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E041: Bobby Dunbar
1.5k Plays5 years ago
The case of Bobby Dunbar (or is it Bruce Anderson?) is one of mistaken identity, prejudice, and divided families. Would DNA testing clear things up, or would it only serve to muddy the water even further?
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Transcript
Introduction and Co-host Announcement
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome back this week, Sleuthounds. I'm so excited to be back with you again this week. I will say Maggie and I had planned on recording this episode together, but well, life happened and we weren't able to get together. Never fear though, I have a great case for you this week and Maggie and I will be back together next week to record again.
00:00:26
Speaker
I do appreciate, I say this a lot, you bearing with us through all of this. I know it's not ideal. Trust me, I'd much rather be recording this with my friend instead of sitting here alone in my classroom. But it seems that's the way with a lot of plans in 2020. And we just adapt and keep our chins up that it will all get better soon and that we'll be stronger by going through this.
00:00:51
Speaker
Until everything can return to normal for you, Sleuth Hounds, take care of yourselves. Enjoy the small celebrations. Know that things may look different than they did before, but please don't lose faith. Continue to love one another and to know that with each other, we will get through this. Stay together and stay safe.
Personal Fear and Bobby Dunbar Case
00:01:12
Speaker
Now, on to this week's episode. The first time I took my daughter to daycare when I had to go back to work after I gave birth,
00:01:21
Speaker
I was terrified. I wasn't scared that they wouldn't take good care of her. I knew that they would. I was terrified that when I came to pick her up, I wouldn't recognize her. And I know that seems completely irrational, but that was the fear that consumed me.
00:01:44
Speaker
In our case today, that fear was a reality for not just one, but two separate mothers. Neither could positively confirm that the boy who could be her son was indeed her son. The twist? The boy each woman was looking at was the same one for both women.
00:02:11
Speaker
Whose son was he? Who was he? It was a case that went unsolved for nearly 100 years, from 1912 to 2004. However, in 2004, thanks to DNA, there was a breakthrough in the case. Now, Sleuthhounds, most of the cases Maggie and I cover are still unsolved. This one, on the other hand, provides some resolution
00:02:41
Speaker
kind of. But with that semi-resolution comes a family now torn apart at the scenes and continued questions about identity and about loss.
Engagement and Audience Growth
00:02:56
Speaker
And since one boy can't be the biological son of both women, it's still the case of at least one missing child.
00:03:06
Speaker
This is the story of Bobby Dunbar, the boy with two mothers.
00:03:46
Speaker
Welcome to Coffee and Cases where we like our coffee hot and our cases cold. My name is Allison Williams. And my name is Maggie Dameron. We will be telling stories each week in the hopes that someone out there with any information concerning the cases will take those tips to law enforcement. So justice and closure can be brought to these families.
00:04:06
Speaker
With each case, we encourage you to continue in the conversation on our Facebook page, Coffee and Cases podcast, because as we all know, conversation helps to keep the missing person in the public consciousness, helping keep their memories alive. So sit back, sip your coffee, and listen to what's brewing this week.
00:04:24
Speaker
Before I begin our show today, I want to remind you about our challenge. We want to get to 150 ratings on Apple Podcasts and we can only get there with help from you. To help us, please share about our podcast with at least two people. Then we'll be able to reach our goal just a little bit quicker.
00:04:43
Speaker
Maggie and I have recently seen a growing international listenership in Canada, the UK, Singapore, and Ireland, and domestically in cities like Atlanta, Parker, Colorado, Columbus, Ohio, and Chicago, Illinois. Keep up the good work.
The Disappearance of Bobby Dunbar
00:04:59
Speaker
If you haven't yet, take a second to rate our show. Please, on Apple Podcasts, it only takes, like I said, a second to click that five-star rating. But if you have a little bit longer,
00:05:12
Speaker
Leave us a few words about what you enjoy most about the podcast. When Maggie and I get to 150 ratings, we will do a bonus episode. Just make sure that you follow us on social media, Coffee and Cases podcast on Facebook, or add Coffee Cases podcast on Instagram, or as always, listen in each week to know when that bonus episode will air. Now, let's get into our show.
00:05:36
Speaker
The hot summer August sun in 1912 beat heavily down upon the young Dunbar family as they tramped through the area surrounding Louisiana's Swayze Lake. Father Percy, mother Lessie, and the young boys, four-year-old Robert, called Bobby, and two-year-old Alonzo, had decided to take a fishing trip with Percy's friend Paul Mizzie
00:06:01
Speaker
for a short vacation from their home in Opelousas, Louisiana, about 25 miles away, which I imagine was a decent distance at the turn of the century. Now, I need to tell you, Sleuthhounds, that the name Swayze Lake and everything that I read is a bit of a misnomer. It's more like a swamp. And I mean swamp as in surrounded by tall, dark, thick foliage and overflowing with alligators.
00:06:31
Speaker
I'm not sure if the Dunbar's knew this trip, you know, was going to be to a swamp if they knew that going in or if they didn't figure it out until once they got there. But regardless, they still decided to camp there for a few days. And let me just point out again a little common factor. Camping in all of the episodes that Maggie and I have done,
00:06:57
Speaker
is commonly linked with someone disappearing. Seriously, guys, if I were not out on camping before this podcast, I certainly am now because in my head, and it has been solidified by all of these episodes, camping equals death. But I digress.
00:07:18
Speaker
Several of the articles that I read about this case mentioned that on the morning of August 23rd, 1912, the members of the family had had a fishing contest or were at least enjoying the day out fishing. I couldn't get a clear grasp on who was supposed to be watching Bobby and Alonzo, but most accounts suggest that Mizzie was watching the two boys, that he turned his back for a moment and Bobby was just gone.
00:07:47
Speaker
A few other accounts imply that the boys were near the camp playing and that Leslie Dunbar, Bobby and Alonzo's mother, called to them that the fish was fried and to come eat, but that Alonzo was the only one who appeared. Of course, Leslie and her husband, Percy, I'm sure, were panic-stricken.
00:08:07
Speaker
they likely thought of the worst that he had been grabbed by an alligator. But I think, and I've said this before in those situations, while you might think of the worst, you probably try to never let your mind actually believe the worst.
00:08:24
Speaker
After a fruitless search of the area themselves, Percy and Leslie Dunbar enlisted the help of hundreds of volunteers from the local area to help look for the quote, large round blue eyed, light haired but turning dark.
00:08:40
Speaker
Fair complected with rosy cheeks. Well developed. Stout but not very fat. This was their actual description by the way. Little boy with his quote big toe on his left foot badly scarred from a burn when he was a baby. End quote.
00:08:58
Speaker
At first, those law enforcement officers and volunteers did let their minds wander to that very worst case scenario that the Dunbar's likely shunned. The volunteers actually caught alligators in the area of the disappearance and cut their stomachs open looking for evidence of a body. They used dynamite on the swamp thinking that if Bobby had drowned, the dynamite would help the body to resurface, potentially dislodging it.
00:09:28
Speaker
they found nothing. Now here is where I read two differing accounts in the evidence and while I share both of them with you, either one you believe, they both actually feed into the same belief that Bobby had not been eaten by an alligator nor had he drowned but that he had been abducted by someone.
00:09:54
Speaker
In one account, in an article from the Louisiana newspaper, The Caldwell Watchman, published in 1914, Bobby's straw hat was found, quote, some distance from the lake a day or so later, end quote. In an article in Tulsa World by Alan G. Breed, the evidence wasn't a hat,
00:10:15
Speaker
but a solitary footprint near the railroad, along with reports from town people who had seen a strange man roaming those same areas in the days before Bobby's disappearance.
00:10:27
Speaker
the search was on. Since the Dunbars were a wealthy family, Percy was a real estate agent and insurance salesman. They put up a monetary reward. The townspeople of Opelousas, the Dunbar's hometown, felt the mother loss so badly that they chipped in with an additional reward.
00:10:48
Speaker
The two together brought the total reward money to $6,000 or about $150,000 in today's terms. In other words, the Dunbar's were a wealthy and influential family, a family idealized by many Americans. Newspapers everywhere covered the story of the missing, angelic boy and the grief-stricken mother left to suffer that loss.
00:11:16
Speaker
America's hearts grieved with her, and when the family had a detective friend print postcards with Bobby's picture and description on them, the pain hit even deeper, seeing the little boy's face whose fate was unknown. Most tips led to nothing in the case. No leads, no perpetrator, and worst of all, no Bobby.
00:11:41
Speaker
A few weeks after Bobby's disappearance, there had been a spotting of a young boy who looked like Bobby, accompanying a traveling worker near Poplarville, Mississippi. Percy Dunbar, unable to go himself, has sent his brother Archie to investigate the claim, but Archie returned only to report that the boy was not Bobby.
00:12:01
Speaker
An article by Tricia Lee Zeigenhor about the case noted that Percy even traveled around to local orphanages looking for his missing son. All to come up empty handed time and time again until eight months later.
00:12:18
Speaker
It was April of 1913 when a tip came into police that in the little town of Hub, Mississippi, a traveling piano and organ repairman named William Cantwell Walters had been working and living in the area and had, in his company, a young boy fitting the exact description of Bobby Dunbar from the newspapers and postcards. This could be the lead they were praying for.
00:12:46
Speaker
or it could be the same false lead Archie had investigated months earlier. The only way to find out for sure was to take William Walters in.
00:12:57
Speaker
At just the insinuation of guilt for the kidnapping of the boy for whom the country had seemed to hold its breath for his return, was enough to arrest Walters on kidnapping charges. A capital offense in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, where he was tried, and put the young boy with him in the care of local authorities while they contacted the Dunbars to finally be reunited with their son.
Legal Battle and Trial
00:13:25
Speaker
Even before the Dunbar's arrived, word had traveled that their young Bobby had been found. Reports note that the locals came to the station to greet Percy, Leslie, and Alonzo nearly as excited as they were about the upcoming reunion. Now, let me take a quick moment's pause to talk about newspaper accounts at the time versus today because this will be important in a moment.
00:13:50
Speaker
Today, it's an expectation that journalists should be as objective as possible. Just the facts. Now, this is not to say that news isn't biased. Of course it is. All truth is shaded based on who is speaking it.
00:14:08
Speaker
that makes sense. I could attend a birthday party and sit at a table in the corner and someone else attend the same party but sit at the main table and we would have different experiences and different perspectives on the same event. Both truthful but truth that's shaded by our experiences. But newspapers back then, well they were a whole different breed.
00:14:34
Speaker
I'll illustrate. This past year, my senior English class had a unit on reasoning and argumentation. To try to add a little intrigue for our topic, we looked at the Lizzie Borden case. And the students had to not only collect information and evidence from newspaper articles from the time, from primary sources, but also to evaluate the role bias played in those articles. My students were shocked.
00:15:01
Speaker
simply because a woman at the time should, in the minds of the reporters, have been frail and trembling when interrogated and Lizzie Borden did not meet those expectations at all. It was like she was guilty before her trial. Was reporters writing things like, quote,
00:15:21
Speaker
She's a masculine-looking man with a strong, resolute, unsympathetic face. She's robustly built, 33 years old and of average height. Her voice has a peculiar, guttural harshness." The guilt is seeping through the accusatory tone. This level of bias, insinuation, and exaggeration can also be seen in Bobby Dunbar's case as well.
00:15:49
Speaker
We know it is because there are two very different accounts given for the first time Percy and Leslie were reconnected with the young boy. One likely sensationalized report like the Lizzie Borden one had the dumb bars walking in and the young Bobby running into Leslie's embrace yelling mother as he ran. Other reports
00:16:17
Speaker
say that the dumb bars weren't quite sure if the boy were Bobby, especially when the boy didn't immediately recognize his mother, father, or brother. So, Sleuthhounds, which was it? Was this a beautiful reunion or a case of mistaken identity?
00:16:42
Speaker
After all, when faced with the charge that he had stolen Bobby Dunbar from the safety of his loving family, William Cantwell Walters adamantly denied any wrongdoing. He maintained that yes, it was true that the young boy traveling with him was not his son.
00:17:00
Speaker
He even admitted to a bit of sly behavior when he detailed his reason for traveling with the young boy. People trusted him more. As a traveling salesman, he often relied on the kindness of locals to feed and house him while traveling. Having a cute little boy with you makes them much more likely to want to help out. But this boy was not Bobby Dunbar and he was not kidnapped.
00:17:30
Speaker
William Walters said that the boy's real name was Bruce Anderson. And Bruce's mother, a friend of his, Julia Anderson, and some say a previous lover of Walter's brother, had needed to travel to find work and had agreed to her young son Bruce traveling with Walters. If the officers could just find her and bring her down for identification, they would see.
00:17:57
Speaker
Oh, of course they thought. Of course this man at risk of the death penalty wouldn't admit to kidnapping. Now they thought he's making up stories to save himself.
00:18:09
Speaker
This, especially because when Lesi Dunbar was allowed to bathe the young boy on the second day of their visit, she said that his scars and body markings like moles matched that of her missing son. She was now positive. This was Bobby. Now to take him home to celebrate.
00:18:35
Speaker
and celebrate they did. When the Dunbar's arrived back in Opelousas, Mississippi with their missing son in tow, the whole town was ready to celebrate. There was even a parade and other jubilant activities in his honor.
00:18:50
Speaker
but the homecoming reports weren't without some speculation themselves. According to an article by Tricia Lee Zeigenhor, an article from The Time in the Los Angeles Times wrote, quote, they, the dumb bars, hope that the environment of their home will reawaken some memories in his mind by which they will be more certain, end quote.
00:19:15
Speaker
Almost like their certainty needed some soothing over. Almost like his memory needed to be jostled a little. Like he had no memory of his previous life with the dumb bars at all. Then came Julia Anderson into the picture.
00:19:35
Speaker
She wasn't the wealthy, admired community member that Leslie Dunbar was. In fact, to those involved in the case, she seemed everything that Leslie Dunbar wasn't. Julia Anderson was a field hand and was not the fragile, quote unquote, lady Leslie was. To make matters worse, Julia Anderson was an unwed mother. She had born three children out of wedlock to two different men.
00:20:04
Speaker
Two children were gone. One put up for adoption and the other died as a child. And her third child, Bruce, she had left in the care of Walters. The problem was this. People saw Julia Anderson as an unfit mother. But her story was the same story everyone heard from Walters himself.
00:20:31
Speaker
Additionally, the townspeople of Poplar, Mississippi, where Walters and the boy had been working, reported that they had seen the boy with Walters for months since February, long before the August disappearance of Bobby Dunbar. And furthermore, the townspeople vouched for Walters' character, for his innocence.
00:20:55
Speaker
So here was the conundrum. One mother, Leslie Dunbar, had already stated the boy was hers. And wouldn't she know her own child? But then that left us with Walter's story, backed up by the townspeople and another mother who had been missing her own child. The boy obviously couldn't belong to both.
00:21:19
Speaker
So what would happen? Surely both mothers couldn't look at the same child and both proclaim adamantly that he was theirs. So the country waited as Julia Anderson arrived into town. The police brought in a lineup of five different young boys and asked Julia to identify her son.
00:21:43
Speaker
When the young boy recently taken with the Dunbars was brought forward, Ms. Anderson reportedly asked if that were the boy found in William Walters' care. She was not given an answer and faced with uncertainty herself and I'm sure an extremely stressful situation. She eventually stated that she couldn't be sure.
00:22:08
Speaker
However, when she was allowed to undress the boy the next day, she was certain this same boy claimed by the dumb bars was her son, Bruce Anderson.
00:22:22
Speaker
But the damage had been done, despite the fact that Leslie Dunbar had also been unsure and had not fully claimed to recognize her son until the second day, when Julia Anderson, a woman already judged for her past, did the same? Well,
00:22:42
Speaker
Let me just read you the public ridicule she received. This was printed in the New Orleans item in an article called Julia Has Forgotten. Quote, her long journey had been in vain. She had not seen her son since February of 1912 and she had forgotten him.
00:23:05
Speaker
animals don't forget. But this big, coarse, country woman several times a mother, she forgot. She cared little for her young. Children were only regrettable incidents in her life. She hopes her son isn't dead, just as she hopes the cotton crop will be good this year. Of true mother love, she has none." The audacity
00:23:34
Speaker
sleuth hounds, yet no unkind words for Lessie Dunbar. The people understood her grief and fear as a legitimate reason for uncertainty. That double standard angers me.
00:23:54
Speaker
Meanwhile, William Cantwell Walter's trial continued. Townspeople continued vouching for him. Julia Anderson backed up his statement. But because the boy had been claimed by the Dunbars, this meant that this was a kidnapping.
00:24:12
Speaker
Walters was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison, and the court awarded custody of the boy to the Dunbar's, officially declaring him to be the missing Bobby Dunbar.
Identity Revelation and Aftermath
00:24:24
Speaker
And so it was that Bobby was raised by the Dunbar family and Julia Anderson was left to just move on.
00:24:33
Speaker
She had no money at the time to fight for custody, but she never forgot her son. And the people of Poplarville, it seems, saw that in her and believed Miss Anderson.
00:24:47
Speaker
They took her in as one of their own. And after Julia Anderson settled in Poplarville, she married, helped found a church, became a nurse, and bore seven more children. And every single one of those children heard about their older brother, Bruce.
00:25:08
Speaker
Two years after his conviction of kidnapping, William Walters' attorney won an appeal in the case. The verdict was overturned based on a technicality, and since the original trial had cost the community so much money, the court decided a retrial would be too costly altogether. And so, they set William Walters free.
00:25:31
Speaker
But while the ensuing years helped to heal some wounds, they were not so kind to others. The Dunbar's divorced in 1927. Some argue that the divorce was due to guilt over knowing that they had raised someone else's son. Others argue that it was the usual suspects, arguments over parenting styles and accusations of Percy being unfaithful.
00:25:58
Speaker
These were the stories passed on by those who remember the case and were stories Bobby Dunbar himself grew up hearing. He was interviewed in 1932 when another famous baby, the Lindbergh baby, was kidnapped. An interview with this other famous missing child, Bobby Dunbar. In that interview, he accepted his unknown
00:26:27
Speaker
quote, a lot of people still believe I was eaten by an alligator. I can assure you I was not, end quote. Based on this story, Bobby Dunbar at least seemed sure of his identity as an adult. But what about as a child? Many wondered why he didn't recognize his mother at the time. Age five should be old enough to do so.
00:26:51
Speaker
But remember, Bobby Dunbar had been missing for eight months, and Bruce Anderson had been away from his mother for 15. That's a long time for a child. Plus, according to an article by Tonya Blust, the answer may also be complicated by other factors, like maybe he didn't feel a close connection with his mother, whichever one his mother was, prior to the disappearance.
00:27:18
Speaker
Maybe he enjoyed the life he was going to live or was living as a Dunbar. And he was being called Bobby Dunbar over and over and over again. If he was confused about his identity for any period of time as a child, repetition alone could have led him to have no doubt.
00:27:42
Speaker
he was Bobby Dunbar who had been kidnapped as a child before being joyfully returned to his parents.
00:27:50
Speaker
At least, that's how it goes. According to the stories, Bobby Dunbar's wife passed on to his grandchildren. And they, especially her granddaughter, Margaret Dunbar Cutwright, were enthralled by the tales every time they were told. So when Margaret's brother Robbie died in a plane crash and she needed something to take her mind off of the tragedy to heal,
00:28:16
Speaker
Margaret was gifted a scrapbook about her grandfather's case by her father. Margaret began her research with the scrapbook and small-town libraries. Then her husband Wayne gave her a membership card to the Library of Congress where she was able to take the research even further. This was the first time Margaret was confronted with the idea that perhaps her great-grandparents
00:28:46
Speaker
Eventually, it led her to working with Julia Anderson's granddaughter, Linda. Of course, each argued their own side about the boy's identity. Margaret adamant that her grandfather, and by extension she herself, was a Dunbar. And Linda, fighting back that he was actually Bruce Anderson, thus vindicating her grandmother.
00:29:12
Speaker
What a look at this case reveals to me, Sleuthhounds, at its root, are lots of problems with our society, as well as concerns about identity. Lessie Dunbar was viewed as more fit because of her position in society, her socioeconomic status, and because the public wanted a resolution, a happy reunion of a united family.
00:29:40
Speaker
caring little about actual truth. If we're honest with ourselves, in most cases we can rationalize the truth. In the case of Bobby Dunbar, that rationalization came from a letter from an anonymous Christian woman, quote,
00:30:00
Speaker
Kindly pardon me. I'm ill in bed, but this matter has just worried me. Dear sir, in view of human justice to Julia Anderson and mothers, I'm prompted to write to you. I sincerely believe the dumb bars have Bruce Anderson and not their boy. If this is their child, why are they afraid for anyone to see or interview him privately?
00:30:28
Speaker
I would see nothing to fear. And this seems strange. If this had been their own child and he had been gone eight months, do you think his features would be so changed that they would not know him only by moles and scars? This is a farce. If the dumb bars do not know their child who has only been gone eight months by his features, why they don't know him at all."
00:30:58
Speaker
According to the episode on the case in This American Life, the six-page letter by the anonymous Christian woman provides point after point of rational reasons as to why Bobby Dunbar isn't Bobby Dunbar. That letter in Margaret's research was paired with another letter from William Cantwell Walters to Percy Dunbar.
00:31:26
Speaker
It read, quote, I know by now you've decided you're wrong. It is very likely I will lose my life on account of that. And if I do, the great God will hold you accountable. End quote. With adamant argument on both sides, while Bobby Dunbar had come to terms with his own past,
00:31:54
Speaker
those others seeking answers were at a standstill. Settling it, though, came with time and with a little technological breakthrough allowing for the testing of DNA. Margaret had asked her father to do DNA testing before, time and time again, and he had always declined.
00:32:20
Speaker
But eventually, Margaret's persistence paid off and he agreed. Around 90 years after the incident, everyone was about to know the truth. Margaret's father, Bobby Dunbar Jr., while in the hospital recovering from congestive heart failure, finally agreed to the test and had his DNA compared to the DNA of one of his great uncle Alonzo's sons.
00:32:50
Speaker
When asked why he agreed, Bobby Junior said to Margaret, as cited in This American Life, quote, Daddy did not have the science of DNA to confirm the decision of the court and his youth. I feel it is my responsibility to achieve that before I go, end quote. Soon after, the results came in. No match. The boy had not
00:33:19
Speaker
been Bobby Dunbar. Now that paternity was tested, the only way to prove he was Bruce Anderson would be to test for maternity. The problem is that testing for maternity to verify that the boy had been Bruce Anderson would be another feat entirely and one which the family, even those willing to test paternity,
00:33:45
Speaker
is not willing to undertake. Genetically speaking, when one has a son, the son gets the X chromosome from his mother and the Y chromosome from his father. Therefore, since both the real Bobby Dunbar and Alonso were men,
00:34:01
Speaker
They had both gotten a Y chromosome from their father and had passed those Y chromosomes onto their own sons, Bobby Dunbar Jr. and Alonzo's son, hence why they could be compared. However, in order to test maternity, one would have to exhume the body of the man who lived his life as Bobby Dunbar to test the X chromosome of his DNA, that which he got from his mother.
00:34:31
Speaker
And again, that's exhuming a body, especially a body at rest. It brings up all kinds of other ethical issues. When Bobby Jr. found out the paternity DNA results, it only led to confusion.
00:34:48
Speaker
He stated the following in that same episode of This American Life, quote, all right, if my past is wrong, Bobby Dunbar, all the legends, all the stories, and then all of a sudden you find out, well, that's not who your blood says you are. Where does that leave me? If my grandpa isn't my grandpa, who am I? End quote. Additionally, the Dunbar family was angry.
00:35:17
Speaker
Why do this? Bobby Dunbar was raised and loved as a Dunbar, so why does it matter enough to try to prove he wasn't? To the Andersons, however, here was justice. Even though there's no solid proof that the young boy was instead Bruce Anderson, that is the assumption. And that means that Julia Anderson
00:35:43
Speaker
was telling the truth and it means that William Cantwell Walters was innocent. It also reveals on a broad scale the flaw in the threat of society that believes that social status equals truth and character. Regardless of that flaw in society, character is something that the man who grew up as Bobby Dunbar had.
00:36:11
Speaker
In an interview with Alan G. Breed, Bobby Dunbar Jr. recalled a conversation with his father in 1954 that reveals just that. Here's a quote from that article, quote, another sensational kidnapping had brought a reporter around and the resulting ambiguous story prompted him to ask his father, well, how do you know that you're Bobby Dunbar?
00:36:37
Speaker
His father, who died in 1966, looked him square in the face and gave him an enigmatic answer. He says, quote, I know who I am and I know who you are and nothing else makes a difference, end quote.
00:36:59
Speaker
While we now know the boy's identity was not the missing Dunbar boy lost in Swayze Lake, many now believe he was likely taken by an alligator. We do not know for sure that he is Bruce Anderson either. Perhaps the Dunbar's wanted so badly for their son to be back that they convinced themselves this was him. Perhaps they felt at fault for Bobby wandering off.
00:37:28
Speaker
Maybe he was kidnapped by some lonely wanderer or perhaps the truth is still buried somewhere in the deep recesses of the swamp. Regardless of questions by society, Bobby's body and soul are now at rest and it seems he was at peace with who he was.
Conclusion and Listener Call to Action
00:37:53
Speaker
And with a life on this earth filled with whispers of questioned identity, that rest is precisely what he deserves.
00:38:04
Speaker
Again, please like and join our Facebook page, Coffee and Cases podcast to continue the conversation and see images related to this episode. As always, follow us on Twitter, at casescoffee, on Instagram, at coffee cases podcast, or you can always email us suggestions to coffeeandcasespodcastatgmail.com. Please tell your friends about our podcast so more people can be reached to possibly help bring some closure to these families. Don't forget to rate our show and leave us a comment as well. We hope to hear from you soon.
00:38:34
Speaker
Stay together. Stay safe. We'll see you next week.