A man who was abducted in 1951 as a six-year-old while playing in a California park has been found more than 70 years later, thanks to online ancestry testing, old photos and newspaper clippings.
The Bay Area News Group reported Friday that the niece of Oakland resident Luis Armando Albino has tracked down her uncle, who lives on the U.S. East Coast, with the help of police, the FBI and the Department of Justice.
Albino’s niece, Alida Alekhine, 63, said her father and grandfather, a former firefighter and Marine Corps veteran who served in the Vietnam War, found him and reunited him with his family in California in June.
On February 21, 1951, a woman lured the 6-year-old albino boy out of a West Oakland park where he was playing with his older brother, promising him candy in Spanish.
Instead, the woman kidnapped the Puerto Rican-born boy and flew him to the East Coast, where he was adopted by a couple and raised as their own son, the news group reported. Officials and family members declined to say where on the East Coast the boy lives.
Though he had been missing for more than 70 years, Albino remained in the family’s hearts and his photographs hung in relatives’ homes, his niece said. Albino’s mother died in 2005 but never gave up hope that her son was still alive.
Oakland police acknowledged that Alekhine’s efforts “played a vital role in finding my uncle” and that “an outcome in this case is what we are striving for.”
In an interview with the news group, she said her uncle “gave me a hug and said, ‘Thank you for finding me,’ and gave me a kiss on the cheek.”
Police, soldiers from the local Army base, the Coast Guard, and other city officials joined a massive search for the missing boy, according to an Oakland Tribune article from the time. San Francisco Bay and other waterways were also searched, the article said. His brother, Roger Albino, was questioned multiple times by investigators but stuck to his story that a woman with a bandana around her head had abducted his brother.
Alekhin said he first thought his uncle might still be alive when he took an online DNA test in 2020 “just for fun.” The results showed a 22% match with the man who eventually turned out to be his uncle. He said further searches after that didn’t yield any answers, and he never heard back from him.
Earlier this year, she and her daughters began searching again. They went to the Oakland Public Library and looked at a microfilm of the Tribune article, which included photos of Lewis and Roger. She was convinced she was on the right track. She visited the Oakland police that same day.
Investigators eventually determined the new leads were significant and a new missing persons case was opened for investigation. Oakland police announced last week that the missing persons case had been closed, but police and the FBI consider the kidnapping investigation to be ongoing.
Lewis lives on the East Coast and provided a DNA sample, as did his sister, Alekhine’s mother.
Alekhine said investigators went to her mother’s home on June 20 and informed them both that her uncle had been found.
“We didn’t cry until the investigators left,” Alekhine said. “I held my mother’s hand and said, ‘We found him.’ I was overjoyed.”
On June 24, with the assistance of the FBI, Lewis and his family traveled to Oakland to meet with Alekhine, her mother, and other relatives. The next day, Alekhine drove her mother and her newfound uncle to Roger’s home in Stanislaus County, California.
“They grabbed each other and held each other really tight and for a long time, and then they sat down and just talked,” she said, recounting the day they were kidnapped, their military service and more.
Lewis returned to the East Coast but returned again in July for a three-week stay, which was the last time he saw Roger, who died in August.
Alekine said her uncle did not want to speak to the media.
“I was always determined to find him, and maybe my story will help other families in the same situation,” Alekhine said. “I want to tell them not to give up.”