6-year-old boy abducted from California in 1951 found safe on East Coast after 70-year search

A California family’s 70-year-long search for their kidnapped relative ended in June after an online DNA test finally put them on the right track to the complete opposite end of the country.Luis Armando Albino, a retired firefighter and Vietnam War veteran living on the East Coast, was kidnapped from a park in Oakland, California in 1951 when he was 6 years old.

He had been playing with his older brother when a woman wearing a bandana approached him, speaking to him in Spanish and promising that she would buy him candy if he came with her.For many of his family members, including his mother who died in 2005, that was the last time they saw him.

But the family continued to hold out hope for seven decades and always kept his memory alive with pictures of him on display in their homes.After being kidnapped, Luis had been flown across the country and was raised by a couple on the East Coast.

Officials and family members did not specify where on the East Coast he lives today and authorities still have an open investigation into his abduction.Luis’s niece, 63-year-old Alida Alequin, stumbled across her long-lost kinship after taking an online DNA test in 2020 “just for fun,” she said.

The test showed a 22% match with a complete stranger who would turn out to be Albino.She tried to reach out to him but had no luck.

She and her daughters picked up the search again in early 2024 and started digging through microfilm archives of the Oakland Tribune at the Oakland Public Library.Articles from 1951 detailed search parties’ tireless efforts to find Luis, including deep dives into the San Francisco Bay and other waterways.

His older brother Roger, who was interrogated several times, repeatedly attested that he saw a woman wearing a bandana lead Luis away.Armed with the archives, including one with a picture of Luis and Roger, Alequin presented enough evidence to law enforcement to open a new missing person case for her missing uncle.Oakland police recognized Aleq...