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When children go missing, parents panic. In the vast majority of these instances the children are quickly found and there was no foul play involved. Of the 25,000 cases or so every year where children go missing for extended periods of time, the vast majority are runaways. Less than 1% of these are suspected abductions by strangers.

When a child is abducted by a stranger, however, things seldom turn out well. In fact, we’ve all been inundated with the statistic that most are dead within 6 hours of being abducted. But there are a few happy endings here and there. Here are some of those miraculous stories:

Abducted Child Found Alive After 73 Years
Little Luis Armando Albino went missing from his West Oakland Park home in 1951 when he was six. The boy was lured away from his older brother by a woman offering to buy him candy. He was then flown across the country to the East Coast and lived with a couple who raised him like their own son.

His family had always held out hope that he was alive, and in 2020, the missing boy’s niece, Alida Alequin, took an online DNA test. When it revealed that she was a close match with Luis, she researched old news stories and alerted police. Luis was still living on the East Coast and by now had become a grandfather, but was able to reconnect with family in 2024. Alequin hopes the story “could help other families going though the same thing” and give them a little hope that their loved ones are still out there. (The Week, 10-4-2024, p. 7)

4-year-old found alive after campsite abduction
In Australia, a 4-year-old girl was abducted from her family’s tent during a camping trip. After an 18 day search, she was found “alive and well.” She was found after police raided a house in Carnarvon, the same town where the girl lived with her family. A 36-year-old man who had no connection to the family was arrested in her abduction. (The Week, Nov. 12, 2021, p. 9)

See also…

Visit www.keepyourchildsafe.org for tips and resources on how to protect your child from abductions. 


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