Guatemalan girls claim they are heirs to Alaska flight 261 victims
Patty
Girls who claim they are heirs to Alaska flight 261 victims will have DNA tested
by Seattle Times staff
Two Guatemalan girls who claim they are the heirs of two men killed in the crash of Alaska
Airlines Flight 261 last January will have their DNA tested by the end of the year under a
court order issued in Seattle this week.
Attorneys for Irma Clemetson, 10, and Sheila Ryan, 6, are seeking rights to the estates of
two crash victims: Dr. David Clemetson of Seattle and Terry Ryan of Redmond. Neither man
is survived by any immediate family members; Clemetson's wife and four children died in
the crash, as did Ryan's wife and two children.
The girls' guardians in Guatemala say the children are illegitimate offspring of the men,
said Seattle attorney Harold Fardal, who is representing the claimants in a probate case
in King County Superior Court. Before testing the DNA, lawyers for the girls must gather
affidavits from friends and family who can support the claims.
Patty
By Eric Nalder and Susan Kelleher
Seattle Union Record
Copyright 2000, Seattle Union Record
DNA testing was ordered Tuesday for two Guatemalan girls who claim to be the
out-of-wedlock offspring of two men killed on Alaska Airlines Flight 261.
Each man shared an important similarity: Their wives and children were killed in the
crash, leaving no immediate heirs.
In what one attorney described as "an extraordinary coincidence," four other Guatemalan
children also claimed to be illegitimate offspring of two other crash victims, both of
them single men without known children.
If the children prove to be heirs, they stand to collect millions of dollars in damages
related to the crash, attorneys said Tuesday at a hearing in King County Superior Court.
"We think, of course, it is a complete fraud," said Jay Ryan, brother of one of the men,
Terrence Ryan, 55, who was the owner of a Redmond print shop. He died in the Jan. 31 crash
with his wife and two grown sons.
"My brother at the time (the child was born) was 49 years old. To my knowledge, he's never
been to Guatemala," said Ryan, an insurance broker who flew to Tuesday's hearing from his
home in Southern California.
"It is very difficult for us because we can't get on with grieving," said Jay Ryan's wife,
Madeline Ryan.
The only evidence presented to substantiate the claim was photocopies of two Guatemalan
birth certificates, according to Pamela McClaran, attorney for the estate of Dr. David
Clemetson, who died with his wife and four children in the crash.
King County Court Commissioner Kimberly Prochnau ordered an attorney representing two of
the children to obtain sworn, written testimony from someone with personal knowledge of
the children's paternity. If the testimony is provided, a court-appointed investigator is
authorized to travel to Guatemala within five weeks to obtain saliva samples for DNA
testing.
The tests would provide nearly certain confirmation of paternity by comparing sequences of
genetic code found in bodily fluids and tissue.
The only two women who could provide firsthand testimony about the children's origins both
allegedly died under dramatic circumstances, McClaran said. The attorney said she was told
one of the mothers was a guerrilla fighter who was shot on the Mexican border; the other
reportedly drowned in the Rio Grande River while a smuggler led her on an illegal crossing
into the United States to join the man she claimed was the father of her child.
"It's a bizarre case, obviously,'' said Harold Fardal, who is representing the children on
behalf of a Florida attorney who could not be reached for comment Tuesday. The attorney,
Robert L. Parks, of Coral Gables, has represented all six of the children, according to
court records.
Fardal said he could not speak to the merits of the case because of his limited
involvement. However, he responded to suggestions from the families that the case was
"very suspicious," saying, "I am willing to represent an indigent girl who has a claim
represented by a birth certificate.
I may be naive, but I'm not unethical. I'm just trying to find out what happened."
Two of the children were "completely indigent," Fardal said. He did not know the financial
status of the others.
In a phone message in August, Fardal reportedly told McClaran's office that Clemetson's
alleged child was bedridden with a pancreatic infection, according to a transcript of the
call filed with the court Tuesday.
"Any financial assistance at this time would be a blessing,'' Fardal is quoted as saying.
Adding to relatives' suspicions about the claim is a photograph showing three of the
children together. McClaran said the purported fathers did not know each other and had no
common ties.
"We haven't seen anything that would be credible evidence of the claim,'' McClaran said.
"We have had to put together tremendous amounts of evidence to debunk this."
McClaran said she received a letter in July claiming that Clemetson was the father of a
girl named Irma born in October 1990 in Agua Caliente.
Court papers show that Fardal obtained an affidavit from a woman who claimed she was
present at Irma's birth. The papers also said Fardal had an original oil painting
allegedly depicting Clemetson with Irma, who now lives with her grandmother.
In testimony yesterday, McClaran said she was told that Clemetson met Irma's mother in
1990 at a clinic he ran. At the time of the alleged meeting, Irma's mother was living
without resident documentation in the United States. She later returned to Guatemala,
where she delivered her daughter, and when Clemetson sent for her four years ago, she
tried to cross back into the U.S. with a smuggler and drowned, McClaran said she was told.
McClaran said Irma's attorneys told her that Clemetson had returned to Guatemala during
his fateful trip to Puerta Vallarta with the intent of retrieving Irma, and that he had
with him on the plane documents related to those efforts.
"If (Irma) prevails on her heirship claim, she stands to recover millions in the
wrongful-death action,'' McClaran wrote in court papers. "Her attorneys, who are
presumably employed on a contingent basis, stand to recover hundreds of thousands of
dollars in fees as well as all expenses advanced."
Attorney William H. Wimsatt, who represents three half-siblings of crash victim Juan
Marquez, said his clients were told their brother, who was gay, had left behind a wife and
children. The information came through Marquez's longtime partner, who had been contacted
by a lawyer, Wimsatt said. Court records allege that Marquez had three sons in Guatemala.
"To their knowledge, he had been 'married,' for want of a better word, in a homosexual
relationship to his significant other for an extensive period of time,'' Wimsatt said. "He
also was not at the location he would have to have been at to, one, get married, and two,
sire a child."
"All things are possible,'' he said, "but this is getting into the realm of the bizarre."
Wimsatt said his clients would delve into the paternity issue only after they filed suit
to claim damages connected to their half-brother's death.
"The families can't just disregard these claims," McClaran said. "If indeed it is David
(Clemetson's) child, it isn't a bad thing. It is a wonderful thing for the family and the
child. The sad thing is that it doesn't appear to be true."
Maggie
>Wednesday, November 22, 2000, 07:00 p.m. Pacific
>Girls who claim they are heirs to Alaska flight 261 victims will have DNA
>tested
>by Seattle Times staff
***I just love the way the title and by-line of this story ran together.
Maggie
"Pretty smart campaign for a dumb guy."--Newsweek on George W.