LONDON, Jan 21: A woman who claimed to be a child survivor of the 1912 Titanic disaster has been exposed as a fraud after extensive DNA testing, solving one of the ‘last great mysteries’ of the ill-fated liner.
Two-year-old Loraine Allison, from a wealthy Canadian family, was first reported to have died along with her parents when the liner sank in the icy Atlantic waters, but her body was never recovered.
In the years that followed, a woman called Helen Kramer came forward and claimed that she was in fact Allison, ‘The Telegraph’ reported.
Kramer was apparently able to provide details thought to be known only to the wealthy Allison family.
She mounted a long campaign to be accepted by surviving members of the family, who, however, rejected her claims.
When Kramer died in 1992, it seemed as if the mystery rested there.
However, it was revived on the centenary of the sinking in 2012 when Kramer’s granddaughter, Debrina Woods, from Florida, restated the claim.
More than a century after the incident, the mystery may have finally been solved.
A group of researchers arranged for DNA testing of both the descendants of Kramer and from the Allison family, which revealed no genetic link, exposing the decades-old claim as a hoax, the report said.
RMS Titanic was a British passenger liner that sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on April 15, 1912 after colliding with an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, UK to New York City. (AGENCIES)
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