OAKLAND, Calif. (TCN) — A family’s decades-long search for a relative is over after they were reunited with the family member, who was kidnapped from a Bay Area park in 1951 when he was 6 years old.
The Mercury News, which broke the story, reports Luis Albino and his family met after having been separated for over 70 years.
According to KTVU-TV, on Feb. 21, 1951, Albino and his brother, Roger, were playing in a park when a woman reportedly told Albino she would get him some candy. She abducted him and took him back to the East Coast, where she raised Albino. The woman who raised him is no longer alive.
Albino’s niece, Alida Alequin, told KTVU she took a DNA ancestry test in 2020 “just for fun” and ended up finding a familial match to someone on the East Coast. The two had a 22% match, and she reached out, but did not hear back. Alequin said her daughter found photos of the man, which they compared to pictures of their own family.
Alequin said there was a “strong” resemblance to one of her uncles, as well as another photo where he looked just like her grandmother. They eventually got a DNA sample from Albino and used it with tests from Alequin’s mother and Albino’s brother, Roger. She went to the Oakland Police Department with the information, and police contacted the FBI.
Albino flew to Oakland in June and reunited with his relatives, including Roger, who died in August.
Alequin told KTVU, “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.”