Rebecca Cartellone got her father a DNA kit at Christmas, but the results shattered their lives.

Image: Facebook/Joe Cartellone / Facebook/Becca Cartellone

When Rebecca Cartellone purchased her mom and dad DNA testing kids for Christmas, she thought they could explore their family history together. However, she had no idea just how much trouble her well-intended gift would cause. Because when the family received their results back, they uncovered something completely shocking.

Now, Rebecca was born in November 1994 to Joseph and Jennifer Cartellone. Growing up,she remained the couple’s only child, and her parents loved her very much. In turn, their daughter was eager to learn more about her unique family heritage, which was Italian on her father’s side.

Image: Anton Novoderezhkin\TASS via Getty ImagesC/Getty Images

With that in mind, Rebecca decided to gift her parents DNA tests so that they could learn more about their roots. Furthermore, she would also take a test so they could examine their shared heritage all together. However, little did she know how much the gift would come to tear her world apart.

Recently, the popularity of at-home DNA testing has soared. And the rise has been fuelled by the public’s interest in family history, which saw genealogy become the second most popular hobby in the United States in 2014. As a result, family history is now a billion-dollar enterprise, with a number of websites, books and TV shows to its name.

Image: ERIC BARADAT/AFP via Getty Images

Interestingly, genetic testing kits as we know them today first hit the market in 2007. For it was then that 23andMe launched its DNA ancestry test which took saliva samples. Then, family history giant Ancestry launched its own DNA service in 2012, and by 2019 it was one of the most popular in the world. Indeed, it had accumulated 10 million people on its database.

At-home genealogical testing kits require users to provide a DNA sample. With this in mind, they usually contain a spit cup, cheek swab, mouthwash or even chewing gum. Customers then return the completed kit to a provider, which analyzes the DNA to give an estimate of a person’s ethnicity. Now, the results can reveal a fascinating insight into an individual’s heritage. However, there are some risks, too.

For as DNA genealogy testing has risen in popularity, occasional horror stories have emerged, too. For you see, there are people who’ve simply been given the wrong results, and then there are those that have made discoveries that have changed their lives forever. So while the equipment is generally sound, the results can be another thing entirely.

For example, one man claimed online that he had unknowingly been dating his half-sister after completing a DNA kit. Apparently, his girlfriend had bought them both tests for Christmas. Coincidently, both of them had been born through IVF with the use of a sperm donor, which they were both aware of. So they secretly hoped to learn more about their paternal heritage.

But little did the anonymous couple know that they apparently share a father. And when they received their DNA results, they discovered that they were in fact half-siblings. As a result, it seemed likely that they were conceived by the same sperm donor, much to the reddit user’s shock. Sharing the news in 2019 he wrote on reddit, “I have to express what my mental state is now. To put it in simple words: I feel traumatized.”

Now, although the story sounds far-fetched, the man posted what appeared to be the results from the DNA service, too. And he said he’d been torn between his love for his girlfriend and the fact they’d been unwittingly committing incest. As you can imagine, the discovery left both him and his partner in utter shock and desperately seeking further answers.

Image: PhotoAlto/Frederic Cirou/Getty Images

Elsewhere online there are countless stories of people who found out that their parentage was not what they thought it was. For instance, in 2018 The Guardian relayed the story of a woman named only as Michèle. And she’d found out the man who raised her as his daughter wasn’t her real father.

Indeed, prior to sending off her DNA for analysis, Michèle had taken a keen interest in her heritage. In fact, she’d managed to trace her supposed father’s bloodline all the way back to the 1600s. However, her results were at odds with what she’d learned, revealing that she was around half Italian. As a result, she went to her family for answers.

Now, while Michèle’s mother claimed not to know anything about her daughter’s Italian ancestry, her aunt appeared more clued up. You see, Michèle’s DNA results revealed some first cousins in her hometown of Syracuse, New York, who had an Italian surname. And her aunt was able to provide a possible link to the strangers.

Yes, her aunt recalled one potential lead – Michèle’s mom’s prom date when she was 18. For he had happened to have the same last name as the cousins she’d been matched with in NY. Sadly, this man had since died, but it now seemed likely that he was her father.

As genealogist Debbie Kennett knows, Michèle’s experience is not all that uncommon. For she told The Guardian that DNA testing can open a “can of worms.” Explaining what she meant by that remark, Kennett added, “There have been a lot of secrets covered up in the past, and they are starting to come out.”

Revealing what happens in such cases, Kennett continued, “When people get these unexpected findings, they tend to distrust the science at first… But even close matches can only reveal so much in isolation. The DNA on its own doesn’t give the science – you need the contextual family information as well.”

As a result of such cases, Catherine St Clair launched the NPE Friends Facebook group in 2017. Now, NPE stands for “Not Parent Expected”, and the community is a place where people can come when DNA testing reveals their mother or father is not who they believed they were. In fact, St Clair created the account after she discovered the man who raised her was not her biological dad.

Image: PhotoAlto/Frederic Cirou/Getty Images

Describing how she felt when she discovered her parentage wasn’t as she believed, she told the New York Post in 2018, “You feel completely alone and isolated. It’s like having an infection that’s deep under your skin that keeps festering and it’s painful and it’s getting worse and worse. Only after it’s exposed to air can it start to heal.”

Image: Facebook/Jennifer Logsdon Cartellone

Therefore, it’s safe to say that some people who’ve partaken in at-home DNA testing have discovered more than they bargained for. And the Cartellones were among that unfortunate group of people. Because after receiving the results of their individual genealogy kits, the tight-knit family found that they had been living a lie.

Image: Facebook/Jennifer Logsdon Cartellone

When Rebecca, Joseph and Jennifer’s DNA results came back in February 2019 it was clear that something was amiss. While Rebecca appeared to be matched to her mother, there seemed to be less of a link with her father. In fact, the family discovered that Rebecca and Joseph had no genetic makeup in common.

So months later, in August 2019, Joseph revealed what went down in an interview with Good Morning America. Yes, the distraught dad said, “When we looked at the results, what we immediately noticed was that there were no traces of Italian DNA in [Rebecca’s results] at all… And her DNA matched my wife’s pretty closely.”

At first, Joseph believed there was some kind of mistake with the DNA results. As a result, he called the kit’s maker to query them. And in response, the company explained the process that the samples underwent. It was then that Joseph began to realize that there was a chance he and Rebecca weren’t related after all.

Image: Facebook/Jennifer Logsdon Cartellone

So in order to get to the bottom of the mystery, Joseph and Rebecca took a paternity test. And soon their greatest fears had been realized – they were not biologically connected at all. As Joseph went on to explain to Good Morning America, “My disbelief turned quickly to shock and then ultimately to anger that this could possibly be the case.”

Trying to find answers to his questions, Joseph had to go all the way back to 1993. It was then that he and Jennifer visited the formerly named Greater Cincinnati Institute for Reproductive Health, after experiencing difficulties conceiving. After seeing what offers they had on the table, the couple decided to try in vitro fertilization.

Image: Science Photo Library – ZEPHYR/Getty Images

Of course, IVF involves an egg being fertilized with sperm in a lab environment before being implanted inside a woman’s uterus. And when the couple underwent the procedure, they were assured that Joseph’s sperm would be used to inseminate Jennifer’s eggs. So just what went wrong exactly?

Well, in the light of Rebecca’s DNA results, it appears that sperm belonging to someone else was used during the IVF. As a result, the Cartellone family felt like they had been betrayed. Speaking at a news conference in August 2019 Joseph revealed, “This has been extremely difficult for my family.”

And Joseph continued, “I never would have imagined the Christmas gift of a home DNA kit would unveil this kind of abuse of our trust. For our daughter Rebecca, it’s even tougher, she’s experiencing significant emotional stress and confusion concerning her own identity.” And Joseph added that the results also had a major impact on him.

Image: Facebook/Jennifer Logsdon Cartellone

Speaking candidly at the news conference Joseph said, “It’s hard to explain the shock and agony when you find out that someone you love and care for — your own daughter — is not genetically related to you… There’s a mix of anger, pain and confusion that comes along with having to accept this and having to break the news to our family.”

Also revealing mom Jennifer’s reaction, Joseph told the press conference, “She has to deal with the fact that this clinic… fertilized her eggs with a complete stranger’s sperm and placed them in her body… She’s profoundly disappointed that she can no longer give birth to a child with both of our genetics… And that’s exactly why we sought the help of doctors … in the first place.”

Given the shocking revelation, Joseph and Jennifer filed a civil lawsuit against The Christ Hospital Health Network, Ovation Fertility Cincinnati, and the modern-day lab – the Institute for Reproductive Health. The Cartellones alleged that the original lab that helped them conceive Rebecca had in fact used another man’s sperm. So just who was the other man at the centre of all this?

Well firstly, the law firm representing the family, Peiffer Wolf Carr & Kane, specializes in taking on fertility clinics for alleged misconduct. And speaking at the Cartellone’s press conference, the firm’s managing shareholder Joseph C. Peiffer said of the family’s case, “This is a massive betrayal of trust and an unthinkable break of trust.”

Furthermore, according to the firm, only one of five people could be Rebecca’s biological father. Intriguingly, it alleged that one of the men was a doctor at The Christ Hospital itself, which was previously associated with the Greater Cincinnati Institute for Reproductive Health, where Joseph and Jennifer underwent IVF.

Commenting on Rebecca’s potential paternity, one of the Cartellones’ lawyers Adam Wolf told the Mail Online, “The defense should go through their records and find whose sperm they used to create the embryo… We have no idea if this was intentional or a horrifically negligent accident. We’ve asked but we’ve been met with radio silence.”

Now, as you would expect, Joseph and Jennifer had signed a contract with The Christ Hospital before the procedure went ahead. However, according to CNN, the medical establishment withheld comment due to the pending litigation. Instead, The Christ Hospital simply stated that it was “evaluating the allegations surrounding events alleged to have occurred in the early 1990s.”

Meanwhile, the affiliated Institute for Reproductive Health issued a statement which said it wasn’t in operation in 1994. As a result, any possible error lay at the feet of The Christ Hospital’s former [Great Cincinnati] lab. The statement to CNN read, “Because this alleged incident occurred in the Christ Hospital’s laboratory, before our practice and laboratory existed, we cannot comment on what may or may not have occurred in their laboratory.” But perhaps it’s not that straight forward.

Image: Facebook/Jennifer Logsdon Cartellone

For you see, lawyer Wolf has claimed that the lab director and doctor who’d worked at the original Greater Cincinnati Institute were now based at the newer, Institute for Reproductive Health. However, neither of those people were named as defendants in the lawsuit, which alleges negligence and breach of contract.

Image: Facebook/Jennifer Logsdon Cartellone

According to CNN, the lawsuit also alleges that Jennifer was the victim of battery because she didn’t agree to have her embryo fertilized by a stranger. With that in mind, the Cartellones were seeking financial compensation of an unknown sum. Furthermore, they’ve also requested the name of Rebecca’s biological dad and his medical history. And there’s perhaps even more mystery.

Yes, because according to their lawyer, the Cartellones are also eager to know if Joseph’s sperm was used elsewhere. Wolf told NBC-affiliated channel WCMH, “If you provide sperm to create an embryo and you find out that sperm was not used for your daughter, you have to wonder, where did your sperm go?”

Image: Facebook/Jennifer Logsdon Cartellone

Mind you, Wolf and his clients also called for a change in the way the fertility industry is run in the U.S. He told Mail Online, “There needs to be mandatory inspections of facilities, consequences if something in the facility [goes wrong] and certification requirements for fertility clinics… In most states, you don’t need even need to be certified to run. In Ohio, you can open up a center in your basement.”

In the meantime, the Cartellones’ lawsuit appears to be ongoing. For them, it might be a long journey to the truth. And during that time, Rebecca can only wonder about who she is, and whether she has biological relatives that she wouldn’t otherwise have known about if it wasn’t for an at-home DNA test.