Boy abducted in Oakland more than 70 years ago found living on East Coast

Suhauna Hussain
Sat, September 21, 2024 at 2:54 PM EDT
3 min read

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Luis Armando Albino was 6 years old when he was abducted from a park in West Oakland where he had been playing with his older brother in 1951. Now, more than 70 years later, Albino has been found.

The Mercury News first reported this week that Albino's niece in Oakland, using DNA testing and newspaper clippings — and with assistance from police, the FBI and the Justice Department — found her uncle living on the East Coast.

Albino is a retired firefighter and Marine Corps veteran who served two tours of duty in Vietnam, and himself a father and grandfather, according to his niece, Alida Alequin, a 63-year-old Oakland resident who found Albino and reunited him with his family.

Albino and five of his siblings, brought by their mother from Puerto Rico, had just moved to Oakland the summer before his abduction in February 1951. … He was playing with his 10-year-old brother, Roger, at Jefferson Square Park at 7th Street and what is now Martin Luther King Jr. Way near the family’s home when a woman lured him away by promising to buy him candy, according to coverage by the Oakland Tribune at the time. She then flew him to the East Coast, where he eventually ended up with a couple who raised him as their son, Alequin said.

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Boy abducted in Oakland more than 70 years ago found living on East Coast


Luis Albino, right, who was kidnapped from Oakland in 1951, is seen in a 2024 photo reuniting with his brother, Roger. Luis’ family found him after more than 70 years with help from an online ancestry test and old photos and newspaper clippings. (Alida Alequin)

By Suhauna Hussain
Staff Writer
Sept. 21, 2024 Updated 2:13 PM PT

Luis Armando Albino was 6 years old when he was abducted from a park in West Oakland where he had been playing with his older brother in 1951. Now, more than 70 years later, Albino has been found.

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