The Bobby Dunbar Disappearance (1912)

What a Creep

What a Creep
“The Disappearance of Bobby Dunbar” (1912)
Season 29, Episode 1

Margo & Sonia love us a creepy historical crime, and what is more puzzling than the case of Bobby Dunbar? In 1912, four-year-old Bobby Dunbar vanished during a family trip to Swayze Lake, Louisiana, sparking a massive search. Eight months later, a boy resembling Bobby was found with a handyman, William Walters, who insisted the child was Bruce Anderson, the son of Julia Anderson. Despite her claims, the Dunbars took the boy and raised him as Bobby. In 2004, DNA testing confirmed he was not biologically related to the Dunbars, meaning the real Bobby Dunbar's fate remains unknown, making this one of history’s most haunting cases of mistaken identity.

Sources for this episode:

• Ranker
• Wikipedia
• This American Life ep 352
• BuzzFeed Video
• Morbid Podcast
• Country Roads Magazine
• All That’s Interesting
• IFL Science

Trigger warning: Child abduction

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