A man abducted from a California park as a six-year-old has been reunited with his family, seven decades later.
Luis Armando Albino was abducted from a West Oakland park on February 21, 1951, when a woman lured him away from his older brother with a promise to buy him candy.
The woman kidnapped the Puerto Rico-born boy and flew him to the east coast of the US, where he was raised by a couple as their child, according to the Bay Area News Group.
His brother, Roger Albino, who was 10 at the time, told investigators in an interrogation a woman with a bandana around her head had taken his brother.
Oakland Tribune articles at the time reported a joint, nine-block search operation was conducted by police, soldiers from a local army base and the coastguard but found no sign of Luis.For 73 years, Mr Albino remained missing.
That was until his sister’s daughter, Alida Alequin, tracked him down with the help of police, the FBI and the state Department of Justice.
She said the family continued thinking about Mr Albino in the seven decades he was missing.
“I always knew I had an uncle. We spoke of him a lot,” Ms Alequin said.
“My grandmother carried the original article in her wallet, and she always talked about him.
“A picture of him was always hung at the family home.”
The first hint that her uncle may have been alive came in 2020, when an online DNA test Ms Alequin took “just for fun” turned up a 22 per cent match with a man on the east coast of the US.But she didn’t pursue the link any further when she didn’t receive a response from the man.
It wasn’t until 2024 when Ms Alequin was watching a documentary that included references to Puerto Rican folklore, that she was spurred to find her uncle.
With the help of one of her daughters, she found photos of the man she had a partial DNA match with.
After reading archived Oakland Tribune articles, she went to the police.
Investigators agreed Ms Alequin’s lead was worth looking into and opened a new missing person’s case.
The man was located and DNA testing confirmed his identity as Luis Armando Albino.
