An online ancestry test helped lead to the discovery in June of a man who was allegedly kidnapped from California 73 years ago as a six-year-old boy, Mercury News first reported.
Puerto Rico-born Luis Armando Albino disappeared from Jefferson Square Park in West Oakland Feb. 21, 1951 — a woman allegedly lured him away with the promise of candy while he played with his brother Roger, according to Mercury News.
Albino and five of his siblings had arrived from Puerto Rico with their mother only the summer before, and he had not yet learned English.
Albino’s disappearance triggered a massive nine-block search involving local police, Oakland Army Base soldiers, the Coast Guard and others, Mercury News reported. Investigators repeatedly interrogated Roger Albino, but he consistently told them a bandana-wearing woman took away his brother. The FBI also got involved.
Albino’s mother, Antonia Albino, visited the police missing person bureau almost daily, then once a week, once a month and then yearly — but no one found Albino. Her long vigil for her son ended when she died aged 92 in 2005, Mercury News reported. (RELATED: REPORT: Man And His Deck Of Cards Help Police Solve 20-Year Cold Case Mystery)
Luis Armando Albino was 6 years old in 1951 when he was abducted while playing at an Oakland park. Now, more than seven decades later, Albino has been found thanks to help from an online ancestry test, old photos and newspaper clippings. https://t.co/FNk3NNqQe7
— FOX 32 News (@fox32news) September 22, 2024
Albino’s niece Alida Alequin, 63, told the outlet “I always knew I had an uncle” and that a picture of Albino “was always hung at the family home.” She added that her grandmother Antonia “always felt [Albino] was alive,” always spoke of him and “carried the original [Oakland Tribune] article of him in her wallet.”
Alequin took an online DNA test in 2020 —”just for fun” in her own words. The test yielded a 22 percent match with a man but a further search yielded no answers, nor was there any response from him, according to Mercury News.
A documentary on Puerto Rican folklore that Alequin saw one night in February inspired her to renew her search. She and her daughters began researching the man’s name and identity online and found pictures that led them to believe he must be Alequin’s long-lost uncle.
A visit to the Oakland Public Library’s archive of Oakland Tribune articles yielded a picture of Albino together with his brother Roger, and she reported her find to the Oakland Police the same day.
Investigators reopened the missing persons case, and the FBI and California’s Department of Justice got involved, according to Mercury News.
They told Alequin in her mother’s home June 20 that they had found Albino on the East Coast and he had provided a DNA sample as his sister, Alequin’s mother, had also done.
Albino’s alleged kidnapper had flown him to the East Coast, where he had wound up with a couple that raised him as though he were their son, Mercury News reported. He grew to become a Marine Corps veteran twice stationed in Vietnam and a retired firefighter.
Investigators reunited Albino with Alequin, her mother, and other relatives June 24. Albino reportedly did not want to speak with the media. Alequin drove her mother and Albino to see Roger the next day.
“They grabbed each other and had a really tight, long hug. They sat down and just talked,” Alequin told Mercury News. The two brothers reportedly discussed the day of the kidnapping and their military service among other things.
Albino said he had some memories of the kidnapping and the resulting West Coast–East Coast travel, but the adults in his life never answered his questions.
Albino visited again in July and also saw Roger again. Then Roger died in August —”happily” and ” at peace with himself, knowing that his brother was found,” Alequin told Mercury News.
Alequin called on families in similar situations not to give up. The police agreed, saying “the outcome of this story is what we strive for.”