An Oakland, California, woman's perseverance paid off after a decades-long investigation helped reunite her family with her uncle, who was reportedly abducted from a park in West Oakland in 1951.
The East Bay Times was the first to report on Luis Armando Albino, who at age 6 was playing in Jefferson Square Park near Seventh Street with his older brother Roger on February 21, 1951.
That day, the publication reported, a Spanish-speaking woman offered to buy him candy and lured Albino out of the park before kidnapping him and taking him to the East Coast, where he grew up.
The woman who kidnapped Albino, according to relatives who spoke to FOX 2 in San Francisco, has since died.
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Luis Armando Albino (right) with his late brother Roger (left). Luis Armando Albino was 6 years old in 1951 when he was abducted while playing in an Oakland park. Now, more than seven decades later, Albino has been found thanks to the help of an online ancestry test, old photos and newspaper clippings. (Courtesy: Alida Aléquin)
Albino's niece, Alida Alequin, 63, spoke to FOX 2 and shared details about her uncle's missing story, even after efforts by the Oakland Police Department and the FBI had been made to find him.
Alequin said her family never gave up on trying to find Albino, and neither did she.
In fact, in 2020, she took an online DNA test “just for fun” and was matched with a man from the East Coast.
The test performed on Alequin showed a 22% match with the man who turned out to be his uncle.
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Luis as a child with his father Marcial in Puerto Rico during the 1940s. (Courtesy: Alida Aléquin)
After learning of the encounter, she tried to find out who the man was and contacted him, but never received a response.
“My daughter found a lot of pictures of this man and we started comparing them,” Alequin told the station. “The resemblance was so strong… how much he looked like my other uncles. And then another picture where he looked so much like my grandmother, that one gave me chills and I was like, 'There's something here.'”
Albino was eventually found and provided a DNA sample. Alequin's mother and uncle, Roger, also provided a DNA sample.
DNA samples were compared and it was confirmed that Luis Albino was their missing relative, relatives told the station.
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DNA samples were used to confirm the family relationship. (iStock)
The information was provided to the Oakland Police Department, which forwarded it to the FBI. Oakland police said Alequin's investigation “played a pivotal role in the search for her uncle,” adding that “the outcome of this story is what we're looking for.”
Last week, police said the case of Luis Albino's disappearance was closed, although the kidnapping is still under investigation by the FBI and police.
Investigators reportedly questioned Albino's brother Roger several times, though his story about a woman wearing a headscarf taking his brother away did not change.
With the help of the FBI, Albino traveled to Oakland on June 24, 2024 with family members and met with Alequin, his mother and other relatives, the station reported.
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The next day, Alequin drove his mother and uncle, a retired firefighter and Marine Corps veteran who served during the Vietnam War, to Roger's home in Stanislaus County, California.
“We didn't start crying until the investigators left,” Alequin told FOX 2. “I grabbed my mom's hands and said, 'We found him.' I was ecstatic.”
The reunited family gave each other a long, tight hug before sitting down to talk about the day of the kidnapping and what has happened since then.
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Albino eventually returned home, but he returned in July for three weeks, the last time he would see his brother, who died in August.
Alequin told the station that the two brothers were making up for lost time. He also said that his uncle did not wish to speak to the media.
