OAKLAND — On Feb. 21, 1951, a woman lured Luis Armando Albino — then only 6 years old — from the West Oakland park where he had been playing with his older brother, promising the Puerto Rico-born boy in Spanish she would buy him some candy.
Luis Albino, right, who was kidnapped from Oakland in 1951, is seen in an undated photo, taken before his kidnapping, 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.(Oakland Tribune archives)
Instead, the woman abducted the little boy, flying him to the East Coast, where he was given to a man in New York who raised him as if he were his own son.
For eight decades he remained missing, but was always in the hearts and thoughts of his family. His mother died in 2005 but never gave up hope that he was alive.
That hope was fulfilled earlier this year: Thanks largely to the persistence of a niece in Oakland who used DNA testing and newspaper clippings in her search — and the efforts of police, the FBI and state Department of Justice, the kidnapped child, now a father and grandfather, was found alive and living on the East Coast.
In June, Albino, a retired firefighter and Marine Corps veteran who served two tours of duty in Vietnam, reunited in Oakland and another part of the state with tearful, joyous family members.
His niece, Alida Alequin, a 63-year-old Oakland resident, had been determined to find him — and she did.
In an interview, she said her uncle “hugged me and said ‘thank you for finding me’ and gave me a kiss on the cheek.”
It was a joyous bookend to that sad day in February 1951.
Albino — who had not yet learned English — and five of his siblings had been brought to Oakland by his mother from Puerto Rico the summer before. Four siblings had previously died.
He was at Jefferson Square Park at Seventh Street and what is now Martin Luther King Jr. Way near the family’s West Oakland home with his brother Roger when he was abducted that afternoon, according to Oakland Tribune articles at the time.
A massive nine-block search included police, soldiers from the Oakland Army Base, the Coast Guard, and other city employees; the Estuary and Bay were also searched, according to the articles. Roger Albino was interrogated several times by investigators, but stood by his story about a woman with a bandana around her head taking his brother.
The FBI was eventually brought into the case but no sign of Luis was ever found.
Antonia Albino is seen in a 1966 Oakland Tribune photo. She kept a long vigil for her son, Luis, who was kidnapped from Oakland in 1951. Though Antonia died in 2005, Luis was found in 2024 thanks to the efforts of his relatives. (Oakland Tribune archives)
His mother, Antonia Albino, kept up her long “vigil of hope” — a headline from a Tribune article published in 1966 …read more
Source:: The Mercury News – Entertainment
