OAKLAND — On Feb. 21, 1951, a woman lured Luis Armando Albino — then only 6 years old — from the West Oakland park where he had been playing with his older brother, promising the Puerto Rico-born boy in Spanish she would buy him some candy.
Instead, the woman abducted the little boy, flying him to the East Coast, where he was given to a man in New York who raised him as if he were his own son.
For more than seven decades he remained missing, but was always in the hearts and thoughts of his family. His mother died in 2005 but never gave up hope that he was alive.
That hope was fulfilled earlier this year: Thanks largely to the persistence of a niece in Oakland who used DNA testing and newspaper clippings in her search — and the efforts of police, the FBI and state Department of Justice, the kidnapped child, now a father and grandfather, was found alive and living on the East Coast.
In June, Albino, a retired firefighter and Marine Corps veteran who served two tours of duty in Vietnam, reunited in Oakland and another part of the state with tearful, joyous family members.
His niece, Alida Alequin, a 63-year-old Oakland resident, had been determined to find him — and she did.
Oakland police acknowledged her efforts “played an integral role in finding her uncle.”
In an interview, she said her uncle “hugged me and said ‘thank you for finding me’ and gave me a kiss on the cheek.”
It was a joyous bookend to that sad day in February 1951.
Albino — who had not yet learned English — and five of his siblings had been brought to Oakland by his mother from Puerto Rico the summer before.
He was at Jefferson Square Park at Seventh Street and what is now Martin Luther King Jr. Way near the family’s West Oakland home with his 10-year-old brother Roger when he was abducted that afternoon, according to Oakland Tribune articles at the time.
A massive nine-block search included police, soldiers from the Oakland Army Base, the Coast Guard, and other city employees; the Estuary and Bay were also searched, according to the articles. Roger Albino was interrogated several times by investigators, but stood by his story about a woman with a bandana around her head taking his brother.
The FBI was eventually brought into the case but no sign of Luis was ever found.
His mother, Antonia Albino, kept up her long “vigil of hope” — a headline from a Tribune article published in 1966 about the kidnapping, 15 years earlier — until she died at age 92 in 2005. For a time she visited the police missing person bureau almost daily; then once a week, once a month and then annually, never getting the news she was praying for.
“She always felt he was alive,” Alequin said. “She took that with her to her grave.”
“All this time the family kept thinking of him,” Alequin said. “I always knew I had an uncle; we spoke of him a lot. My grandmother carried the original article in her wallet and she always talked about him. A picture of him was always hung at the family home.”
The first glimmer that her uncle might be still alive happened in 2020, when “just for fun,” Alequin said, she took a online DNA test. It showed a 22 percent match with a named man who eventually turned out to be her uncle, but a further search at the the time yielded no answers or got any response from him, she said.
But in February 2024, while watching a documentary that included some Puerto Rican folklore, she was inspired to make a new effort in her search.
She and her daughters began searching the man’s name online and doing other research that night. They found several pictures that made them increasingly sure that the man they were looking at was, in fact, their long-lost relative.
On a visit to the Oakland Public Library, she looked at microfilm of Oakland Tribune articles — including one that had a picture of Luis and Roger — which convinced her that she was on the right track. She went to Oakland police the same day.
Investigators eventually agreed the lead was worth looking into and a new missing persons case was opened, growing to involve the FBI and state Department of Justice. She praised the three agencies for “their dedication and sensitivity” in finding her uncle. Oakland police said the missing persons case is closed, but they and the FBI consider the kidnapping a still-open investigation.
Luis was located on the East Coast and provided a DNA sample, as did his sister, Alequin’s mom.
On June 20, investigators went to her mother’s home, Alequin said, and told them both that her uncle had been found.
“In my heart I knew it was him,” she said, “and when I got the confirmation I let out a big ‘YES!’.”
“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.”
On June 24, with the assistance of the FBI, Luis came to Oakland with members of his family and met with Alequin, her mother and other relatives.
The next day Alequin drove her mother and her newfound uncle to Roger’s home in Stanislaus County.
“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 returned to the East Coast but came back again in July for a three-week visit. It was the last time he saw Roger, who died in August.
Alequin said her uncle did not want to talk to the media.
She said he had some memories of the kidnapping and his trip across the country, but the adults in his life never answered his questions.
Alequin said she was especially glad the two brothers were able to reunite before Roger’s death.
“I think he died happily,” she said. “He was at peace with himself, knowing that his brother was found. I was just so happy I was able to do this for him and bring him closure and peace.”
Alequin said she thinks her grandmother would “be very happy, most definitely. She never forgot him. She always said he was still alive. She had hope she would see him. She never gave up that hope.”
As for herself, she said, “I’m so happy that I was able to do this for my mom and (uncle). It was a very happy ending.
“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. I would say don’t give up.”
Police agreed, saying “the outcome of this story is what we strive for.”
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