking truth: the child raised as Bobby Dunbar was a complete stranger who had been taken from another mother.
The Desperate Search at Swayze Lake
When Bobby disappeared, the search operation was massive and gruesome. Rescuers used dynamite in the lake hoping to surface a body and sliced open the stomachs of alligators to check for remains. No trace of the boy was found. Eight months later, hope revived when authorities in Mississippi detained a wandering handyman named William Cantwell Walters.
Walters was traveling in a wagon with a boy who matched the description of the missing child. Walters insisted the boy was Charles Bruce Anderson, the son of a woman named Julia Anderson who worked for his family. He claimed he had permission to care for the child, but the police did not believe him.
A Controversial Reunion and a Second Mother
The reunion between the Dunbar family and the found child was far from certain. When Lessie Dunbar first saw the boy, she reportedly did not rush to hug him, and the boy cried and pulled away. Newspapers at the time noted that she was unsure of his identity until she had bathed him and checked for specific moles and scars. The next day, she declared him to be her son.
However, Julia Anderson, the boy’s other alleged mother, traveled from North Carolina to Louisiana to fight for him. Anderson identified the boy as Bruce but failed to pick him out of a lineup on her first attempt. The court viewed her hesitation as a sign of dishonesty. Lacking the money for a prolonged legal battle, Anderson was forced to return home alone, leaving her son behind.
The Innocent Man Who Went to Prison
The consequences of this decision were severe. William Cantwell Walters was convicted of kidnapping and sentenced to life in prison, though he was released after serving two years. For the rest of his life, he maintained his innocence.
The boy was raised as Bobby Dunbar, grew up in the Dunbar family, married, and had his own children. He reportedly remembered little of the journey in the wagon but recalled the other woman, Julia Anderson, visiting him. He lived his entire life under the Dunbar name, and the case was considered closed by the public and the legal system.
Science Exposes the Century-Old Lie
In 2004, Bob Dunbar Jr., one of the sons of the man raised as Bobby, agreed to a DNA test. His daughter, Margaret Dunbar Cutright, had spent years researching the family history and wanted to settle the rumors. The DNA sample was compared to the genetic profile of the real Bobby Dunbar’s brother.
The results were indisputable: there was no blood relation. The boy found on the wagon was indeed Bruce Anderson, just as Walters and Julia Anderson had always claimed. The real Bobby Dunbar likely fell into Swayze Lake and died in 1912. The child who replaced him lived a life based on a case of mistaken identity sanctioned by the courts.