A Massachusetts woman from modest origins experienced both joy and disappointment after discovering two sisters through a 23andMe DNA test. Initially thrilled, her excitement turned into a legal battle over a $28 million inheritance.
In February 2023, Carmen Thomas, 28, took a 23andMe DNA test that led her to find her biological father and half-sisters.
However, upon reaching out to her newfound siblings, the Lexington native learned that her father, Joseph Brown, had passed away five years prior due to an unexpected aortic aneurysm.
The 43-year-old had visited Salem Hospital’s emergency department on January 13, 2018, complaining of upper abdominal pain that quickly radiated to his chest and back, as per legal documents reviewed by the Daily Mail.
Despite spending almost an entire day in the hospital, Brown’s condition deteriorated, and by the time doctors identified the aneurysm, he had already succumbed to it.
Brown’s bereaved wife, Kristin Eckhardt, along with their daughters, Kali and Abigail Brown, filed a lawsuit against Salem Hospital. They argued that a quicker diagnosis by the medical team, potentially 20 hours earlier, might have saved his life.
When the trial concluded in April 2023, a jury ruled in the family’s favor and awarded them $28.8 million.
A month before the settlement, Thomas had reached out to Kali, now 26, telling her that she was her half-sister following her at home DNA test results.
Carmen Thomas, 28, sued her siblings after finding out they won $28 million in a medical malpractice lawsuit involving their father, Joseph Brown, 43 (Pictured: Brown with his daughters Kali and Abigail)
Court documents showed several images of Thomas with her half-siblings, smiling and cheerful before she found out about their fortune
Thomas’s lawsuit against her family painted the picture of a happy reunion, filled with reconnection, pictures with her two sisters and other precious moments where she met her father’s relatives.
But in the Brown family’s opposition filing against Thomas, both Kali and Abigail ‘were very upset and hesitant’ to meet Thomas, but did so anyway ‘to be kind to this woman,’ the lawsuit stated.
Soon, the family determined that Thomas, who Brown had with her mother Elizabeth Ruth Thomas, ‘was very assertive and possessive with the Brown Family from the inception,’ the legal filing stated.
‘Even more disturbing, Plaintiff immediately attempted to prey on the family financially and emotionally by demanding that they pay for her gas, food, and alcohol, and threatening herself with self-harm if they did not answer her texts,’ the family’s lawyer, Joseph D Lipchitz, wrote.
‘Plaintiff’s gambit of attempting to obtain an injunction to freeze the assets of a grieving family is not only meritless, as a matter of law, it should been seen as an afront to this Court.’
After dealing with these behaviors from Thomas, her sister Kali ‘sought to distance herself’ from her on April 7, 2023, the lawsuit said.
Her behavior really came to a head after Kali learned from her grandmother that Thomas had called their father a ‘dead beat dad.’ The family then ‘cut off all contact’ with her as a result.
Carmen Thomas shared this photo of herself reacting to seeing her late father’s photo for the first time
Brown was married to his wife Kristen Eckhart, whom he shared Kali and Abigail with
Thomas’s biological mother is Elizabeth Ruth Thomas. The 28-year-old grew up in the Boston area (Pictured: Thomas’s house)
Additionally, the Brown family does not believe Thomas is their late husband and father’s daughter, citing that her biological mother ‘has never contacted the Brown Family claiming that she had a relationship with Mr. Brown,’ the filing stated.
The family’s attorney also noted that Thomas failed to reach out to Eckhardt during the probate action, or legal process where a court supervises the settlement of an estate.
She also never filed an action to establish paternity in regard to Brown, the lawsuit noted.
In the end, the lawsuit Thomas filed against the grieving family was ‘resolved favorably’ for them, Lipchitz told the Wall Street Journal.
‘The death of their father was extraordinarily traumatic, as you can imagine. That was compounded by this putative heir all of a sudden showing up and demanding money,’ the attorney added.
No further details of any settlement have been shared.
Just before his tragic death, Brown, of Mississippi, had testing done that had ruled out he was suffering from a heart attack and pulmonary embolism, but blood tests revealed he had an elevated white blood cell count.
He was then admitted at the hospital as doctors feared he had an infection after puncturing his foot days earlier, William Kenyon of Boston law firm Lubin & Meyer, said in court documents.
Brown’s been remembered as a ‘loving and dedicated husband and father’ who ‘was happiest when he was at home with his wife and daughters’ (Pictured: Undated image of Brown with Kali and Abigail)
Boston’s Back Bay is pictured. Joseph Brown’s daughters Kali and Abigail are now among the city’s upper crust after winning a $28.8 million payout following their father’s tragic death
In the midst of the infection, Brown’s chest and breathing symptoms grew increasingly worse, leaving him in ‘excruciating pain,’ the filing said.
It wasn’t until 9.30am, the morning after he first stepped foot in the hospital, that Eckhardt learned her husband was experiencing an aneurysm.
Hospital staff rushed him to be flown to Boston for an emergency surgery, but before that could even happen Eckhardt got the heartbreaking call her partner, who she met in 1997, had died.
Brown’s been remembered as a ‘loving and dedicated husband and father’ who ‘was happiest when he was at home with his wife and daughters,’ according to his obituary.
‘Joe was truly one of a kind, who touch the lives of many people; he will be fondly remembered and deeply missed by his family and friends,’ it added.
Our news media team contacted Thomas, Eckhart and Lipchitz for comment.
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