The Fort Worth Police Department has completed official DNA testing, confirming the identity of a woman who was kidnapped as a child 51 years ago and was found by her family in late 2022, police announced in an update Thursday.
“It is our hope that this test result will offer additional closure for the Highsmith family,” police said in a news release.
Melissa Highsmith was 22 months old when she was kidnapped by a babysitter in 1971. She lived in Fort Worth for most of her life and did not know she was missing or that her biological family was looking for her.
Her family hired an amateur genealogist and had a DNA test done through 23andMe — a website customers can use to find relatives and create a family tree — that led them to a Fort Worth woman who went by Melanie Brown. Highsmith’s family took to Facebook in November 2022 to announce they located their missing daughter on a page called “WE FOUND MELISSA!!!”
Read more at: https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/fort-worth/article275077111.html#storylink=cpy