Off The Record
6-Year-Old Abducted From California Park In 1951 Has Been Located More Than 70 Years Later
A man who was kidnapped in 1951 while playing in a park in California when he was six years old has been located more than 70 years later with the use of newspaper clippings, old images, and an internet ancestry test.
The Bay Area News Group said on Friday that Luis Armando Albino’s niece in Oakland had found her uncle, who lived on the US east coast, with help from the FBI, the police, and the justice department.
According to his niece, 63-year-old Alida Alequin, Albino is a retired firefighter and Marine Corps veteran who served in Vietnam. Albino is also a grandfather. In June, she located Albino and brought him back to his family in California.
The six-year-old Albino was enticed from the West Oakland park where he was playing with his older brother on February 21, 1951, by a woman who told him in Spanish that she would buy him candies.
Instead, the girl kidnapped the boy, who was born in Puerto Rico, and took him to the east coast, where a couple adopted him and treated him like their own son, according to the news organization. Representatives or relatives have not disclosed his residence on the east coast.
Albino went gone for more than 70 years, but according to his niece, he was never far from his family’s thoughts, and his picture was frequently seen hanging at their homes. Even after his mother passed away in 2005, she never lost faith in her son’s survival.
Oakland police acknowledged that Alequin’s efforts “played an integral role in finding her uncle” and that “the outcome of this story is what we strive for.”
In an interview with the news group, she said her uncle “hugged me and said, ‘Thank you for finding me’ and gave me a kiss on the cheek.”
Articles from the Oakland Tribune at the time stated that the Coast Guard, police, and troops from a nearby army camp joined a massive search for the missing kid. The stories also state that searches were conducted in San Francisco Bay and other waterways. Despite being questioned by detectives multiple times, his brother Roger Albino maintained his account of his brother being taken by a lady wearing a bandana around her head.
The first notion that her uncle might be still alive came in 2020 when, “just for fun,” Alequin said, she took an online DNA test. It showed a 22% match with a man who eventually turned out to be her uncle. A further search at the time yielded no answers or any response from him, she said.
She and her girls went looking again early in the new year. She was certain she was on the correct trail after seeing microfilm of Tribune articles at the Oakland Public Library, one of which featured a photo of Luis and Roger. That day, she went to Oakland police.
After some time, investigators concluded that the new lead was significant, and a new case for missing persons was initiated. Although Oakland police and the FBI deemed the kidnapping investigation to be ongoing, they declared last week that the case involving the missing persons had been resolved.
Both Alequin’s mother and Luis, who lived on the east coast, submitted a DNA sample.
Alequin stated that on June 20, detectives visited her mother’s house and informed them that her uncle had been located.
“We didn’t start crying until after the investigators left,” Alequin said. “I grabbed my mom’s hands and said, ‘We found him.’ I was ecstatic.”
Luis traveled to Oakland on June 24 with family members and met Alequin, her mother, and other family members with the FBI’s help. Alequin took her mother and her recently discovered uncle to Roger’s house in Stanislaus County, California, the next day.
“They grabbed each other and had a really tight, long hug. They sat down and just talked,” she said, discussing the day of the kidnapping, their military service and more.
Luis went back to the east coast, but he made a three-week visit back in July. It was the final time he saw Roger before his August death.
Alequin stated that her uncle was reluctant to speak with the press.
“I was always determined to find him, and who knows, with my story out there, it could help other families going through the same thing,” Alequin said. “I would say: don’t give up.”
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