I can’t imagine the complicated relationship that arises out of finding a long-lost sibling via a DNA service. Although for some it is a joyous discovery, for others it unearths a lot of uncertainty and pain, especially when the person with the DNA link between the recently reunited parties is gone. It can get particularly hairy when a large inheritance is at stake.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Carmen Thomas learned through her mother that her absent father’s name was Joe Brown and set out to find him via 23AndMe. After sending a saliva sample, she matched with a Brown and learned the man she believed to be her biological father had died in 2018. She discovered, however, that she had two half sisters and met up with them.
The WSJ described the meeting as a pleasant memory for Brown’s daughters. The three of them met for boba tea, had a sleepover at their maternal grandmother’s house, and Thomas spent the evening looking through family photos.
But just a year following that meeting, Thomas was suing her half sisters and their mom in an attempt to get her share of a medical-malpractice lawsuit that earned the family $28 million.
According to the New York Post, Joe Brown was only 43 years old when he was admitted to Salem Hospital in Massachusetts back in 2018 after pain spread through his upper abdomen and throughout his chest and back. After spending a day struggling to breathe, doctors determined he was actively suffering from an aneurysm, but it was too late to save him. Brown died the following day. Joe’s daughters Abigail and Kali, along with their mother Kristin, sued the hospital for their negligence, claiming that their failure to diagnose Joe in a timely manner caused his unnecessary death.
Courts ruled in favor of the family and awarded them $28.8 million in a settlement in April 2023, which was just a month after Thomas had contacted and connected with them.
The Post reported that in Thomas’ lawsuit, she noted that the reunion was joyous between them all and submitted photos together as evidence of that joy. The WSJ noted, however, that the Brown girls’ lawyer said the experience was rather jarring for the two grieving sisters.
“The death of their father was extraordinarily traumatic, as you can imagine. That was compounded by this putative heir all of a sudden showing up and demanding money,” Joseph Lipchitz, a litigator in Boston who represents the family, told the newspaper.
The sisters reportedly cut contact with Thomas in April 2025, alleging in a court filing that they now doubted Thomas’ genetic claims because her mother never came forward and admitted that she had a relationship with Joe.
Though Lipchitz says he feels the case will work out “favorably” for his clients, the number of genetic inheritance claims has been climbing thanks to companies such as 23andMe. Wording in estate planning documents can leave the door open to validity for such claims and can be leveraged if the estranged family member has proof that the deceased knew about their existence.
