Teen scrolling through social media makes shocking discovery about herself and her 'doppelganger'

The real-life story of Elene Deisadze and Anna Panchulidze sounds like something straight out of a movie. The two had no idea of each other's existence until 2022, when Deisadze, while scrolling through TikTok, stumbled upon a video of Pachulidze, whom she believed to be her doppelganger. They began chatting and quickly became friends. A few months later, their parents revealed that both were adopted, according to the Daily Mail.

"We became friends without suspecting we might be sisters, but both of us felt there was some special bond between us," said Deisadze, according to the New York Post. Last year, the two decided to get a DNA test and found out they were identical twins. Deisadze and Panchulidze were raised by different families, living in different cities just two hours away. They met each other for the first time in August last year and felt like they had known each other all their lives.

"The first emotion was, ah, we were looking in the mirror," Deisadze told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC News). Unfortunately, the reason for their separation was that they were among the thousands of Georgian children who were illegally sold in a baby trafficking operation. The pair's DNA test was arranged with the help of Georgian journalist Tamuna Museridze, who has been investigating kidnappings that occurred between 1950 and 2006, according to the New York Post.

Museridze uncovered the operation in 2016 while sorting through her late mother’s belongings, where she found two birth certificates with different dates. The journalist said, "We found out it was systemic, and we found out there are more than 100,000 children stolen in Georgia's hospitals." Patmani Parkosadze, Panchulidze's mother, confirmed that she paid $3,500 to adopt her in 2005. However, she claimed that she had no idea about the scam. "At that time, you had to wait ages to adopt somebody. My husband and I were personally waiting for six years before we got Ana," she said. She added that they knew nothing about the "corrupt system."

According to Museridze, the scheme was carried out by organized criminals, which included everyone from taxi drivers and doctors to government officials. She said, "This organized crime was all over Georgia. We can't say one maternity house was involved. All of the maternity houses were involved." She added, "Cab drivers were taking the babies from one maternity house to another maternity house. There were also nurses, gynecologists... and of course people from the government because no one was arrested for this." Museridze started a Facebook page to reunite children with their families in 2021 after she herself got to know that she was adopted.

Museridze explained that those involved in the scam would tell mothers their newborns had died and been buried in a hospital cemetery when, in reality, the infants were sold to adoptive parents. In Georgia, new parents would pay up to $30,000. Lia Korkotadze, Deisadze's mother, decided to adopt after she and her husband learned they couldn't have children. "But adopting from an orphanage seemed virtually impossible due to incredibly long waiting lists," she said. So, an acquaintance told them that a 6-month-old baby was available for adoption from a local hospital for a fee. They brought the child home, never realizing that there was something illegal.