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.

[7]: 3–6 After an eight-month search, authorities located William Cantwell Walters, who worked as an itinerant handyman, specializing in the tuning and repairing of pianos and organs.

Shortly thereafter, Julia Anderson of North Carolina arrived to support Walters' contention that the boy was, in fact, her son, Bruce.

This, combined with the fact that newspapers questioned her moral character in having had three children (the other two deceased by that point) out of wedlock, led to Anderson's claims being dismissed.

She later returned to Louisiana for Walters' kidnapping trial to attest to his innocence and push for the court to determine that the boy was her son.

[7]: 340–346  According to her descendants, she became a devout Christian, helped found a church and served as nurse and midwife to the small community.

Although her children indicated that her life was a happy one after settling in Poplarville, they said that she nonetheless spoke often of her lost son and that their family always regarded him as having been kidnapped by the Dunbars.

Hollis' sister Jules has recounted a similar experience wherein a man, who she believes to have been Dunbar, came to the service station where she worked and talked to her for an extended period.

After Walters had served two years of his prison term for kidnapping, his attorney was successful in appealing the conviction and it was overturned by the Louisiana Supreme Court.

Years after Bobby Dunbar's death, one of his granddaughters, Margaret Dunbar Cutright, began her own investigation of the events, poring through newspaper accounts, interviewing the children of Julia Anderson and examining the notes and evidence presented by Walters' defense attorney for his kidnapping trial and appeal.

[15] Although Cutright had initially hoped to prove that her grandfather was a Dunbar, her research ultimately led her to doubt her belief.

In 2004, after an Associated Press reporter approached the family about the story, Bob Dunbar Jr. consented to undergoing DNA tests.

[15] She expressed her own opinion that the real Bobby Dunbar most likely fell into Swayze Lake during the fishing trip and was eaten by an alligator.