DNA testing and the family’s constant efforts helped find a boy who was taken from a park in California in 1951. He was found living and well on the East Coast.
A woman who said she would buy Luis Armando Albino candy drew him out of the Oakland park where he and his bigger brother were playing. He was only 6 years old when he was taken.
Police in Oakland (OPD) told NPR that she “transported him out of state and eventually to the East Coast.”
After Albino went missing, state and federal officials looked for him and his body for a long time but couldn’t find him or his body.
He never gave up hope that he was still living, even after moving the family from Puerto Rico the year before. His mother, Antonia Albino, had done this.
According to the Mercury News, which broke the news of his finding last week, she went to the police’s missing person bureau almost every day at first to ask for information. After that, she did it once a week, then once a month, and finally once a year.
SFGATE reported that the family started looking for Albino again 15 years after he was taken. At that time, he would have been 21 years old. Antonia thought her son had been taken to Puerto Rico, so they went there more than once but found nothing.
In 1966, Oakland police Lt. Dominic DiFraia told The Oakland Tribune, “It’s not often that a boy goes missing and doesn’t show up again, alive or dead.” “I’d give a lot to know why.”
It took seven decades to start to figure out what was going on. In the beginning of this year, Albino’s sister finally found him, a long time after his mother had died and his case had become cold.
DNA tests and newspaper clippings led investigators out east
Her relatives told 63-year-old Alida Alequin about her missing uncle. Her late grandma had a newspaper piece about his abduction in her pocketbook and exhibited his photo at home.
In 2020, Alequin took an online DNA test “just for fun,” she told the Mercury News.
She matched 22% with a stranger. The Oakland resident unsuccessfully contacted him until earlier this year, when she watched a documentary that spurred her to continue her search.
Alequin and her daughters examined the man’s identity online and looked at Oakland Tribune microfilm at the public library, becoming increasingly persuaded that the DNA database man was their long-lost cousin.
OPD claims she informed their missing persons unit in March of the DNA test results and her uncle’s likely identification.
New leads and technology helped investigators revive Albino’s case.
They investigated public records for the potential match and acquired DNA samples from Albino’s live siblings with cooperation from the FBI and California Department of Justice.
After several failed attempts to reach Albino and his family, police were able to send FBI special agents to his home.
According to NPR, the FBI helped Oakland police by providing access to resources across state lines. Authorities have not revealed Albino’s East Coast residence.
The agents interviewed Albino and took his DNA.
Police say his testimonies and genetics proved “the best possible outcome”: he was the boy kidnapped 73 years previously from the park.
“We cried after the investigators left,” Alequin told Mercury News. I grabbed my mom’s hands and said, ‘We found him.'”
A “family reunion over 70 years in the making”
There aren’t many details about Albino’s life on the East Coast, and police say they are still looking into his case. Anyone who knows something should call the OPD Missing Persons Unit.
Mercury News says Albino is a former firefighter and Marine Corps veteran who was in Vietnam twice. SFGate says he thought he was the “son of another couple” for most of his life.
When Alequin and his family got together in California in June, Albino flew there to meet them. Police said that OPD investigators, FBI Victims Advocates, and the California DOJ planned and paid for the meeting.
“It was an emotional moment for everyone, and it was a family reunion that had been planned for over 70 years,” they said.
She told her uncle, “Thank you for finding me,” as he hugged and kissed her on the cheek.
She also said that he remembers some of the kidnapping and his trip across the country, but that he had never heard back from the adults in his life.
Albino met up with his brother Roger again on that trip. Roger had been with Albino on that terrible February day.
She said that they “grabbed each other and had a really tight long hug.” They then sat down and talked about the kidnapping, their time in the military, and other things.
It was sad when they saw each other again because Roger had died two months later, in August.
Alquin said, “I think he died happy.” “He felt good about himself because he knew his brother was safe.”
She said she was glad she could help her mom and uncle get closure. She also thought her late grandma would be happy.
She also said, “And who knows, telling my story might help other families going through the same thing.” “Don’t give up,” I told them.