A family who took DNA tests for fun ended up uncovering a huge secret when results revealed that the youngest son wasn't biologically theirs.
Donna Johnson, 47, and her husband Vanner, 47, never could imagine the bombshell they would discover when wanted to know more about their heritage, the Mirror reports.
They took the tests along with their two boys - Vanner Jr, 18, and Tim, 12 and when they results came back they thought there must have been a mistake.
Vanner was the father of their eldest son, but not their youngest which showed the father's DNA was unknown. Trying to wrap her head around what the results meant was when Donna had a moment of "sickening clarity" and realised there must have been a mix up at the IVF clinic.
The couple from Salt Lake City, Utah, who met in high school and got married in 2003, had their first son, Vanner Jr. The pair wanted to have another child but health problems made it impossible for the pair to conceive naturally. In March 2007, the couple had their first round of IVF using Donna's eggs and Vanner's sperm.
After a failed, the couple tried again with more success, and a year later their son, Tim, was born in August 2008. Donna said it "felt like a miracle".
The boys did look different with Vanner Jr described as having his dad's blue eyes and fair hair, while Tim had Donna's dark hair and was sportier. Years later, the family decided to do their own home DNA test to learn more about where they come from. Six weeks later, the results came back and changed their lives forever.
Fear struck the parents with the news, wondering who Tim's biological dad could be, and whether he could be taken away from them. Thankfully a lawyer was able to reassure the couple they'd remain Tim's legal parents.
But for Vanner, it was difficult to come to terms with the fact that Tim wasn't his own biological child. Donna said her husband didn't act any different around Tim, but she could tell he was in shock.
Donna said she sank into depression and struggled to focus at work as a teacher as she came to grapple with the earth-shattering news.
When Tim turned 12, the couple decided to tell Tim the truth, thinking it would be worse if he found out as an adult. In October 2020, Vanner took Tim out for ice cream to break the news that he wasn't his biological dad.
Donna wrapped her youngest up in a huge hug, telling him how much they loved him when they got back home. She said he was very quiet, but said he loved them too. A few weeks later, Tim told his parents he wanted to track down his biological father.
Using another DNA test from a different company, they tracked down a woman they thought could be Tim's biological aunt. After some digging they found a blog written by the woman's brother, called Devin McNeil who lived in Colorado, eight hours from the family.
They found his number and bravely called Devin in March 2021. Devin, 47, was initially understandably sceptical, but agreed to do a DNA test. They family talked on FaceTime with Devin and his wife Kelly, 46, and explained how they just wanted to find out how this had happened, and what to do next.
The couples discovered had been at the same IVF clinic on the same day, 14 years prior. Donna had gone in for egg retrieval, while Kelly went for embryo implantation for her eldest son, Talon.
DNA tests confirmed Devin was Tim's dad. The samples had not been swapped, but instead Devin's had somehow been used for both.
The two families met in June 2021, with Donna explaining it was "surreal" hugging a stranger she'd "made a baby with" and have kept in touch with regular calls, texts and video chats, and have met up several times since. They settled out of court with the clinic in 2022.
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