WEIRD BUT TWO!
TikTok lookalike’s my lost twin
Elene Deisadze was scrolling on TikTok in 2022 when she had to do a double-take. There was a girl who looked just like her.
The teen, a university student in the Eastern European nation of Georgia, immediately reached out to Anna Panchulidze, who she believed to be her doppelgänger. The two had an instant connection.
But it turned out the pair had more than a bond — they had shared DNA. After several months of getting to know each other online, the two discovered that they were adopted.
“I had a happy childhood, but now my entire past felt like a deception,” Anna, a university student in the UK, told AFP.
Once they realized that they didn’t actually know their biological family, the girls decided to take a DNA test and learned that they weren’t doppelgängers — they’re identical twins.
And while the girls’ revelation might be shocking, it’s unfortunately more common and dark than either had expected.
Sprawling illegal plot
The DNA test for Elene and Anna was arranged with the help of Georgian journalist Tamuna Museridze, who has been investigating a countrywide kidnapping scheme that appears to have taken place for decades between 1950 and 2006.
Through her investigation, she learned that the scheme was run by organized criminals who recruited a wide range of accomplices, including doctors and government officials.
Often times, hospital staff would lie to parents telling them their children died at birth and then pass them off to be sold to unwitting families.
Anna’s mother, Patmani Parkosadze, confirmed she paid thousands of dollars to adopt her in 2005 after waiting years to adopt a child.
Elene’s adoptive mother, Lia Korkotadze, told AFP that “adopting from an orphanage seemed virtually impossible due to incredibly long waiting lists.” She was overjoyed when she heard about a 6-month-old baby available for adoption from a local hospital — for a fee.
“They brought Elene right to my house,” Korkotadze said, never suspecting there was “anything illegal.”
To help deceived families find each other, Museridze started a Facebook group dedicated to reuniting babies stolen from their parents — it currently has around 250,000 members and has reunited some 700 families.