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.

According to a recent New York Post report, the case wasn’t any different for Thomas when she found out about her father Joe. There are no reports that reveal why exactly Thomas and Joe split all those years before, and unfortunately they would not get an opportunity to catch up. In 2018, Joe passed away due to an undiagnosed aortic aneurysm.

But it wasn’t all doom and gloom for Thomas. She found out that she had two half-sisters, Kali and Abigail Brown. According to Thomas, they had a joyous reunion after they found out about each other. But just after the reunion of the sisters, things suddenly got complicated when the Brown sisters sued the hospital that Joe died in.

When Joe was first admitted and started going to Salem Hospital he was 43; he had pain in his abdomen and back. For an entire day, Joe was in pain without a deeper understanding from the doctors — by the time they found out it was an aneurysm, it was too late and Joe passed away. Hospitals sometimes get it wrong, and it’s patients’ right to try and at the very least get a financial retribution for the emotional distress caused.

The Brown sisters went to court and made the hospital award $28.8 million to the Brown family. At that point, the Browns had just formed a relationship with Thomas a month prior. That’s when Thomas allegedly grew assertive and possessive. The Browns’ lawyer would later allege that Thomas “attempted to prey on the family financially and emotionally by demanding that they pay for her gas, food, and alcohol.”

Allegedly, after Thomas found out about the settlement, she started “unraveling.” She tried to obtain an injunction and freeze the assets of the Brown family as she sued them in hopes of her own personal payout. The Brown sisters eventually opted to cut all contact from their half-sister. The lawyer explained the decision, saying, “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.”

Eventually, all the parties involved were able to come to a favorable agreement for the Brown sisters. Apparently, the claim by Thomas was made far too long after Joe Brown’s death. Justice was served.