An Australian woman flew to Zimbabwe to meet what she thought were her biological parents for the first time – but her new family were not what they seemed.
Abigail Prangs, 36, was adopted by an Australian couple after being dumped by the side of a road in Harare as a newborn.
After an emotional and draining search for her birth family Ms Prangs was led to believe that she was snatched by a midwife who told her mother she was stillborn.
Initial DNA test results showed Mrs Prangs was the daughter of Edna and Stanford Kamonere, from near Harare in Zimbabwe, who have 12 other children.
Edna said that she had given birth to twins but one of the babies mysteriously vanished and she was told by a nurse that the infant had died.
An emotional reunion was filmed for Sunday Night True Stories and Ms Prangs was thrilled to be finally meeting her birth parents.
But in a bizarre twist two further DNA tests showed that Edna and Stanford were not actually Ms Prangs’ mother and father but revealed instead that she was their niece.
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Noticing a strong family resemblance Ms Prangs approached an aunt called Elizabeth only for her to be whisked away in a van.
Ms Prangs suspects she uncovered a dark family secret after learning Elizabeth would have given birth aged just 14, if she was in fact her biological mother.
It was an unsettling turn of events for the mother-of-four, from the Sunshine Coast, who has been searching for her birth family for years.
Although she was adopted as a baby by Australians Mike and Kathy Prangs she never stopped wondering about her African roots.
She started her journey to reconnect with her long lost blood family, and spent countless nights researching adoption sites, newspapers and social media.
She even managed to find the policeman who found her crying, wrapped in a blanket on the side of the road and he took her back to the local hospital all those years ago.
After getting her hands on the birth registry from Harare Hospital from the day she was born, Ms Prangs tracks down Edna Kamonere.
Ms Kamonere said she gave birth to twins on the same day Ms Prangs was born but one of them was a stillborn and the baby’s ‘body’ was immediately taken from her by a midwife.
The timing and details of Edna’s story matched what Ms Prangs knows about her own start to life.
DNA tests taken by a local Zimbabwean company showed that of one of Edna’s daughters, Lorraine, is in fact Ms Prangs’ sister.
Ms Prangs relief that she was not dumped as a baby after all is clear.
‘I’m complete now, I had this hole of not knowing who or where I was from,’ she said.
Ms Prangs brings her husband Ty Hill and four children Ama’rhi, Ziah, Koko and Jeriah to Zimbabwe to meet her new family.
As they arrive in the small village and walks towards Edna and Standford, hundreds of local villagers watch on and cheer.
However, as Ms Prangs connects with her new family there comes some shocking news.
Just days after her emotional return to Zimbabwe, fresh DNA results from follow-up testing shows that Edna is not her mother.
Ms Prangs breaks down in tears as she is shown the latest results which reveal there is a zero per cent chance Edna is her mother.
She becomes increasingly distraught, and asks how Lorraine can be her sister if Edna isn’t her biological mother.
Ms Prang’s next step is to confront the man behind the Zimbabwe-based Global DNA, Tinashe Mugabe.
However this meeting turns out to be futile, as Mugabe denies getting the initial DNA test results wrong, and avoids taking the blame for the heartbreaking mistake.
Ms Prangs then commissions her own independent DNA tests which confirm that Edna is not her mother but that Lorraine is actually her cousin.
Devastated, Ms Prangs was then faced with the likely prospect that one of Edna’s four sisters is actually her mother.
Despite being unsure of who her biological parents are, DNA results prove the Kamonere family are her blood relatives
‘I’m devastated and confused and worried and… I had always wanted that family, and I thought that I had found them. So how does that work? That… That Mum isn’t my mum and Lorraine is family?’ she said.
Ms Prangs then confronts Edna’s sister, Elizabeth, telling her that she believes she is her long lost mother.
Elizabeth would have been just 14-year-old at the time Ms Prangs was born in 1983.
Ms Prangs tells her that they look very similar, and demands answers from her in an emotional and uncomfortable confrontation.
She tells Elizabeth that she understands that if she may be sworn to secrecy but begs her for the truth.
But just moments later, in another bizarre twist, Elizabeth is suddenly ushered onto the back of a ute that pulls up, and unceremoniously drives away – leaving Ms Prangs with no closure.
Despite the mystery remaining around her birth mother, Ms Prangs can be certain that she has found her biological family with the Kamoneres.
‘I’ve had such a connection with them that they are family, that will never change, that relationship won’t change. Not once have these guys said that I’m not family,’ she says.
The Kamoneres share her sentiments, saying nothing will take her away from them now that they’ve found her.
Source: Daily Mail
