DNA test on body aims to prove millionaire claim
The remains of Jeremiah O’Regan were removed from a plot in St Finbarr’s Cemetery, Cork, and a tiny sliver of bone was taken from the body by an US-based forensic anthropologist.
Dr Karen Burns, a leading DNA expert in the State of Georgia, will compare the results with that of the body of Jeremiah O’Regan’s sister, Ellen, which was exhumed from a cemetery in Savannah on January 16.
If a match is made, it will prove beyond all doubt that businessman Dermot O’Regan, 63, is their closest living relative and heir to the family fortune.
Ellen O’Regan emigrated to America in the late 1900s and married a retired policemen who amassed a fortune in property in Georgia. The couple had four daughters all of whom died without producing heirs.
Dermot O’Regan, who owns O’Regan Precast in Ovens, Co Cork, has spent a small fortune since 1987 trying to prove the missing family link.
He employed a renowned expert to search for relevant documentation on both sides of the Atlantic. Genealogist Jim Herlihy made a number of trips to the USA, where he uncovered what he believes to be indisputable proof.
“I’ve spent thousands of hours researching this case and the records speak for themselves. No more can be done now, except for the DNA match which will copperfasten Dermot O’Regan’s claim,” Mr Herlihy said.
However, even if a link is found, it is likely that Mr O’Regan’s solicitor will have to take an action against a firm of lawyers in Atlanta who distributed the estate to other people who they believed were more entitled to the family’s immense wealth.
Solicitor Colm Murphy said he expected the DNA results to be completed within the next four months and if a match was made it would prove the case beyond all reasonable doubt.
“The lawyers involved in Atlanta could face a multi-million lawsuit, or the state of Georgia for that matter, to right a wrong,” Mr Murphy said.
He played down suggestions that the estate could be worth an estimated €160 million, but admitted that if lawsuits proved successful damages could run into millions of dollars.
