Grab your tissues, because this story will warm your heart and have you in tears at the same time! At 6 years old, Luis Armando Albino, was abducted while at a park in West Oakland, California, in 1951, while playing with his older brother. Now, over 70 years later, he has been found living a pretty much normal life on the East Coast.
Thanks to his niece, 63-year-old Alida Alequin, persisting in her efforts to find him, Luis was able to be reunited with his family.
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According to The Mercury News, Luis and his brother Roger, who was 10 years old at the time, were playing at Jefferson Square Park.
Their family — consisting of the brothers, their mom, and three other siblings — had just moved to Oakland from Puerto Rico, the summer before. Luis was lured away from the park by a woman who promised to buy him candy.
She then kidnapped him and flew him to the East Coast, where he ended up with a couple who raised him as their son.
In 2020, Alida randomly decided to take a DNA test. She got a 22% match with Luis, but she didn't initially realize that he was her long-lost uncle.
"I started to name all my mom's siblings, and when I got to the youngest, Luis, the baby, I paused in the middle of the sentence. I can't explain what I felt but I said, 'I don't think this person I found on Ancestry was some half-brother like I first thought. I think he was the brother that was kidnapped,'" the niece explained.
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She and her daughters started searching the internet and found photos that made them sure Luis was the missing uncle. Alida took all the information she had gathered to the Oakland police, who continued to help her with her search. They ended up finding her uncle living on the East Coast. He took a DNA test, which confirmed that he was her missing uncle.
"It was a lot of long tight hugs and tears, and then we sat down and we just talked," Alida said of Luis being reunited with his family. He and his brother, Roger, even got a chance to reconnect before Roger died shortly after.
According to the niece, Luis has some memories of his abduction, but never got any answers when he questioned the adults in his life. He prefers to keep some of his experiences private and turned down speaking to the media.
Alida said that Luis' mother, Antonia, always thought about her son up until she died in 2005. She kept a newspaper clipping of the article about his abduction in her wallet, along with a picture of Luis in the living room.
"She always had hope that he would come home," Alida told the Los Angeles Times. And he did. All of these years later, Luis is home.
