Chapter 7 - THE LABELS
Northstar required clients to label private samples themselves.
My mother-in-law downloaded the forms.
Printed:
C1 — CHILD.
AF1 — ALLEGED FATHER.
The shipment photograph from Northstar intake showed handwriting on the envelopes.
Her handwriting.
No accidental laboratory switch.
Could she accidentally place Mark’s swab inside AF1?
Possible.
Then her email to the company.
Before testing:
Please confirm an exclusion result is definitive even if family members are closely related.
Northstar replied:
Interpretation depends on tested identities. For legal conclusions, verified chain-of-custody collection is recommended.
Then she asked:
If alleged father is excluded, can results be challenged by another family member?
The laboratory replied:
A private report establishes only the relationship between submitted samples. Identity is not verified.
There.
She had been warned.
Then after result:
Please do not include language emphasizing nonlegal status on first page.
Northstar refused.
The report clearly said:
FOR PRIVATE KNOWLEDGE ONLY — SPECIMEN IDENTITIES NOT VERIFIED.
The photograph Eric saw had the bottom of the page folded upward.
Conveniently covering that sentence.
My mother-in-law had been displaying only the upper portion.
Probability:
0%.
She knew exactly what the report did and did not prove.
Then another clue.
Her personal assistant had received instructions:
Do not mention ancestry samples to family.
Why?
She claimed privacy.
Then:
Destroy remaining kit envelopes after report arrives.
The assistant had not.
She kept receipts for accounting.
No remaining DNA.
But packaging records.
One kit assigned to Mark.
One to my daughter.
No kit assigned to my husband.
There.
She never collected his DNA at all.
The fake paternity question was intentional from the beginning.
Now motive became more important than mechanics.
Why fabricate an exclusion she knew was false?
Why spend seven months humiliating a child?
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Why stage a birthday exclusion days before the verified result?
There was something larger she wanted than being right.
