Boy abducted aged 6 is found alive 73 years later
The abduction of a six year-old boy from Oakland in 1951 has been solved 73 years on - and incredibly, there's a happy ending.
Luis Armando Albino has been found safe and well thanks to a dedicated niece who never gave up hope of tracking down her long-lost relative.
Albino, who’s now 79, was abducted by a woman on February 21, 1951 from a park in West Oakland where he had been playing alongside his older brother, Roger, who was ten.
The woman got his attention and lured him away by tricking him, promising that she would buy him candy.
Little Luis was then flown across the country to the East Coast where he was raised by a New York city couple as if he were their own son.
Luis’ mother never stopped hoping that he might one day turn up safe and well. Tragically, she passed away in 2005 aged 92 without ever learning what had happened to her much-missed son.
A breakthrough in the case only came earlier this year when an inquisitive and persistent niece of Luis’ used DNA testing and information from newspaper clippings in her search for the truth.
The niece, Alida Alequin, 63, who had remained in Oakland had been determined to find her long lost uncle and together with help from local police, FBI and Department of Justice, she managed to piece the clues together.
Oakland police say her efforts ‘played an integral role in finding her uncle.’
In the time since he had been taken from his family, Luis appeared to have led quite the life having worked as a firefighter and served in the Marine Corps, including two tours of duty in Vietnam. He had also become a father and grandfather himself.
Alida was able to organize a reunion for the two brothers, Luis and Roger, now 83, to meet for the first time in 73 years.
She told Mercury News how her uncle ‘hugged me and said, “Thank you for finding me” and gave me a kiss on the cheek.’
