California Man, Abducted From a Park at Age Six, Found After More Than 70

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Six-year-old Luis Armando Albino was playing with his older brother Roger at Jefferson Square Park in Oakland, Calif., on a February day in 1951 when a woman walked up to him and asked if he wanted some candy.

Luis went with the woman, but his older brother, Roger, was less eager to go with a stranger. Roger ran home and told an adult of his encounter and his brother’s decision to go with the woman.

The boys’ mother, Antonia, was frantic. She and the family searched for Luis ceaselessly, even asking the Coast Guard to search the waters nearby. She started to show up regularly at police headquarters, desperate for news about Luis.

“She came once a week, then once a month, then at least once a year, to see the shake of the head, to have the answer ‘no’ translated for her although she could read it in the officers’ faces,” the Oakland Tribune wrote in 1966.

When Luis was 21 years old, Antonia searched military records to try to find a hint of her son’s whereabouts. She then returned to Puerto Rico to search for him there.

“This is a rare situation when a boy disappears and doesn’t eventually show up — alive or dead,” Oakland Police Lt. Dominic DiFraia told the Tribune in 1966. “I’d give an awful lot to find out why.”

Then, in 2020, a break came when Luis Albino’s niece, Alida Alequin, took a DNA test to discover her ancestry and found, to her surprise, that she had a relative living on the East Coast. Intrigued, she wondered if the close relative indicated by the DNA test was her long-lost uncle. She reached out to the man but didn’t hear back.

But Alida would not give up.

SFGate:

Earlier this year, Alequin tried again. Armed with photos, she took her evidence to the Oakland Police Department’s missing persons unit. In short order, the FBI and California Department of Justice were also investigating Alequin’s lead. They discovered the man was living on the East Coast, had worked as a firefighter and served two tours in Vietnam with the Marine Corps. This week, the Mercury News first reported that a DNA test confirmed what Alequin suspected: This was Luis Albino.

In June, Luis flew to California to reunite with his family, among them his devoted brother Roger. The joyous meeting was also a fortuitous one; Roger died two months later.

“I think he died happily,” Alequin told the Mercury News. “He was at peace with himself, knowing that his brother was found.”

Luis with his brother Roger after being reunited:

Kidnapped 6-Year-Old Found Alive 70 Years Later, Reunites with Family

Luis Armando Albino, abducted from an Oakland park in 1951, was found on the East Coast thanks to a DNA test & his niece’s determination. After decades, his family is finally reunited.https://t.co/7M9WMYuNfJ

— National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (@NCMEC) September 23, 2024

Luis grew up believing that the woman who abducted him and another man were his parents. He says he remembers some of the abduction but “wants to keep some of his experiences private and didn’t want to speak to the media,” Alida told the Los Angeles Times.

The case is ongoing, although the FBI refuses to comment on the matter. The Oakland Police would only say that an investigation is ongoing but wouldn’t comment further.

The identity of the couple who raised Luis remains a mystery.