It was 1951 when Luis Armando Albino, a six-year-old boy, was abducted while playing in a park in Oakland, California. He was found by his family 73 years later on the East Coast.
According to an AP report, it was February 2, 1951 when the Puerto Rican boy was playing in a West Oakland Park with his brother. A woman approached the two boys and spoke to them in Spanish, luring away Luis with the promise of buying him candy.
Since then, Oakland authorities have searched for the boy far and wide. According to the Oakland Tribune newspaper clippings from that time, since the boy’s disappearance, police, army men from a local base, Coast Guard members, and city officials got involved in the massive search to locate the missing child.
Authorities questioned his brother, Roger Albino, several times. He insisted that a Spanish-speaking woman with a bandana on her head kidnapped Luis Armando.
The long search was fruitless, but Luis’ family, which had moved to California from Puerto Rico only a year prior, did not lose faith. His mother, Antonia Albino, never abandoned hope that her son was alive and would one day be found.
The family’s search continued for a year to no avail. Fifteen years after the kidnapping, the family once again began searching for missing Luis Armando— this time in Puerto Rico, thinking that his kidnappers had taken him there.
Antonia Albino passed away in 2005. Fifty-four years after her son went missing, she had not abandoned the idea that little Luis was alive.
DNA test leads to the abducted boy
When Luis Armando Albino was found, he was no longer the “abducted boy.” He was 79 years old, a retired fireman, Vietnam War veteran, father, and grandfather.
It was his niece, the 63-year-old Alida Alequin, who found him last June with the help of an online genealogy test, old photos, and newspaper clippings with the assistance of the police, FBI, and Department of Justice. He had been raised by another family, living on the East Coast since he had been abducted, with only vague memories of his kidnapping.
The niece said that the first clue that her uncle might be alive came in 2020 when, as Alequin said, she took an online DNA test for fun, which showed her 22 percent genetic identification with an unknown man. It was later proven that he was her uncle.
At the time, the search proved fruitless, but the niece returned this year with the help of her daughters and visited Oakland, where, in the public library, she looked through microfilm of clippings from the Oakland Tribune and found a photo of her uncle with his brother, Roger.
That same day, she went to the local police, who agreed that the new lead was significant and reopened the investigation along with the FBI.
Luis Albino reunites with his family in California
Luis, his sister, and his niece’s mother provided a DNA sample, and on June 20th, they showed up at Alequin’s home and informed her that Louis had been found.
On June 24th, with the assistance of the FBI, Louis arrived in Oakland, where he met with his niece, sister, and other relatives. The following day Alequin took her mother and Louis to her other uncle, Roger, who lived in Stanislaus County, California.
The two brothers hugged tightly for a long time. They had so much to say after 73 long years. They talked about the kidnapping, their military service, and much more, said the niece.
Louis continued living on the East Coast, but returned to California for a three-week visit in July. It was the last time he saw his brother, Roger, who passed away in August, knowing, at last, that his lost brother was alive and had been found.
