Boy Kidnapped Aged 6 Found Living in California 73 Years Later

Improve the News Foundation -

Facts

  • A man kidnapped from Oakland, California, in 1951 at age six, was reportedly found over seven decades later, in June this year, living on the US East Coast.[1][2]
  • Luis Armando Albino — a Vietnam veteran, retired firefighter, and grandfather — was reportedly traced by his 63-year-old biological niece Alida Alequin.[3]
  • Albino was kidnapped from an Oakland park, reportedly by a Spanish-speaking woman who offered him candy, while playing with his older brother Roger.[4]
  • She then flew the Puerto Rico-born Albino to the East Coast, where a New York couple raised him as their son, while his family continued looking for him in Oakland.[5]
  • In 2020, Alequin took an online DNA ancestry test, which found a 22% match with Albino, who eventually turned out to be her long-lost maternal uncle.[6]

Sources: [1]Daily Mail, [2]The Mirror, [3]ABC News, [4]New York Post, [5]Guardian and [6]Los Angeles Times.

Narratives

  • Narrative A, as provided by Glamour UK. It's a remarkable endorsement of modern ancestry and DNA kits that they can produce such a result as this. These at-home testing kits are reuniting families, alerting individuals early on to serious diseases and conditions, and uncovering and demystifying the heritage of their users.
  • Narrative B, as provided by Inews.Co.Uk and Guardian. This story shouldn't obscure the real headline about home DNA testing kits — they are marred in issues, from undermining people's privacy to inaccurately diagnosing illnesses. Many experts have raised concerns at the unethical use of data by companies behind these products, as well as the burden on health services resulting from their errors. We should all be skeptical about the usage of these products.