He Vanished From Park in 1951 at Age 6. He Just Turned Up

An online DNA test and an especially persistent family member have helped solve a missing-persons cold case that's lasted decades. Luis Armando Albino is a grandfather, Marine Corps veteran, and retired firefighter living on the East Coast—and now he can add "found" to that list, after it was recently discovered he was abducted more than 70 years ago, at the age of 6, from a park in California, reports the AP.

• Abduction: Albino had been playing with his 10-year-old brother Roger at a park in Oakland on Feb. 21, 1951, when a woman speaking Spanish promised little Luis, who was born in Puerto Rico, that she would buy some candy for him. Roger at the time described the woman as wearing a bandana. She ended up stealing Luis away and taking him on a plane east, "where he ended up with a couple who raised him as if he were their own son," per the Mercury News.

• The search: Local police, Army soldiers, city workers, and Coast Guard members all helped look for the missing boy, and even the FBI eventually got involved—but no sign of Luis. His mother, Antonia Albino, never gave up hope, until she died in 2005 at the age of 92. "She always felt he was alive. She took that with her to her grave," 63-year-old Alida Alequin, the daughter of Luis Albino's sister, says of her grandmother.
• Big break: Then in 2020, "just for fun," Alequin took an online DNA test, which turned up a man who was a 22% match with her—Luis Albino. Alequin reached out but didn't hear back, but earlier this year, she and family members started poking around the case again, including by sifting through old newspaper articles, and went to the Oakland police, who reopened the missing-persons case on her uncle. A DNA test taken by both Albino and his sister proved their relationship, and on June 20, the family was told he was the missing boy.
• Reunion: On June 24, Luis was finally reunited with his long-lost family. Alequin tells KTVU that her uncle "hugged me really tight and said, 'Thank you for finding me' and gave me a kiss on the cheek." When he was taken to his brother Roger's home in Stanislaus County, "they grabbed each other and had a really tight, long hug. They sat down and just talked," Alequin tells the Mercury News, adding that her uncle doesn't wish to speak to reporters right now. Roger died in August, after their reunion.
• Police: They say Alequin's efforts were "integral" to solving this case, and that "the outcome of this story is what we strive for." They note that the missing-persons case is considered closed, but the FBI is still running a probe into the abduction itself.

(More cold cases stories.)