Bobby Dunbar - Timeline

Timeline

• February 1912: Three-year-old Bruce Anderson leaves with William Cantwell Walters to "visit" Walters's sister
• August 23, 1912: Four-year-old Bobby Dunbar disappears from the banks of Swayze Lake in Louisiana
• April 1913 (13 months after Anderson last saw Bruce; 8 months after Bobby disappeared): Boy found with William Cantwell Walters in Columbia, Mississippi
• April 1913: The Dunbars come to Mississippi to claim "Bobby." There are contradictory accounts whether or not they recognized each other right away.
• April 25, 1913: "Bobby" is welcomed home in Opelousas with a parade
• May 1, 1913: Julia Anderson comes to Mississippi to claim Bruce. Julia cannot definitively identify Bruce in a line-up but lawyers say the "found" boy, now identified as Bobby Dunbar, is really Bruce
• 1913: Court-appointed arbitrator gives the boy to the Dunbars
• 1914: William Cantwell Walters is convicted of kidnapping Bobby Dunbar. Walters spent two years of a life sentence in jail and he appealed. Because county didn't want to pay for a retrial, the case was dropped. He was later released.
• 1920s: Lessie and Percy Dunbar, Bobby Dunbar's parents, get divorced.
• 1932: Lindbergh baby kidnapped, rekindling interest in Dunbar case. In an interview, "Bobby" recounts his memory of "the other boy on the wagon."
• 1944: Hollis Anderson says that Bobby Dunbar visited him at his job.
• 1966: "Bobby Dunbar" dies and is survived by his wife and four children
• 2004: Bob Dunbar, Jr., submits to a DNA test to establish whether or not he (and his father) is related to the Dunbars.