He was kidnapped when he was 6 years old and was found more than 70 years later

Luis Armando Albino was 6 years old in 1951 when a woman lured him with candy to kidnap him from a park in West Oakland, Californiawhere he was playing with his older brother Roger. More than 70 years later, he was able to reunite with his family, who along with investigators discovered that he lived on the East Coast of USA.This is the incredible story.

According to The Mercury News, the niece of Louis Albino, Alida Alequin63 years old, played a key role in their being able to find him.

Louis Albino, her five siblings and her mother had arrived in the United States from Puerto Rico almost a year before her kidnapping.

After Luis was kidnapped, his brother Roger, then 10 years old, said that a woman wearing a red scarf around her head, and speaking Spanish, He had taken him after promising to buy him some candy.

The woman took him to the East Coast, where authorities have determined that he ended up being raised by a couple as their own son, according to The Mercury News.

That media detailed that the mother of Louis Albino She never lost hope of finding him alive, until he died in 2005 at the age of 92.

In the living room of his house, according to The Mercury News, a photo of Luis Albino always hung on the wall and his mother used to keep a newspaper clipping of a story about him in her purse. kidnapping.

“She always hoped he would come home”said Alida Alequin a The Times.

Reports from the Oakland Tribune at the time, cited by the AP, described how police, soldiers from a local military base, the Coast Guard and other city employees joined a massive search for the kidnapped child.

San Francisco Bay and other waterways were also searched. Roger Albino He was questioned several times by investigators, but he stood by his story that a woman had taken his brother.

How did they find Albino?

In 2020, Alida Alequin She took a DNA test online for fun, and when she got the results, there was a 22% match with a man, about whom she was given no further information.

Earlier this yearwhile remembering the family with his daughters, Alequin had a hunch: “I started naming all my mother’s brothers, and when I got to the youngest, Luis“The baby,” I paused in mid-sentence. “I can’t explain what I felt, but I said, ‘I don’t think this person I found on Ancestry was a half-brother like I first thought. I think he was the brother who was kidnapped. ’”

Alida and her daughters visited the Oakland Public Library to look through old newspaper clippings and found several clues that could lead them to finding their uncle. She immediately went to the Oakland Police and authorities concluded that DNA was a clue relevant enough to start a new missing persons case.

Finally, Luis was located on the East Coast and provided a DNA sample, as did her sister, Alequín’s mother.

On June 20th, Police confirmed to Alequín’s family that they had found the person they had been searching for for more than 70 years..

“We didn’t start crying until the investigators left,” Alequin said. “I grabbed my mother’s hands and said, ‘We found it.’ She was ecstatic.”

The emotional family reunion

Four days later, and with the help of the FBI, Luis Albino traveled to Oakland to meet his sister, niece and other relatives.

The next day, Alida took her mother and Luis Armando to meet her brother. Rogernot Stanislaus, California.

“They gave each other a strong and long hug. They sat down and talked,” dijo Alida a The Bay Area News Group.

His mother and uncles talked about the kidnapping, Luis’s life in the military and other topics, his niece said.

Luis returned to the East Coast, but came back in July for a three-week visit. It was the last time he saw Roger, who died in August. this year.

“I think he died happy”“He was at peace with himself, knowing that his brother had been found,” Alequin told the Mercury News.

Louis Albino He is a retired firefighter and veteran of the United States Marine Corps who served two tours of duty in Vietnam is a father and grandfather, according to his niece.

Alequin said her uncle had some memories of the kidnapping and his trip to the East Coast, but when she questioned the adults who raised him about his life, they gave her no answers. He doesn’t want to talk to the press, her niece said.