A California man has been reunited with his family more than seven decades after he was abducted as a child.
Luis Armando Albino was just 6 years old when he was lured away by a woman while playing at a park with his big brother Roger in West Oakland on Feb. 21, 1951.
According to CBS News, a search conducted by his niece Alida Alequin in Oakland using an online ancestry test and old photos and newspaper articles led to him being found living on the East Coast.
Her efforts “played an integral role in finding her uncle,” shared the Oakland police, who helped search for Albino alongside the FBI and Justice Department, as reported by Mercury News.
“It was the best possible outcome the Oakland Police Department (OPD) could hope for, as this is what our officers are dedicated to and strive for in every Missing Persons case,” the authorities told PEOPLE in a statement.
“On March 18, 2024, a woman contacted OPD’s Missing Persons Unit regarding the possible location and identity of her uncle, Luis Albino, who had been missing for more than 70 years. The woman told our investigators that her online DNA test results matched an individual believed to be her uncle, who was kidnapped in 1951,” added the OPD.
A stock image of a police siren. Jaromir Chalabala / EyeEm / Getty Images
After Albino disappeared local authorities launched a major search operation in coordination with the U.S. Coast Guard and soldiers from a local army base, the OPD added.
This involved a search of San Francisco Bay and other California waterways, reported The Guardian, while his brother Roger Albino, was repeatedly questioned by detectives about his story of how his sibling had been taken from the park by a woman wearing a bandana.
The first sign Albino may have been alive came after Alequin’ took an online DNA test “for fun” in 2020 and it showed a 22% match for a man as her uncle, reported KTUV. In February, she searched again and cross-referenced this with some old Oakland Tribune articles about Albino — including a photograph — that she found at the library. She then contacted the police and the missing persons case was opened.
“The resemblance was so strong; how much he looked like my other uncles,” Alequin told KUTV. “Then another picture where he looked so much like my grandmother, that one gave me chills, and I said ‘there’s something here.’ “
On June 20, Alequin was told by police that Albino, who is now a grandfather and a retired firefighter and Marine Corps veteran, had been located on the East Coast.
“In my heart I knew it was him, and when I got the confirmation, I let out a big ‘YES!'” she said, per the Mercury News.
“We didn’t start crying until after the investigators left,” Alequin added. “I grabbed my mom’s hands and said, ‘We found him.’ I was ecstatic.”
This case remains under investigation. Anyone with information is asked to contact the OPD Missing Persons Unit at 510-238-3641.
