Kidnapped in 1951, when he was six years old, he was found more than 70 years later .
The incredible story comes from California and the protagonist is Luis Armando Albino , kidnapped 73 years ago while playing in a park. In the meantime the man has become a father and grandfather, he served in Vietnam and was a firefighter , today he is retired.
His niece located him with the assistance of the FBI, police and the Department of Justice.
The Guardian tells his story, citing the Bay Arena News Group. Albino was six years old on February 21, 1951, playing with his older brother Roger in a West Oakland park when a woman caught his attention by promising him in Spanish that she would buy him candy. Instead , she kidnapped him, flying him to the East Coast of the United States, where he ended up with a couple who raised him as if he were their own son .
For over 70 years Albino was considered a missing child and his mother, who died in 2005, never gave up hope that he was alive .
Oakland Tribune articles from the time said police, soldiers from a local military base, the Coast Guard and other city employees joined a major search for the missing boy. His brother, Roger Albino, was questioned several times by investigators but always maintained his story that a woman wearing a bandana had kidnapped him. For his niece Alida Alequin, 63, the first clue that her uncle might still be alive came in 2020 when, “just for fun,” she took an online DNA test that showed a 22 percent match with a man who turned out to be her uncle .
She continued to search without finding any leads or further developments until earlier this year, when during a visit to the Oakland Public Library, the woman looked at the Tribune articles and found a photo of Luis and Roger, which convinced her that she was on the right track . So she went to the Oakland police department, where investigators finally agreed that the new lead was solid: Luis had been located on the East Coast and had provided a DNA sample.
