This article was originally published on WHerMoments
After undergoing a DNA test via 23andMe, Melanie Pressley patiently waited for the results online. Eventually, she received a notification that a match had been found on the company’s system — and when she read it she couldn’t believe her eyes. Suddenly, Melanie had been given the chance to reconnect with a face from her past after decades apart: she’d finally located her son. But was a reunion possible?
Say hello to Melanie
A resident of Wadsworth, Ohio, Melanie and her husband were the proud parents of three adult children. On the surface, they appeared to be a strong family unit, with many other relatives making up their clan.
Yet despite that, the mom was constantly dealing with an inner turmoil that just wouldn’t go away. In fact, it’d been lingering since the summer of 1988.
Teen pregnancy
During that period, Melanie was an 18-year-old living in Canton, Ohio. And she was preparing to become a mom for the first time, sporting an ever-growing baby bump.
The big moment finally arrived on June 17, 1988, at a local hospital, and she welcomed a beautiful little boy into the world.
A photo to cherish
Shortly after Melanie delivered the baby, she was pictured cradling her sleeping son at the hospital. It was a lovely shot, and could’ve been the first of many.
But the teen mom couldn’t look ahead to a future with her child in Ohio: rather, she was confronting a devastating truth. Quite simply, she didn’t have the money to support him.
Letting go
Melanie had to make an extremely difficult decision — she knew that she couldn’t keep the baby. So, the teenager turned to an adoption facility with a clear goal in mind.
Speaking to local TV station News 5 Cleveland in August 2021, she said, “I wanted [my son] to have a mother and father.” Thankfully, Melanie got her wish in the end.
Closed adoption
Yes, the facility was able to find a family that fit Melanie’s vision, which must’ve come as some relief to her. It was a closed adoption, meaning that she’d have no contact with her son or any of his new relatives.
Now, she was left with just one keepsake to remember him by — that beautiful snapshot in her hospital room.
A surprise message
Mind you, Melanie went on to receive an unexpected message a short time later. As the Wadsworth resident explained in September 2021 to TV channel Fox News, “[My son’s] adoptive mother had written me a letter a couple of months after he was born.
And she’d said that when he’s old enough, she will tell him [that he was adopted].”
“A mourning period”
Anyway, Melanie was able to start her own family following that emotionally draining spell. But as we suggested earlier, she couldn’t let go of the pain.
The mom informed Fox News, “You go through a mourning period and yet live the rest of your life mourning.” She carried this burden for years, before her daughter decided to step in.
A gift for Melanie...
So what happened, then? Well, to mark Mother’s Day and Melanie’s birthday in May 2021 Rachel Pressley handed her mom a gift card from 23andMe.
Without telling her, she was hopeful that this would open up a potential path for her to find her now-adult son. Rachel hid those intentions by flagging up another feature offered by the genealogy company, though.
“Any flags”
Melanie noted, “I lost a mother to lung cancer, who had never smoked or drank a day in her life. So, [Rachel] was selling that to me, saying, ‘Oh my gosh.
Then you’ll see if you have any of those genes or if there are any flags.’” With those words ringing in her ears, the Wadsworth resident took a DNA test.
Moment of truth
And it wasn’t long before 23andMe found a match: his name was Greg Vossler. The results suggested that he and Melanie were “potential relatives.”
So, she reached out to him to learn more, which led to a huge moment. After posing the question about Greg’s age, he revealed that he had been born on June 17, 1988. “I believe I’m your birth mother,” she replied.
Meeting Greg
A resident of Winchester, Virginia, Greg had spent the first few years of his life unaware of the truth. But his adoptive mom kept her previous promise to Melanie.
As he told News 5 Cleveland, “[I was] maybe nine or ten, or somewhere around that range, and [my parents] told me the story that I was adopted.”
Burning curiosity
Greg took it in his stride, though, and grew up to become a loving family man. He and his wife have two kids together.
But still, thoughts about his past persisted over those years, ahead of a key moment in 2019. The dad said, “I didn’t know any of my medical history, genetics, or where I was from. There was a 23andMe promotion, so I took a [DNA] test.”
Reunion?
It might’ve taken two years of patient waiting, but Greg eventually found that much-desired link through Melanie. But was a face-to-face reunion on the cards here?
Well, once the duo had developed a correspondence both online and via texts, a plan was soon put into motion.
Long-awaited meeting
Yes, in June 2021 Greg and his family traveled up to Wadsworth, making their way to Melanie’s house. Upon their arrival, the mom and son laid eyes on each other for the first time in 33 years, before sharing a heartwarming hug on the lawn.
His wife caught the gorgeous reunion on camera, much to Melanie’s delight.
“So thankful”
“I’m so thankful to [Greg’s wife] for doing that,” Melanie told News 5 Cleveland. “It was awesome.”
From there, the Vosslers and the Pressleys all got to know each other a little better at the house. These two families had now become one, and Greg couldn’t have been happier with the outcome. He shared his thoughts with Fox News in September 2021.
“A blessing”
Greg beamed, “Life has a funny way of giving you what you need and not necessarily what you want. Sometimes those wants and needs do match up, but sometimes you don’t realize what you actually need until the future.
Melanie’s family coming into my life at this point has been a blessing. It’s kind of reignited some passions and excitement.”
Melanie’s message
As for Melanie, this incredible experience prompted her to share an important message to those in a similar position to her 18-year-old self. The Ohio mom told Fox News, “After finding [Greg], I felt like my heart was just whole again.
Becoming older, you kind of become a little wiser, but there’s no shame in giving somebody up for adoption.”
“A life beyond my belief”
“There are loving couples out there that cannot have children that would love to raise a child,” Melanie added. “I’m telling you, if you could meet Greg, he was given a life beyond my belief.
He was raised with manners. He was raised how you would dream. It’s just unbelievable.” Something tells us that she couldn’t have asked for more!
When the DNA can't be trusted
Melanie and her husband then planned to meet Greg's adoptive folks and the rest of his family. They had three decades' worth of life to catch up on, owing it all to 23andme.
But Melanie was fortunate her DNA results found a match. Fellow mom Lydia Fairchild wasn't as lucky. She took a DNA test as a formality for government paperwork, but the results revealed her three biological children were not genetically "hers," leaving everyone wondering, is that even possible?
Genetic confusion
Like Melanie, Lydia was trying to better the lives of her children. But taking the DNA test instead became her worst fear realized.
She was 26 then, an unemployed mother of two, and pregnant with her third child. She’d applied to her home state of Washington for public assistance. However, to receive government help, Fairchild’s children would be subjected to DNA testing to prove that they’d been fathered by Fairchild’s ex-partner Jamie Townsend.
She didn't see it coming
Fairchild agreed to the testing, as she was confident of her children’s heritage. So when she was asked by the Department of Social Services to meet with them straight away, she presumed that she was being called in for a standard appointment.
However, as she sat with a social worker, it soon became clear that this wasn’t the case.
Under scrutiny
All of a sudden, in fact, it dawned on Fairchild that she was being treated like some kind of criminal. However, she had no idea why.
“As I sat down, they came up and shut the door,” she told ABC News in 2006. “And they just went back and just started drilling me with questions like, ‘Who are you?’”
Sinister questions
It soon transpired that the DNA tests Fairchild’s children had completed had thrown up some unsettling results. They had proved that Townsend was indeed the kids’ father.
But it was Fairchild’s link to her offspring that was now under question, with the state wondering whether the mom-of-two was guilty of welfare fraud – or perhaps something even more sinister.
Proving her story
Because of the unusual results from the DNA tests, Fairchild would now need to prove that her children were her own. And frankly, she couldn’t believe what she was being asked.
“I knew that I carried them, and I knew that I delivered them,” Fairchild explained. “There was no doubt in my mind.”
DNA doesn't 'lie'
Given her vivid memories of her pregnancies and births, Fairchild was convinced that there must have been some sort of mistake with her children’s DNA results. But her protests to the state fell on deaf ears.
Fairchild recalled how one social worker had told her, “Nope. DNA is 100 percent foolproof, and it doesn’t lie.”
Worrying consequences
Because of the DNA results, Fairchild was unable to claim any public support for her children. And even more worryingly, Fairchild was also at risk of having her kids removed from her care.
To make her dire situation clear, a social worker had warned Fairchild, “You know, we’re able to come get your kids at any time.”
Gathering evidence
Realizing how serious things were becoming for her family, Fairchild began to worry. She was nonetheless in no doubt that her children were hers.
So in order to find some kind of proof of their origin, she rushed home to look for her kids’ birth certificates and some photographic evidence of her pregnancies.
Grandparents reaction
Fairchild also informed her parents about the suspect DNA results, and they too were dumbfounded. In fact, they initially thought that their daughter was playing some kind of prank on them.
Her mother, Carol Fairchild, had been with her grandchildren from the very beginning. And she knew for a fact that they belonged to Fairchild.
"It's got to be a mistake"
Revealing her shocked reaction to Fairchild’s DNA revelation, Carol told ABC News in August 2016, “I thought she was joking but then she started crying on the phone. I said, ‘Oh, it’s got to be a mistake.’ I was there when the kids were born.
I saw them come out. I held them in my arms, you know.”
"My daughter is not a liar.”
Moreover, Fairchild’s father, Rod, was as confused as his wife and his daughter by the DNA results. “I almost went insane inside,” he told ABC News.
“I couldn’t imagine why this could happen. My daughter is not a liar.” As a result, the Fairchild family had no choice but to fight the DNA results in court.
Her doctor speaks out
One person who knew for sure that Fairchild had given birth to all of her children was her obstetrician, Dr. Leonard Dreisbach.
So when Fairchild called him, he promised her that he would stand up for her in court. “I would have told them that she certainly had these three kids, and that they were hers, and that I don’t know what’s wrong with the DNA testing, but I know that she had the kids,” Dreisbach explained to ABC News.
The courts didn't listen
However, even Dreisbach’s testimony was disregarded by the state. That’s because DNA was considered to be foolproof by the courts.
And according to the results, Fairchild shared none of her genetic make-up with her own children. But for Fairchild and her family, things still simply didn’t add up.
Human error?
Nonetheless, there was a small chance that the DNA results could have been mistaken due to some sort of human error. So, in order to eliminate this risk, new DNA tests were taken and sent to different labs.
Fairchild endured an excruciating wait, but the results came back the same as the first ones.
Legal removal looming
Given that the new results appeared to confirm that Fairchild’s children weren’t hers, it now seemed that she would surely lose them. And following three hearings, she was advised by a judge to acquire legal representation in order to continue fighting her case in court.
But Fairchild soon found that many attorneys weren’t prepared to go up against apparently infallible DNA evidence.
Lawyer dives deeper
Eventually, a lawyer named Alan Tindell said he would represent Fairchild. But before he did so, he quizzed her at great length regarding her connection to her kids.
He reportedly asked her, “These aren’t your sister’s children? These aren’t your brother’s children? You didn’t abduct these children from anyone?” And from Fairchild’s unyielding replies, he decided she was telling the truth.
A secret plan
So Tindell began preparing Fairchild’s case. In the meantime, though, the mom was still scared witless that her children would be taken from her.
In her desperation, Fairchild even prepared to send her kids into hiding. But soon enough she received word that the state was ready to recommence legal proceedings.
Her worst fear realized
Recalling this frightening time in her life, Fairchild told ABC News, “Getting that summons in the mail to go to court, that they were trying to take my kids from me, my stomach just went into a big old knot.
I just started crying, and I called my family, and I held my kids and was scared.”
Hiding the truth
Fairchild tried to hide her anguish from her children but was sometimes overcome by emotion. “I’d sit and have dinner with my kids and just break out crying,” she explained.
“They would just look at me like, ‘What’s wrong, Mom.’ They’d come get me a hug, and I couldn’t explain it to them, because I didn’t understand,”
Proving the impossible
For Fairchild, then, it must have felt as though she was in an impossible position. She would have to go up against the state and somehow prove that her children were her own.
However, the gold standard of evidence – the DNA results – claimed the exact opposite. With that in mind, Fairchild had no idea how she would win the legal battle for her kids.
This has happened before
But a breakthrough in the case occurred when it was discovered that there was another woman in the U.S. with a remarkably similar story to Fairchild’s.
Her name was Karen Keegan, and she came from Boston. But while she lived on the opposite side of the country, she’d experienced something that would doubtless sound familiar to Fairchild.
Kidney match confusion
Keegan’s story began back in 1998 when she required a new kidney. In order to find a suitable donor, her family had given blood samples to see if they were suitable.
However, that’s when something unexpected happened. Like Fairchild, Keegan discovered that her kids didn’t share her genetic makeup.
Shocking news
In an interview with ABC News, Keegan later recalled how the doctor had broken the shocking news. She remembered that they’d told her, “Mrs.
Keegan, we have some unusual news to report to you. We’ve never had this happen before, but your children don’t match your DNA.”
Doctors had no answers
Dr. Lynne Uhl is a doctor of transfusion medicine and a pathologist at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
As a result, she’d worked on the team in charge of Keegan’s transplant. But despite her considerable experience, Uhl had never seen a case like that of Keegan and her children.
Inheriting DNA
“Any child from a mom and dad should inherit genes from both the mom and the dad,” Uhl told ABC News. “In Keegan’s case, it appeared that her two boys hadn’t inherited any of her DNA.
They weren’t hers. So we scratched our heads and said, ‘This is really unusual. How can this be?’”
Keeping her story
With that in mind, over in Boston medical experts began putting to Keegan the same kind of queries that Fairchild would later face in Washington. They asked where her children came from, given the fact they shared no DNA with her.
But like Fairchild, Keegan had no other answer apart from telling them that she knew they were her sons.
Questioning her well-being
“They wanted to know the name of the hospital where my children were born,” Keegan told ABC News.
“They had some other thoughts, like perhaps this was some kind of in vitro fertilization or even worse, that this woman just might not be completely telling the truth or even be psychologically unbalanced in some way.”
Medical mystery
Keegan’s doctors were clearly eager to get to the bottom of her case. “It was a medical mystery,” Uhl explained.
“Certainly, there were individuals whom we ran the story by who said, ‘There must be a skeleton in the closet.” However, the medical team were about to discover that Keegan was being completely honest with them.
Hunting down a match
When samples from Keegan’s blood, mouth and hair still failed to tally with her sons’ DNA, she then told Uhl about a nodule she’d had excised previously. The team eventually located the tissue in a local laboratory and took it for testing.
Finally, doctors found DNA that matched Keegan to her sons.
Rare syndrome
It was then that Keegan’s doctors realized she had a rare syndrome known as chimerism. Greek mythology defines a “chimera” as a monster that is a terrifying mash-up of a snake, lion, and goat.
And in human biology, chimerism is characterized by an organism with more than one set of genetic codes.
Chimerism
Chimerism is believed to be caused when two fertilized eggs join in the womb and transform into a single fetus. Put simply, it creates one person that contains the genetic blueprints of two separate people.
So, biologically speaking, it is as though chimeras, like Keegan, are also somehow their own twin.
Hidden in genetic code
The only evidence of the existence of the “twin” is their DNA, which lives on inside of the chimera as a distinct genetic code. So you get two biological human beings in the form of one.
Explaining Keegan’s case, Uhl told ABC News, “In her blood, she was one person, but in other tissues, she had evidence of being a fusion of two individuals.”
Extremely rare
In human biology, chimeras are extremely rare. However, they are seen more frequently in other species – for example, marmosets.
So given the scarcity of her condition, Keegan was shocked to learn that, in a way, she was her own twin. “You wouldn’t imagine that that could even be possible,” she said.
Unfair protocol
So, after it was discovered that Keegan was her own twin, there was a chance that the same was also true for Fairchild. However, she would still have to prove that she too was a chimera.
And in the meantime, she was forced to give birth to her third child in the presence of a court official.
Witnessing the test
That official was charged with witnessing a DNA test that would take place almost immediately after Fairchild delivered the infant. “They took DNA from the baby and myself right then and there, after birth,” she would later tell ABC News.
“And it came back that there is no way possible that baby is mine.”
They still didn't believe her
Despite the fact that the birth of Fairchild’s third child had been witnessed by a court official, the authorities reportedly still believed that she could have been carrying the baby as a surrogate. This meant that she may have been having the child for someone else in exchange for cash.
As a result, she was still no closer to proving a biological link between herself and her children.
Lawyer finds the connection
Thankfully, though, that’s when Fairchild’s lawyer Tindell read about Keegan’s case in The New England Journal of Medicine. Tindell believed there was a possibility that Fairchild could be a chimera, too, so the attorney decided to explore that avenue.
“I asked the judge to postpone the case until these tests could be done,” Tindell told ABC News.
The court's decision
And Tindell’s hunch was right. Because it turned out that Fairchild, like Keegan, was a chimera – and therefore her own twin.
Finally, the court accepted the evidence that Fairchild’s children belonged to her and threw out the case against her. But there’s no denying that she’d come worryingly close to losing her kids.
Saving grace
In fact, if it wasn’t for her attorney discovering Keegan’s case, Fairchild is all too aware of how things might have panned out. “I probably wouldn’t have my kids today if they didn’t discover her situation,” Fairchild told ABC News.
“They wouldn’t have known to even consider me as a chimera.”