There are some coincidences that are so freaky, that we can practically hear the theme music from “The Twilight Zone” playing softly in the background.
Michele Dugan is from California but has lived in Las Vegas, Nevada since 1994. She became a real estate agent and raised a family, and she never once suspected that her half-sister lived just miles away with her own family. It wasn’t until Michele did a DNA test through Ancestry that she discovered a 25-year-old family secret.
The first person Michele discovered on Ancestry was a half-brother who lives in New Jersey. When she talked to him, he told her more family members were living in Las Vegas. He put her in touch with his sister, Tricia Tilley, and Michele reached out to her on Facebook. That’s when the two women discovered they share remarkable similarities. For one thing, their children not only attended the same high school, but both Tricia and Michele attended their graduation ceremony!
“We were both pregnant at the same time,” said Tricia. “Then our kids went to the same high school- Coronado High School. My daughter Jessie and her son Justin, and they graduated in the same year and we were at the same graduation at UNLV.”
Michele said they both grabbed their phones and realized they had the same pictures of the stage “just from a different angle.”
It turns out that the two women have different mothers, but the same father. Michele was adopted as an infant, and she always felt like she was missing a piece of herself.
“I didn’t know any birth family my whole life,” she said. I didn’t know who I looked like or you know who were my people. I love my family but I just always felt like there was someone else out there maybe and I didn’t know who that was.”
Tricia was raised by her mother, father, and two brothers. As they talked over text message, the sister soon found out that they share one more similarity: They were born in the same year, just five months apart.
“The ladies loved dad and dad loved the ladies,” Tricia said with a laugh. “He was definitely a player and he was so charismatic and good-looking and you know just loved people.”
In total, there are seven half-siblings living in the United States!
Their father passed away in 2004, but Tricia recognized his features in her sister’s face right away.
Since meeting in person back in January 2019, Tricia and Michele have been making up for the lost time. They are now best friends who do everything together, even starting their own real estate business called Sisters Selling Vegas.
“Our motto is we missed the first 48 years so we’re going to make the best of whatever we have left,” said Michele.
“I now have a best friend and a sister and everything all wrapped into one,” Tricia agreed.
Can you believe these ladies were going about their business in the same city for decades without ever knowing the other existed? Sometimes the truth really is stranger than fiction!
Share this story to celebrate their long overdue reunion.
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