Abducted in 1951 at age 6, man found alive by niece 7 decades later

Luis Armando Albino was 6 when a woman abducted him in 1951 while he was playing at a park in California with his older brother, only reuniting with his family seven decades later thanks to the determination of his 63-year-old niece. 

Albino, now a retired firefighter, grandfather and Marine Corps veteran who served in Vietnam, was missing for over 70 years but his family never forgot him. The man's relatives kept photos of him, and while his mother passed away in 2005 before she could see him again, she never lost hope that her son was still alive.

As The Mercury News reported Friday, Alida Alequin is the retired firefighter's 63-year-old niece. Alequin started to suspect that her uncle was alive in 2020 after she took an online DNA test "just for fun." The test showed that she had a 22% match with the man who turned out to be her uncle. 

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According to a 1966 Oakland Tribune article, Alequin's uncle went missing in February 1951 after a woman abducted him from the West Oakland park where he had been playing with his older brother. The woman spoke Spanish to the 6-year-old Puerto Rico-born boy and lured him into her car by promising that she would buy him candy.

After kidnapping the boy from the park, the woman flew him to the East Coast, where he ended up in the care of a couple who raised him as if he was their own, according to The Mercury News. Investigators interviewed Albino's brother Roger, who witnessed the abduction, several times after the boy's disappearance, but the older sibling could only tell them that a woman wearing a bandana had taken his brother. 

Flash forward to 2024, when Alequin and her daughters continued to search for their missing relative. During a visit to the Oakland Public Library, Albino's niece looked through a microfilm of old Oakland Tribune articles reporting the kidnapping. One of the articles featured a picture of her uncle and his brother Roger, and Alequin went to the Oakland police with this information. 

After receiving the new lead, investigators opened a new missing persons case. While the missing persons case is closed now that Albino has been found, the police and FBI consider the kidnapping a still-open investigation.

On June 20, investigators informed Alequin and her mother, Albino's sister, that they had found their missing relative on the East Coast after the two siblings had performed DNA tests that revealed a match. A few days later, the FBI arranged for Albino to visit Oakland and see his family. 

"In my heart I knew it was him, and when I got the confirmation, I let out a big 'YES!'" Alequin said.

"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." 

According to the Oakland police, Alequin's efforts to find her uncle "played an integral role" in finding him, adding that "the outcome of this story is what we strive for." When Albino saw his niece, according to The Mercury News, the man embraced her and said, "Thank you for finding me," kissing her on the cheek. 

During the visit with her newfound uncle, Alequin drove him and her mother to the home of Albino's brother Roger in Stanislaus County, California. Recalling the visit, Alequin said that the two brothers "grabbed each other and had a really tight, long hug." 

"They sat down and just talked," Alequin noted. Her uncle went back to the East Coast but returned to California in July for a three-week visit, which would be the last time he saw Roger alive. In August, Albino's brother passed away, but Alequin believes that he died "happily." 

"He was at peace with himself, knowing that his brother was found," she said. "I was just so happy I was able to do this for him and bring him closure and peace."

Albino does not wish to talk to the media at the moment, according to his niece. As for his memories of the abduction, Albino vaguely recalled being kidnapped and taken across the country, but the adults in his life never explained the situation to him.