Loraine Allison, who came forward decades after the Titanic sank and claimed to be a young girl reported dead in the disaster, has been proven to be a fraud.
Helen Kramer, who passed away in 1992, mounted a campaign for the surviving members of the affluent, Canadian family to accept her as Loraine Allison.
That baby girl was killed aboard the doomed RMS Titanic in 1912.
However, recent DNA tests by the Loraine Allison Identification Project show no genetic link between the Kramer and Allison family’s descendants. At all.
"We have received the results of mtDNA testing," the Loraine Allison Identification Project wrote, referring to a type of DNA passed down through the female line.
"The results confirm that Mrs. Kramer was NOT Loraine Allison."
If true, this means Loraine Allison was in fact the only child to die from the first or second class on the iconic vessel. Sixty other children died aboard the Titanic.
The Telegraph reported on the new DNA tests yesterday and spoke about the bombshell results with David Allison, grandson of Loraine’s uncle Percy Allison:
"The Allisons never accepted Mrs. Kramer’s claim, but the stress it caused was real. It forced my ancestors to relive painful memories … immeasurable sorrow and unending grief."
His sister Nancy Bergman, added that the findings "uncovered a colossal fraud that has haunted my family for years. It was all about the money."
"Debrina wants to write a book and no doubt there are others out there who want to profit from our story. It is our story. Leave us in peace."
The whole identification fiasco stems from the fact that little Loraine’s body was never recovered, despite early news reports saying that she perished.
In 1940, Kramer went public with the claim that she was saved.
She said that at the last monute, Hudson Allison, Loraine’s father, placed her in a lifeboat with a man she grew up believing was her biological father.
Her adoptive father, she said, told her about her true identify and history. He also said he was Thomas Andrews, the naval architect who designed the Titanic.
These claims could not be verified, of course, because the man died shortly after telling her, according to the Loraine Allison Identification Project.
None of Kramer’s immediate family believed her, but others did.
In 2012, Debrina Woods, a woman saying she is Kramer’s granddaughter, said that she found a suitcase filled with letters between Kramer and her lawyer.
This "proved" she was Loraine, to the chagrin of the Allisons.
"What Ms. Woods doesn’t have yet is forensically certifiable proof of anything," the Loraine Allison Identification Project said on its website this week.
"Despite numerous inquiries from Titanic researchers and interested people from all over the world, Ms. Woods has never released her alleged DNA results."