Luis Armando Albino had been missing since his February 1951 abduction. At the time, he was playing in an Oakland, California, park with his older brother, Roger, and suddenly vanished. More than 70 years later, Albino’s case is making headlines again.
Who Is Luis Armando Albino?
Albino was just 6 years old in 1951 when he went missing. At the time, a woman had lured him in by offering the child candy. Afterward, Albino was moved to the East Coast and was raised by a couple as if he were their own child. However, this wasn’t discovered until recently when his niece, Alida Alequin, put the pieces together after taking an online ancestry test.
Is Luis Armando Albino Alive?
Albino is now in his 70s and is a father, grandfather, retired firefighter and a Marine Corps veteran. His older brother, Roger, however died this year after he reunited with Albino. The brothers’ mother, Antonia Albino, died in 2005 at the age of 92.
#LuisArmandoAlbino is alive.
70 years ago, at only 6YO old, Luis was lured with the promise of candy by a woman who abducted him.
A couple ended up raising him as their own.
He became a marine and a firefighter.
After all these decades, Luis was reunited with his brother.
— Jennifer Coffindaffer (@CoffindafferFBI) September 23, 2024
How Was Luis Armando Albino Found?
In 2020, Albino’s niece Alida Alequin took an online ancestry test, which required her to provide a sample of her DNA. Per her results, there was a 22 percent match to Albino, but Alequin didn’t know that the child who went missing in 1951 was her uncle. Nearly four years later, Alequin pieced her uncle’s case together by finding old newspaper clippings and other reports. Once she discovered that Albino was her relative, Alequin took her findings to the Oakland Police, and they agreed to an investigation. Authorities told the Mercury News that Alequin “played an integral role in finding her uncle.”
Albino then provided his DNA to authorities, which proved that he was the 6-year-old who went missing seven decades prior. He has declined to publicly comment on his case, but Alequin told the Mercury News that Albino reunited with his family.
“[He] hugged me and said, ‘Thank you for finding me’ and gave me a kiss on the cheek,” Alequin told the publication. “All this time, the family kept thinking of him,” Alequin said. “I always knew I had an uncle. We spoke of him a lot.”