Kidnapped at the age of six in 1951 while playing in a park in the Californiaa man was found by his family over seven decades later with the help of old women photonewspaper clippings ei DNA testing.
The protagonist of the incredible story, Luis Armando Albinoan ex firemen and ex Marine who served in Vietnamlives on East Coast. He was tracked down by a niece, Alida Alequinwith the help of the police, theFBI and the Ministry of Justice.
Albino, by origin Puerto Ricanhad been kidnapped in February 1951 while playing with his older brother Roger in a park Oakland. A woman approached him, promising in Spanish to buy him a candy. Instead, he put him on a flight transatlantic and the child ended up with a couple who raised him as their own son, the Bay Area News Group.
For over seventy years Albino had remained in the heart of his family of origin, his photo as a child they hung in the homes of his Californian relatives. Albino’s mother, who died in 2005he had never given up hope that his son was alive.
The first concrete clue that maternal love had not lied came in 2020: «As a joke», Alicia Alequin he had made a DNA testing from which a good correspondence had emerged with a man on the other side of the country who might have been his uncle. Years had passed, without further answers, until, this year, the woman, helped by her daughter, decided to investigate further. A visit to Oakland Public Library had yielded newspaper articles, one of which had published a Luis’s photo and Roger alongside the story of the exhausting searches conducted at the time to find the child.
Convinced she was on the right track, Alicia went to the police the same day. The case had been reopened: traced to the Atlantic coast of the United States – The Bay Area News Group did not give the precise location – Luis had been subjected to DNA testing together with her sister, Alicia’s mother: “We burst into tears the moment the investigators, after confirming that Luis was the person they were looking for, came out,” Alequin said.
With the help ofFBIat the beginning of summer Luis he was thus able to reunite with his family of origin West Coast. The next day he was able to hug his brother again Roger who lives a little further south and who later died in August. “They hugged each other tightly and talked about everything,” the granddaughter said.