luis armando albino found alive, When Luis Armando Albino was kidnapped in 1951 while playing in a park in Oakland,
California, he was just 6 years old. Thanks to the assistance of old images, newspaper articles, and an online ancestry test, Albino has been located more than seven decades later.
According to a story published by the Bay Area News Group on Friday, Albino’s niece in Oakland was able to identify her uncle who lived on the East Coast with the help of the FBI, the Justice Department, and the police.
According to his niece, 63-year-old Alida Alequin, Albino is a retired firefighter and Marine Corps veteran who served in Vietnam. Albino is also a grandfather. In June, she located Albino and brought him back to his family in California.
The 6-year-old Albino was enticed from the West Oakland park on February 21, 1951, where he was playing with his older brother, by a woman who spoke Spanish and offered to buy him candy. Albino was born in Puerto Rico.
Rather, the news group said, the mother abducted the youngster and flew him to the East Coast, where he was adopted by a couple and reared like their own son. Where on the East Coast he resides has not been disclosed by officials or relatives.
Albino went gone for more than 70 years, but according to his niece, his picture was constantly posted at relatives’ homes and he was always in his family’s hearts. Even after his mother passed away in 2005, she never lost faith in her son’s survival.
Alequin’s efforts “played an integral role in finding her uncle,” according to Oakland police, who also stated that “the outcome of this story is what we strive for.”
She said that her uncle “hugged me and said, ‘Thank you for finding me,’ and gave me a kiss on the cheek” in an interview with the news organization.
At the time, police, soldiers from a nearby army post, the Coast Guard, and other city personnel were said to have joined a large search for the missing youngster, according to Oakland Tribune articles. The stories also state that searches were conducted in San Francisco Bay and other waterways. Despite being questioned by detectives multiple times, his brother Roger Albino maintained his account of his brother being taken by a lady wearing a bandana around her head.
Alequin claimed that she performed an online DNA test “just for fun” in 2020, which is when she first had the idea that her uncle might still be alive. It revealed a twenty-two percent match with a male who was subsequently identified as her uncle. She claimed that at the time, more searching turned up nothing and that he didn’t respond.
She and her daughters started looking again in the beginning of 2024. She was certain she was on the correct trail after seeing microfilm of Tribune articles at the Oakland Public Library, one of which included a photo of Luis and Roger. That that day, she went to the Oakland police.
After some time, investigators concluded that the new lead was significant, and a new case for missing persons was initiated. Although Oakland police and the FBI still view the kidnapping as an ongoing investigation, they declared last week that the case involving the missing person was closed.
Both Alequin’s mother and Luis, who lived on the East Coast, submitted a DNA sample.
