A six-year-old boy who was abducted from a California park in 1951 has miraculously been found alive more than 70 years later and reunited with his family, who never gave up hope.
It was February 21, 1951, when a woman lured little Luis Armando Albino away from his older brother, Roger, at a West Oakland park by offering him candy, CBS News reported.
The woman, whom Roger said wore a bandana and spoke Spanish to his Puerto Rican-born brother, then flew Luis to the East Coast, where a couple raised him as their son.
Luis’s niece, 63-year-old Alida Alequin, told the Mercury News that the family always held the missing child in their hearts and had photos of him hanging up in their homes. His mother passed away in 2005 “but never gave up hope that her son was alive,” the CBS article said.
Shortly after the abduction, Oakland Tribune articles that the outlet obtained showed that police, soldiers from a local U.S. Army base, members of the U.S. Coast Guard, and other local officials conducted an extensive search of the Bay Area and its waterways.
Roger was interrogated “several times” and always maintained that his younger brother was kidnapped.
Everything began to change when Alequin did a DNA test in 2020 “just for fun” and unexpectedly found a man who was a 22-percent match. She did not receive any response from the man when she reached out, so the search did not immediately continue.
In 2024, Alequin and her daughters again picked up the search by viewing Oakland Tribune articles on microfilm at the local public library. One had a picture of her two uncles, Roger and Luis. This re-ignited her quest to find her missing relative, so she went to the Oakland Police Department with the information that she had found a DNA connection.
“Investigators eventually agreed the new lead was substantial, and a new missing persons case was opened,” reported CBS.
Investigators found the man who tested as a 22 percent match to Alequin on the East Coast, and he provided a DNA sample.
Alequin’s mother provided one, as well.
They turned out to be siblings.
Investigators told Alequin and her mother that Luis had been found on June 20.
“In my heart, I knew it was him, and, when I got the confirmation, I let out a big ‘YES!'” the niece recalled.
“We didn’t start crying until after the investigators left,” she added. “I grabbed my mom’s hands and said, ‘We found him.’ I was ecstatic.”
Luis fought in Vietnam with the U.S. Marine Corps, became a father and grandfather, and served as a firefighter during his life.
Just four days later, the FBI assisted Luis in coming out to California with his family to meet with the ones he lost seven decades ago. He met with Alequin, his sister, and other relatives in Oakland on the first day before seeing his older brother, Roger, at his Stanislaus County home the next day.
Alequin told the Mercury News that her long-lost uncle “hugged me and said, ‘Thank you for finding me’ and gave me a kiss on the cheek.”
“They grabbed each other and had a really tight, long hug. They sat down and just talked,” she said of Luis and Roger’s reunion.
Luis came back out to California in July for three weeks. It was his final meeting with his brother, who died in August.
“I think he died happily,” said Alequin. “He was at peace with himself, knowing that his brother was found. I was just so happy I was able to do this for him and bring him closure and peace.”
Luis declined to speak with the media, but his niece did reveal that he had some memories of being abducted, but it was never explained to him while he grew up in his new home.
“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 told the Mercury News. “I would say, ‘Don’t give up.'”
Oakland police said that Alequin’s own investigation “played an integral role in finding her uncle” and that “the outcome of this story is what we strive for,” the outlet reported.
CBS News added that Oakland police closed the missing persons case, but the kidnapping investigation remains open.
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