A California household’s 70-year-long seek for their kidnapped relative led to June after a web based DNA check lastly put them heading in the right direction to the exact opposite finish of the nation.
Luis Armando Albino, a retired firefighter and Vietnam Conflict veteran dwelling on the East Coast, was kidnapped from a park in Oakland, California in 1951 when he was 6 years outdated.
He had been enjoying together with his older brother when a lady sporting a bandana approached him, talking to him in Spanish and promising that she would purchase him sweet if he got here along with her.
For a lot of of his relations, together with his mom who died in 2005, that was the final time they noticed him. However the household continued to carry out hope for seven many years and all the time saved his reminiscence alive with photos of him on show of their houses.
After being kidnapped, Luis had been flown throughout the nation and was raised by a pair on the East Coast.
Officers and relations didn’t specify the place on the East Coast he lives at present and authorities nonetheless have an open investigation into his abduction.
Luis’s niece, 63-year-old Alida Alequin, stumbled throughout her long-lost kinship after taking a web based DNA check in 2020 “only for enjoyable,” she stated.
The check confirmed a 22% match with a whole stranger who would turn into Albino.
She tried to achieve out to him however had no luck.
She and her daughters picked up the search once more in early 2024 and began digging by means of microfilm archives of the Oakland Tribune on the Oakland Public Library.
Articles from 1951 detailed search events’ tireless efforts to search out Luis, together with deep dives into the San Francisco Bay and different waterways.
His older brother Roger, who was interrogated a number of instances, repeatedly attested that he noticed a lady sporting a bandana lead Luis away.
Armed with the archives, together with one with an image of Luis and Roger, Alequin offered sufficient proof to regulation enforcement to open a brand new lacking particular person case for her lacking uncle.
Oakland police acknowledged Alequin’s efforts, noting that she “performed an integral position to find her uncle” and that “the result of this story is what we attempt for.”
After one more DNA check, this time evaluating Luis’ with Alequin’s mom, investigators solidified the match and advised the household on June 20 that their uncle had been discovered.
“We didn’t begin crying till after the investigators left,” Alequin stated.
“I grabbed my mother’s fingers and stated, ‘We discovered him.’ I used to be ecstatic.”
The Federal Bureau of Investigation helped organize for Luis and his household to return to California for the long-awaited reunion. He met Alequin, her mom, and different kin on June 24.
Alequin advised the Bay Space Information Group that Luis “hugged me and stated, ‘Thanks for locating me’ and gave me a kiss on the cheek.”
The subsequent day, he visited Roger in Stanislaus County, California.
“They grabbed one another and had a extremely tight, lengthy hug. They sat down and simply talked,” Alequin stated, together with discussing the day of the kidnapping and their shared army service.
Luis, who turned a dad and grandfather on the East Coast, returned to California for a three-week go to in July, simply earlier than Roger’s passing in August.
Her uncle didn’t need to communicate to the media.
“I used to be all the time decided to search out him, and who is aware of, with my story on the market, it might assist different households going by means of the identical factor,” Alequin stated. “I’d say, don’t hand over.”
With Publish Wires.