Woman thinks ex rigged a DNA test - Now testing babyfather to solve daughter’s paternity

A 21-year-old mother is in limbo as she desperately seeks to find out which of the two men, who she slept with days apart, is the father of her second child.

In February last year, Melissa* was barely two weeks into a new job at a restaurant when her son's father, Anthony*, offered her a late-night ride home. They were no longer in a relationship, but the favour came with a price. With no money in hand and her first pay cheque still weeks away, she admitted that she gave in.

"He is the type of guy if he is doing something, he wants something in return," she told THE WEEKEND STAR.

Three days later, her ex, Jason*, turned up at her house. Their conversation slipped into old familiarity, and by the end of the night they were intimate. When her missed period turned into a positive test weeks later, Melissa realised she was carrying a child whose father she could not name with certainty.

"The two of them was just days apart, so mi genuinely nuh know who get mi pregnant," Melissa said.

Her ex dismissed the pregnancy from the start, urging her to terminate it but she refused. Melissa thought she would find peace after her daughter's birth in November, when she arranged a DNA test with Jason. It returned negative, but Melissa is not convinced. Jason, she noted, works in a medical facility and she suspects that he did something to influence the process.

"After dem swab we and mi lef, mi see him and the girl him bring deh. Mi feel like dem go back in a the lab and do something," she alleged.

Her doubts grew when the testing agency told her she was not supposed to receive the results directly, even though she was part of the process.

"But mi was a part of the swab, mi and mi baby. So why mi can't see it?" she asked.

Melissa also insists her daughter physically resembles Jason more than her son's father.

"She look exactly like mi ex... hair, features, everything," she said.

Her son's father, meanwhile, remains unconvinced. The baby carries his surname, but he insists Melissa was never honest with him about the pregnancy.

"When she get pregnant she never tell mi say is mine. She did say is somebody else own," he told THE WEEKEND STAR. "She not supposed to put the baby inna mi name, because mi and her nuh deh."

Anthony said he sometimes cares for their two-year-old son after school, but he refuses to take responsibility for Melissa's daughter until paternity is proven.

"If the child is not mine, mi nuh see why mi fi mind her," he said bluntly.

Unemployed and planning to enrol in HEART/NSTA Trust this September, Melissa said that the cost of a private DNA test is out of her reach. Daycare fees and daily expenses are already stretching her to the limit.

Like it has done for many other families trapped in doubt, the partnership between DNA testing firm Polygenics Consulting and THE STAR will now step in to provide answers. In the coming days, Melissa's daughter and Anthony will undergo a DNA test.

* Names changed to protect identity.