A boy kidnapped from a California park more than seven decades ago was found alive and well as a senior citizen and reunited with surviving loved ones after his niece found him across the country through her own DNA research, police said Monday.
Luis Albino was only 6 when he was taken from Jefferson Park Playground in Oakland on Feb. 2, 1951, “by an unknown female who transported him out of state and eventually to the East Coast,” police said in a statement.
The immediate search for Albino was fruitless, and the case went cold for seven decades.
But then, earlier this year, Albino’s niece went back to Oakland police and told officers “that her online DNA test results matched an individual believed to be her uncle,” police said.
FBI agents, at the behest of Oakland police, interviewed Albino at his home in the East Coast and took a DNA sample. His genetic material was a match to that of two surviving siblings in California, proving he was the boy taken in 1951, police said.
The FBI, the California Justice Department and Oakland police arranged and paid for Albino to reunite with his long-lost family on June 24.
“It was an emotional moment for all parties involved and was a family reunion over 70 years in the making,” police said.
The Oakland police statement didn’t make clear who detectives believe took Albino from the park seven decades ago, nor did it identify who raised him.
“We are limited on what we can disclose at this time as the case is still under investigation,” an Oakland police representative said Tuesday.
It was a bittersweet reunion for his California kin.
Albino’s 92-year-old mother died in 2005 never knowing the fate of her kidnapped son, the Bay Area News Group reported.
Albino was able to meet and spend time this summer with his brother Roger, who was with him at the park the day the was kidnapped in 1951. Roger died last month.
“I think he died happily,” said Alida Alequin, 63, the niece who alerted police to her 22% DNA match to Albino. “He was at peace with himself knowing that his brother was found. I was just so happy I was able to do this for him and bring him closure and peace.”