http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/dna-test-reveals-convicted-felon-swapped-husband-sperm-article-1.1571638
An innocent family genealogy test led to Utah parents discovering convicted kidnapped Thomas Lippert is actual father of 21-year-old daughter. The University of Utah has now offered to conduct paternity tests to other clients of the fertility clinic.
http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1571657.1389326255%21/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_635/article-addon-lippert0109.jpg” width=”635″ height=”327″ />A DNA test taken by a Utah family has revealed that the sperm of convicted felon, Thomas Lippert (pictured), was somehow swapped with the sperm of a man trying to conceive with his wife in 1992.
Utah parents are speaking out after discovering the sperm supplied to conceive their daughter 21 years ago was actually not that of the family’s patriarch — but that of a criminal.
Now the identity of the strange sperm donor has escalated their situation into a disturbing warning to other parents who used artificial insemination in the Salt Lake City area.
“I felt my stomach just drop,” the mother, who didn’t wish to be identified, told KUTV of the DNA test results that she claims links her daughter to convicted felon Thomas R. Lippert, who worked at the clinic for five years.
She said it was only after the family recently decided to take a genealogy test for fun that they discovered their daughter Ashley isn’t related to her husband at all.
“I just thought to myself, ‘Oh my God,’” she recalled.
In her attempt to understand how this could happen, she hoped to contact the Midvale clinic she used in 1992, Reproductive Medical Technologies, Inc., but instead learned it has since closed.
All of the clinic’s medical records no longer exist, according to the University of Utah, which had a contract with the clinic.
KUTV
The clinic has since closed and all of its medical records are said to no longer exist but because of genealogical data provided by 23andMe.com, the Utah family was able to identify the daughter’s actual father.
Fortunately, because the mother was equipped with her family’s DNA data, she said she was able to identify a cousin of Lippert who confirmed the identity.
Lippert, who had been convicted in a high-profile kidnapping in 1975, worked at the clinic part-time from 1988 to 1993, the University of Utah confirms.
In his kidnapping case, reported by People magazine in 1975, Lippert abducted a 21-year-old female student at Purdue University whom he attempted to “brainwash” into falling in love with him through electric-shock therapy.
The surprised mother told KUTV that she didn’t know his criminal history until now. But she says she does remember him as being at the clinic when she visited, specifically in the front desk area.
There, she says, photos of babies were showcased as some of the clinic’s alleged success stories.
“He seemed friendly and was very proud of all those pictures. Almost seemed like a brag board up there,” she told KUTV.
Lippert’s mother agreed to supply her own DNA to confirm his match to the 21-year-old daughter, the Salt Lake Tribune reports.
With that match, the mother’s fearful puzzlement began.
Not only did she wonder how this could have happened, but was it intentionally done?
“All those photos of the babies that he was so proud of, I thought, ‘Oh my God, how many of those are his biological children?‘” she panicked.
Unfortunately for the family, and quite possibly many others, Lippert died in 1999, taking his secrets to the grave.
Regardless, the family says they’re grateful to have their daughter, but they do worry about how many other babies were conceived by his sperm.
They’ve since created a website titled, “Was Your Child Fathered by Thomas Lippert?”
On the site, photos of Lippert are shared as well as an unidentified child that he allegedly claimed was one of his through a sperm donation.
“We believe that it is possible that Thomas Lippert has many biological children living in the Salt Lake City area and beyond,” it read. “The parents of these children may be completely unaware that their child is not biologically related to the presumed father.”
His widow, Jean Lippert, told the Tribune that while the allegations against her late husband are disturbing, she can’t call them surprising.
“I think, because Tom didn’t have any kids, he wanted to have a lot of kids out there,” she told the paper. “Maybe he switched some samples so he could have more of his kids in the world.”
She described him as not “a very nice person,” but said she was too afraid to leave him.
In a bid to help concerned parents who may have been affected by Lippert, the University of Utah is providing free paternity testing for former clients of the clinic who visited between 1988 and 1993.
“Because of its association with and proximity to RMTI, the University will also offer free testing to patients who received AI treatments during that time period through the University’s adjacent laboratory,” the university announced.
The university said there is currently “no evidence to indicate this situation extends beyond the case in question.”
