In June, Albino, now 79, was reunited with emotional relatives.
A man who was kidnapped when he was six more than 70 years ago on the East Coast of the United States has been found alive. Luis Armando Albino disappeared from a park in West Oakland, California, on February 21, 1951. He was seduced by a woman who promised to buy him candy while he was playing with his 10-year-old brother Roger. For decades, his whereabouts were a mystery until this year, when DNA testing and family efforts revealed the truth.
D Wednesday’s news first reported the discovery, which came after Mr. Albino’s niece, Alida Alequin, tried to locate her uncle. Using DNA evidence, newspaper clippings and the help of the Oakland Police Department, the F.B.I. and the Justice Department, Ms. Alequin, 63, of Oakland, tracked down her uncle. Luis Albino is now a retired firefighter and Marine veteran, having served two tours in Vietnam.
In June, Albino, now 79, was reunited with emotional relatives, including his older brother, Roger, who died of cancer last month at the age of 82. At that moment, “They hugged each other and had a very strong, long hug. They just sit and talk.”
In 2020, Ms. Alequin’s search began when she accidentally took a DNA test online. The results revealed a 22 percent match for albinism, prompting her to dig deeper into her family history. Together with her daughters, Ms. Alequin searched newspaper archives and microfilms at the local library and eventually found photographs of an albino Lewis that confirmed her suspicions. Her determination was the key to solving a decades-old mystery.
Albino recalled parts of his kidnapping and trip to the East Coast, but shared that those around him refused to answer. He now prefers to keep some of his experiences private.
Unfortunately, his mother, who died in 2005 at the age of 92, never lived to see the mystery solved.
Mrs Alequin described Roger’s final days as peaceful. She said he “died happy” and was “at peace with himself, knowing that his brother had been found.”
