In a miraculous turn of events, a boy who was kidnapped at the age of six from an Oakland park in 1951 has been found alive more than 70 years later.
Luis Armando Albino, now 79, was located after a DNA test taken by his niece, Alida Alequin, led investigators to him.
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Luis was born into a family that had emigrated from Puerto Rico to California in the 1950s.
His mother, Antonia, worked tirelessly picking fruit and sewing gloves to support her six children.
On February 21, 1951, Luis and his older brother Roger, 10, were playing together at Jefferson Square Park in Oakland.
As the two boys walked from their home on Brush Street, they were approached by a Spanish-speaking woman wearing a green bandana.
She offered to buy them candy, but instead, she abducted Luis. He was flown across the country to New York, where a couple raised him as their own son, while his real family was left devastated and without answers.
Despite being separated from his family, Luis lived a full life.
He became a firefighter and served as a Marine in the Vietnam War. Yet, while he was building his life, his mother never stopped looking for him. Antonia regularly visited the police station, hoping for any news of her missing son.
It wasn’t until 2020 that a breakthrough came.
Luis’ niece, Alida Alequin, took a DNA test for fun and discovered a 22 percent match with an unknown man. She suspected this man could be her long-lost uncle. But when she initially reached out, she received no response.
However, Alida didn’t give up.
In early 2023, she visited the Oakland public library to search through old microfilms. There, she found a newspaper article with a picture of Luis and Roger from 1951. Armed with this new information, she approached the Oakland police.
The police reopened the case and, with the help of the FBI, tracked Luis down on the East Coast.
A DNA test confirmed his identity, and soon after, Luis was reunited with his family. “We didn’t start crying until after the investigators left,” Alida told The Bay Area News Group. “I grabbed my mom’s hands and said, ‘We found him.’”
Sadly, Luis’ mother, Antonia, passed away in 2005, never having had the chance to reunite with her son.
Luis’ brother Roger was also able to reunite with him but passed away two months later.
“She always felt he was alive,” Alida shared with Mercury News. “She took that with her to her grave. My grandmother carried the original article in her wallet and talked about him constantly.”
Alida believes her story could offer hope to other families in similar situations.
“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,” she said. “I would say: don’t give up.”
The Oakland police credited Alida for playing an integral role in finding her uncle.
They stated, “the outcome of this story is what we strive for.” While Luis’ family has found closure, the FBI confirmed that the investigation into his abduction remains open.
