Found Safe CA - Luis Armando Albino, kidnapped in Oakland in 1951. Found in NY in 2024.

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This is a wonderful article. It is nice to read some good news after all of the sad news we have been seeing lately.

It is about Luis Armando Albino who, at age 6, was playing with his brother at a park in Oakland, CA in February 1951. He was born in Puerto Rico and did not speak English at that time. A woman came up to him and spoke to him in Spanish and offered to buy him candy. She lured him away and flew him to the east coast, where he was raised by a couple who treated him as their own. Of course it is very sad that he was taken from his family, but it is good that he was located and reunited with the members of his family still living. It gives hope that other children, long missing, are still alive and will be found through DNA and other research tools that are now available.

His niece (his sister's daughter) located him through an Ancestry DNA test and researching newspaper archives. With help from the Oakland PD, the CA Department of Justice and the FBI he was finally located in June 2024. His niece says that his mother, who died in 2005, never gave up hope that she would see him again. His mother used to visit the police station every day, then once a week, then once a month, and finally once a year, and she always carried a newspaper article about him with her. Luis came to CA in June, then returned in July for three weeks. He was able to reunite with his sister and his older brother (who died in August.) Luis says that, as a child, he remembered some details about the kidnapping, but none of the adults who were around him would listen to him.

It is a well-written article that goes into detail about his case and his niece's search for him.


As for herself (his niece), she said, “I’m so happy that I was able to do this for my mom and (uncle). It was a very happy ending.

“I was always determined to find him, and who knows, with my story out there, it could help other families going through the same thing. I would say, don’t give up.”

Police agreed, saying “the outcome of this story is what we strive for.”

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)
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)

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. (Photo courtesy Alida Alequin)

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. (Photo courtesy Alida Alequin)
 
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Wow! A very bittersweet ending to this case! It’s very sad he didn’t get to see his parents again, but at least he’s been able to be reunited with his remaining family members.

I wonder if this man was ever featured on the NCMEC website?

I hope that if something like this happened to Michael Dunahee that he will be reunited with his parents before they pass!
 
I'm curious about the lady who kidnapped him. "She then flew him to the East Coast, where he eventually ended up with a couple who raised him as their son."

So the adoptive mother wasn't the kidnapper, but the kidnapper must have been well-off to fly him to the east coast back then. Could he have been kidnapped "to order"? If not as a specific child, then as a hispanic boy of a certain age?
 
I'm curious about the lady who kidnapped him. "She then flew him to the East Coast, where he eventually ended up with a couple who raised him as their son."

So the adoptive mother wasn't the kidnapper, but the kidnapper must have been well-off to fly him to the east coast back then. Could he have been kidnapped "to order"? If not as a specific child, then as a hispanic boy of a certain age?
Or maybe it was a situation like fiction story "The Face on the Milk Carton" where she was a family member of his adoptive parents, and they thought he was her actual child? They may have never known he was abducted. (Obviously this is only speculation. With the kidnapper and the adoptive parents all presumably deceased 73 years later, I doubt anyone will ever know the truth.)
 

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