An ancestry DNA test helped Luis Armando Albino's family find him 73 years after he was kidnapped while playing at a park in Oakland, California, with his older brother.
Alida AlequinLuis Armando Albino (right), now 79, pictured alongside his late brother, Roger.
In 1951, six-year-old Luis Armando Albino was abducted from Jefferson Square Park in Oakland, California, by an unknown woman. The boy’s kidnapper flew him across the country, where he was raised by an unnamed couple as their son. Despite an extensive manhunt and the involvement of the FBI, no leads as to Albino’s whereabouts ever surfaced. For seven decades, his family was left without answers.
However, even after Albino’s mother died in 2005, his extended family never forgot about him. In 2020, his niece, Alida Alequin, submitted her DNA to an ancestry site and discovered she was related to a man on the East Coast. This prompted her to reopen Albino’s case with the Oakland police — and in 2024, authorities confirmed that Albino was alive and well.
Albino, a retired firefighter, Marine Corps veteran, and grandfather, was recently able to reunite with his biological family, bringing an end to this decades-long mystery.
Luis Armando Albino Goes Missing From An Oakland Park
On Feb. 21, 1951, six-year-old Luis Armando Albino was playing at Jefferson Square Park in West Oakland when a woman wearing a bandana approached him. Albino’s older brother, Roger, was with him at the time, but he turned his back long enough for the stranger to lure Albino away with the promise of candy.
The woman, who has not been named by the authorities, kidnapped Albino and flew him across the country to the East Coast. There, Albino was given to a couple and raised as their son.
Oakland Tribune ArchivesLuis Armando Albino (right) pictured in a newspaper article about his kidnapping.
Following Albino’s abduction, the police, Coast Guard, and even soldiers from a local Army base searched the San Francisco Bay area for any sign of the young boy. Roger was questioned by investigators multiple times, but he insisted that he’d seen a woman with a bandana talking to his brother at the park the day he disappeared.
The FBI even got involved in the case, but no credible leads ever surfaced. For more than seven decades, Albino’s family never knew what had happened to him, but they held onto hope that he was still alive.
Albino’s mother would frequently call the police about case updates and leads until her death in 2005 at the age of 92.
“She always felt he was alive. She took that with her to her grave,” Alida Alequin, Albino’s niece, told The Mercury News. “All this time the family kept thinking of him. 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.”
With Albino’s mother gone, Alequin decided to take a stab at solving this family mystery herself.
The Hunt For Luis Armando Albino And His Long-Awaited Homecoming
In 2020, Alida Alequin decided to submit her DNA to an ancestry site “just for fun.” When she received her results, she discovered that she had a 22 percent DNA match with an unknown man on the East Coast. Alequin tried to reach out to him, but she wasn’t able to get in contact. Still, it raised questions in her mind about her long-lost uncle.
Earlier this year, Alequin uncovered a photo of Albino and his older brother while doing research at a local library. She took her DNA results and the photo to the Oakland police, prompting them to reopen Albino’s missing persons investigation.
Oakland Tribune ArchivesAlbino’s mother with a picture of her missing son.
Then, on June 20, 2024, investigators broke the shocking news: Luis Armando Albino was alive.
“In my heart I knew it was him, and when I got the confirmation, I let out a big ‘YES!'” Alequin told The Mercury News. “We didn’t start crying until after the investigators left. I grabbed my mom’s hands and said, ‘We found him.’ I was ecstatic.”
Just four days later, Luis Armando Albino arrived in Oakland to reunite with his biological family, including his brother Roger.
“They grabbed each other and had a really tight, long hug,” Alequin recalled. “They sat down and just talked.” Albino told his loved ones what had happened to him in the years since his abduction: He served as a Marine in Vietnam, worked as a firefighter, and had children and grandchildren of his own.
The reunion came just in time: Roger passed away less than two months later.
“I think he died happily,” Alequin 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.”
“I was always determined to find him,” Alequin continued, “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.”
After reading about how Luis Armando Albino was located more than 70 years after he was kidnapped, go inside the story of Jaycee Dugard, the girl who spent 18 years in captivity after she was abducted in California. Then, read about Carlina White, the woman who discovered she’d been kidnapped as an infant.
