A missing person who was abducted at the age of six from a California playground has been found 73 years later alive and living on the East Coast, The Associated Press reported.
Luis Armando Albino disappeared from a playground in Oakland on February 21, 1951 as he played alongside his brother, Roger. A woman wearing a bandana apparently lured Albino away with the promise of purchasing him some candy. Instead, she took him to the East Coast where and gave him to a couple who raised the young boy as if he were their biological son.
Seven decades after he disappeared without a trace, Albino’s biological niece, 63-year-old Lydia Alequin, tracked her uncle down with the help of old photographs, newspaper articles, and ancestry tests. The search began in 2020, when on a whim Alequin decided to take a genealogy test “just for fun.” It showed a 22 percent match with Albino, but he didn’t respond to inquiries at the time.
Earlier this year, Alequin and her daughters resumed the search . They were able to convince investigators to reopen the case. On June 20, they received a knock on their door from two officials who informed them that Albino was indeed their uncle. By June 24, Alequin, her mother, and other relatives took Albino to his brother’s home for a long-awaited reunion. Sadly, Albino’s mother died in 2005, but she always held out hope that he was alive.