Small Town Mysteries

Bobby Dunbar: Missing...Then Found?

• Kate, Christine, and Rachael • Episode 34

Bobby Dunbar was a four-year-old boy who had gone on a fishing trip with several members of his family, along with family friends. When Bobby goes missing one day in 1912, his family searches for him for weeks, but finds no evidence of an animal that has eaten him, someone who kidnapped him, or any sort of accident. There's just...nothing. 
Eight months later, a telegram comes in stating that a boy who looks like Bobby was spotted in Mississippi. Bobby's mother is hesitant to say for sure that this is her missing son, but soon finds birthmarks and other signs that this boy is Bobby. She is ultimately certain that her lost son has been found. 
On the other side, you have a different mother claiming that the boy is actually HER son, a boy by the name of Bruce Anderson. 
DNA evidence comes in decades later to solve a part of this mystery and determine if the boy found was actually Bobby Dunbar. 

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Bobby_Dunbar 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYUdnsIn5OU
https://www.thisamericanlife.org/352/transcript 

Support the show

People on this episode