A man abducted as a six-year-old while playing in a California park in 1951 has been found more than seven decades later thanks to an online family tree test, old photographs and newspaper clippings, The Guardian reports.
Bay Area News Group reported on Friday that the niece of Luis Armando Albino of Oakland, with the help of police, the FBI and the Justice Department, found her uncle living on the US East Coast.
Albino, a father and grandfather, is a retired firefighter and Marine veteran who served in Vietnam, according to the niece, 63-year-old Alida Alequin. She found Albino and reunited him with his family from California in June.
On February 21, 1951, the woman lured six-year-old Albino out of a park in West Oakland where he was playing with his older brother and promised him in Spanish that she would buy him candy.
Instead, the woman kidnapped the boy, who was born in Puerto Rico, and transported him to the East Coast, where he ended up with a married couple who raised him as their own son, the news group reported. Officials and family members did not say exactly where on the East Coast he lives.
Albino remained missing for more than 70 years, but he was always in his family’s hearts and his picture hung in relatives’ homes, his niece said. His mother died in 2005 but never gave up hope that her son was alive.
Oakland police acknowledged that Alequin’s efforts “were instrumental in finding her uncle” and that “the outcome of this story is what we are striving for.” In an interview with the news group, she said her uncle “gave me a hug, said “Thank you for finding me” and kissed me on the cheek.”
Oakland Tribune articles at the time reported that police, soldiers from the local military base, the Coast Guard and other city employees joined the massive search for the missing boy. San Francisco Bay and other waterways were also combed, according to the article. His brother, Roger Albino, was questioned several times by investigators, but he stood by his version that his brother was taken by a woman with a bandana on her head.
The first suggestion that her uncle might be alive came in 2020, when Alequin said she took an online DNA test “just for fun.” It showed a 22 per cent match to the man who ended up being her uncle. Further searches at the time yielded no answers or any response from him, she said.
Earlier this year, she and her daughters began searching again. Visiting the Oakland Public Library, she looked at microfilms of articles from the Tribune, including one featuring Louis and Roger, and that convinced her she was on the right track. That same day, she contacted the Oakland police.
Investigators eventually agreed that the new lead was significant and a new missing person case was opened. Last week, Oakland police said the missing person case was closed, but they and the FBI believe the kidnapping investigation is still open.
Luis was found on the East Coast and provided a DNA sample, as did his sister, Alequin’s mother. According to Alequin, investigators came to her mother’s home on 20 June and told her that her uncle had been found.
“We didn’t start crying until after the investigators left,” Alequin said. “I grabbed my mom’s hands and said, “We found him.” I was ecstatic.”
On June 24, with the assistance of the FBI, Luis travelled to Oakland with his family and met with Alequin, her mother and other relatives. The next day, Alequin took her mother and her newfound uncle to Roger’s home in Stanislaus County, California.
“They grabbed each other and had a really tight, long hug. They sat down and just talked,” she said, discussing the day of the kidnapping, their military service and more.
Luis returned to the East Coast, but visited again for three weeks in July. That was the last time he saw Roger, who died in August.
