There are eight billion people on the planet. And chances are that somewhere out there, another person is walking around with your face, or at least one that is eerily similar to yours.
Doppelgängers do exist.
So when teenager, Elene Deisadze, was randomly scrolling through TikTok and came across a profile of someone who looked just like her, she was shocked but initially chalked it up to finding her doppelgänger.
But in a crazy twist, it turns out the teen she found wasn’t her doppelgänger, she was her identical twin sister. A sister she had no idea even existed.
A Shocking Discovery
In 2022, Elene, who lives in Georgia (a former Soviet republic on the Black Sea), was mindlessly scrolling on TikTok when a stranger’s profile picture grabbed her attention. Eerily, it was like looking in a mirror.
Someone named Anna Panchulidze, who lived in a city two hours away, didn’t just resemble her…she looked EXACTLY like her; the same eyes, the same nose, the same hair, the same face.
Intrigued by the crazy coincidence, Elene immediately reached out to Anna, sending her a message. Anna responded and they quickly became virtual friends.
But there was something else going on, a deeper connection they both felt but couldn’t explain.
“It’s something we can’t explain. We have the feeling that we have known each other for all our lives.”
Elene Deisadze via the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)
A few months after meeting online, their parents revealed to them separately that they were adopted. Alarm bells starting going off. Was it possible that they were more than doppelgängers?
It was an idea they couldn’t shake. So in 2023, when they both turned 18, the teenagers decided to meet face-to-face and do a DNA test despite having different birthdays.
The results were shocking. Yet, they also explained A LOT.
Elene and Anna weren’t strangers who just looked alike. They were identical twins, separated at birth. But the DNA test also unearthed another discovery, one much more sinister. The girls (and their biological parents) were victims of a decades-long, widespread baby trafficking scheme.
Georgian Baby-Stealing Scandal
Twins Who Were Separated at Birth Find Each Other On TikTok
Facebook.com/tamuna.museridze
With the help of Georgian journalist Tamuna Museridze, renowned for blowing the baby stealing operation wide open, the girls and their adoptive parents were able to start putting the puzzle pieces together.
Between the years 1950 and 2006, more than 120,000 children were stolen in Georgia’s hospitals and illegally sold to unsuspecting families. The scheme was elaborately orchestrated by a network of corrupt doctors, nurses, social workers, and even government officials.
They preyed on vulnerable, often impoverished, young mothers, convincing them that their babies had died during childbirth. In reality, the infants were sold to couples who were desperate to adopt.
Anna’s mother, Patmani Parkosadze, told the ABC she paid $3,500 to adopt her in 2005, enough to buy a small apartment.
“I had no clue. At that time, you had to wait ages to adopt somebody. My husband and I were personally waiting for six years before we got Anna.”
Patmani Parkosadze
Elene’s adoptive mother, Lia Korkotadze, told AFP that she and her husband adopted Elene when she was 6 months old from a local hospital – for a fee. They never suspected anything illegal.
Both Elene and Anna harbor no resentment or ill will against their adoptive parents and are grateful to have them and now, each other. However, they still hold out hope of someday reuniting with their biological parents.
“Maybe they don’t even know we exist because when children were adopted sometimes their biological parents were lied to, [told] your child is dead, maybe our parents think we are dead, we are not even alive, it would be so great to find them and tell them the truth,” Elene told the ABC.
The Powerful Bond of Family
According to eMarketer estimates, TikTok has 1.04 BILLION monthly active users worldwide.
The odds of two separated twins finding each other on such a vast platform are astronomical. And yet, call it an incredibly serendipitous coincidence or fate, something brought these long-lost siblings together.
While it may not be easily explained, there is no denying that there is an intrinsic connection between siblings, especially twins, that is truly special and unbreakable.
For now, the new-found sisters are just catching up on lost time and finding joy in being together.
“Can I love a person more than Elene? I don’t know. When I saw her I was so happy.”
Anna Panchulidz
