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Sisters Meet For The First Time In 75 Years Thanks To Online DNA Test

October 21, 2019

Two sisters were reunited for the first time in 75 years at Detroit Metropolitan Airport thanks to a well-timed DNA kit.

Jackie Murphy, 80, finally met her sister Suzan Baekkelund, 76, thanks to online family DNA testing.

Suzan had been given up for adoption by their mother. Jackie was raised by their late birth mother.

But Suzan was never told she was adopted.

Jackie's cousin was doing an Ancestry test with her mother to look up their ancestors. At the same time, Suzan's daughter did a DNA and sent it in.

That's when both parties started to put the pieces together about having a missing relative.

"A green flag goes up of some sort and says there is someone in your family that matches your DNA," Jackie told Fox 2 Detroit. "They pursued it, and they knew it wasn't my aunts. The only person left was my mother. They called me and wanted to see if I knew of a daughter that was adopted out, that she was born in Michigan. The last name that was given to my mother of the adoptive parents was Trotter.

So my cousin called and said we have someone in our ancestry that belongs on the Stevenson side of the family. A little girl was adopted out; do you know of anyone in the family. Instantly I knew they were talking about my mother. They asked if I would like to talk to her and I said I would love to."

Jackie was still skeptical about having a long-lost sister until she asked Suzan what her middle initial was, knowing her maiden name started with the letter T. When Suzan said her maiden name was Trotter, Jackie got her confirmation and so began a three-week marathon of tears and excitement.

"I love her and I don't even know her. But I loved her all my life because I knew she was there," Jackie said minutes before Suzan's plane from Nashville arrived. "We have a big family waiting for her."

Watch the video below.