Anish Vij
A five-year-old boy who was kidnapped from an Oakland park in 1951 has been found alive over 70 years later.
Times were tough for Luis Armando Albino, his mother and five siblings, who moved from Puerto Rico to California, US, back in the 50s.
Luis' mum was picking fruit and sewing gloves to make ends meet in what was a very different time.
On 21 February, 1951, Luis and his older brother Roger, 10, were playing together at Jefferson Square Park.
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But as they walked from their home at 730 Brush Street, they were approached by a Spanish-speaking woman in her 30s, wearing a green bandana.
She promised to buy the boy some candy and instead kidnapped him and flew over to the east coast.
Luis was raised by another couple and went on to become a firefighter and a Marine Corps veteran who served in Vietnam.
Although he was missing for decades, his family didn't give up with his mother, Antonia, visiting the police station for updates regularly.
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The first sign of hope came in 2020 when Luis' niece, Alida Alequin, 63, took and online DNA test 'just for fun'.
It showed that Alequin had a 22 percent match to an unknown man, who she was not familiar with but believed to be her long-lost uncle. When she reached out the first time, however, he did not respond.
Then, earlier this year, she visited the Oakland public library to take a look at microfilm of Tribune articles, which included a picture of Luis and Roger.
After visiting Oakland police the same day, they agreed to investigate.
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Luis was then tracked down and found on the east coast.
Along with Alequin’s mother, Luis provided a DNA sample and it matched.
With the help of the FBI, the elderly man was taken to Oakland to reunite with his family.
“We didn’t start crying until after the investigators left,” Alequin told The Bay Area News Group.
“I grabbed my mom’s hands and said, ‘We found him.’ I was ecstatic.”
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Sadly, his mother passed away in 2005, and although he got to be reunited with his brother Roger, he passed away two months later.
“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,” Alequin said.
“I would say: don’t give up.”
Oakland police said the niece 'played an integral role in finding her uncle' and that 'the outcome of this story is what we strive for'.
After a three-week visit, Luis returned to the east coast.