How a boy abducted from California in 1951 was found more than 70 years later

A California family’s 73-year-long search for their abducted relative finally ended this June.

All thanks to the help of an online ancestry test, old photos and newspaper clippings.

The Bay Area News Group reported on Friday that Luis Armando Albino’s niece in Oakland — with assistance from police, the FBI and the justice department — located her uncle living on the US East Coast.

Here’s all we know about it.

The abduction

Luis Armando Albino, a retired firefighter and Marine Corps veteran who served in Vietnam living on the East Coast, was kidnapped from Jefferson Square Park in West Oakland on February 21, 1951.

He had been playing with his 10-year-old brother, Roger, when a woman lured him and promised him in Spanish that she would buy him candy.

Instead, the woman kidnapped the Puerto Rico-born boy, flying him to the East Coast. He eventually ended up with a couple who raised him as if he were their own son, the news group reported.

More from United States Of America

Faulty math and accounting tricks: How much has DOGE inflated its savings numbers Trump, Putin to meet at Alaska’s largest military base: Why was this remote site chosen?

For his family members, including his mother, who died in 2005, that was the last time they saw him.

Oakland Tribune articles from the time reported that police, soldiers from a local army base, the Coast Guard and other city employees joined a huge search for the missing boy, which also covered San Francisco Bay and other waterways.

The older brother, Roger, was interrogated several times by investigators. He told them about a woman with a bandana around her head taking his brother.

Luis’ family never gave up hope that he was alive and had his photo hung at relatives’ house.

The finding

Albino, himself a father and grandfather, was found by his niece, 63-year-old Alida Alequin, who reunited him with his California family in June this year.

The first notion that her uncle might be still alive came in 2020 when, “just for fun,” Alequin said, she took an online DNA test.

It showed a 22 per cent match with a man who eventually turned out to be her uncle. However, there was no luck as she couldn’t reach out to him.

Early this year, she and her daughters began their search again.

On a visit to the Oakland public library, she looked at microfilm of Tribune articles — including one that had a picture of Luis and Roger — which convinced her that she was on the right track. She went to Oakland police the same day, who eventually agreed the new lead was substantial, and a new missing persons case was opened.

Though the missing persons case was closed, they and the FBI considered the kidnapping investigation to still be open.

Luis was located on the East Coast and provided a DNA sample, as did his sister, Alequin’s mother.

On June 20, investigators went to her mother’s home, Alequin said, and told them both that her uncle had been found.

“We didn’t start crying until after the investigators left. I grabbed my mom’s hands and said, ‘We found him.’ I was ecstatic,” Alequin said.

The reunion

On June 24, with the assistance of the FBI, Luis came to Oakland with his family members and met with Alequin, her mother and other relatives.

The next day Alequin drove 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, however, came back again in July for a three-week visit. It was the last time he saw Roger, who passed away in August.

Oakland police acknowledged that Alequin’s efforts “played an integral role in finding her uncle” and that “the outcome of this story is what we strive for.”

In an interview with the news group, she said her uncle “hugged me and said, ‘Thank you for finding me’ and gave me a kiss on the cheek.’”

“I was always determined to find him, and who knows, with my story out there, it could help other families going through the same thing,” Alequin said.

“I would say: don’t give up.”

With inputs from The Associated Press