Family reunion gone nuclear: Woman meets half-sisters through 23andMe, then sues them over a $28.8M inheritance weeks later

A woman from Massachusetts, Carmen Thomas, 28, found herself in a dragged-out family drama after doing a DNA test through 23andMe in 2023 and finding out that she has an entire stepfamily. Thomas found out that the family had just recently come into a windfall of more than $28 million dollars, and Thomas tried getting a chunk of it through a lawsuit to her newfound family.

23andMe announced bankruptcy this year after a few years of having the coveted “unicorn” status in Silicon Valley. But from the very onset of the company, it’s been marred by controversy — if not because of what the company ultimately does with the data it collects, then because of what the information it reveals ends up doing to the stability of some families.