A man who was abducted as a six-year-old while playing at a California park has been found more than 70 years later.
Luis Armando Albino, who was snatched in 1951, has been found thanks to help from an online ancestry test, old photos and newspaper clippings.
Mr Albino’s niece in Oakland found him living on the East Coast, with assistance from the FBI, police and Justice Department, the Bay Area News Group reported.
He has been reunited with his family after over 70 years.
In February 1951, a woman had lured the Peurto Rico-born child from a West Oakland park where he had been playing with his older brother and promised in Spanish that she would buy him candy, instead kidnapping him.
She flew him to the East Coast where he ended up with a couple who raised him as if he were their own son, according to the news group.
Mr Albino remained missing, but was always in the hearts of his family and his photo hung at relatives’ houses, his niece Alida Alequin said.
His mother died in 2005 but never gave up hope that her son was alive.
Mr Albino is now a father, grandfather and a retired firefighter and Marine Corps veteran who served in Vietnam, according to his 63-year-old niece.
In 2020 his niece took an online DNA test “just for fun”. It showed a 22 per cent 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.
In early 2024, she and her daughters began searching again. On a visit to the Oakland Public Library, she saw a picture of Mr Albino and his older brother, Roger, on a microfilm of Tribune articles.
She went to Oakland police the same day and investigators eventually agreed the new lead was substantial, leading to a new missing persons case opening.
Mr Albino was located on the East Coast and provided a DNA sample, as did his sister, Ms Alequin’s mother.
In June, Albino met his sister, Ms Alequin and other relatives in Oakland with the assistance of the FBI.
“We didn’t start crying until after the investigators left,” Ms Alequin said in an interview.
“I grabbed my mum’s hands and said, ‘We found him.’ I was ecstatic.
“They grabbed each other and had a really tight, long hug. They sat down and just talked.”
She also recounted the moment her uncle “hugged me and said, ‘Thank you for finding me’ and gave me a kiss on the cheek”.
She added: “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.”
Ms Alequin said her uncle did not want to talk to the media.
The last time he returned to the East Coast was in July for a three-week visit. It was the last time he saw Roger, who died in August.
Oakland police acknowledged that Ms Alequin’s efforts “played an integral role in finding her uncle” and that “the outcome of this story is what we strive for.”
They said last week that the missing persons case is closed, but they and the FBI consider the kidnapping a still-open investigation.
