It’s the “Parent Trap” – gone bad. 

Twins swapping identities is the premise of the Netflix hit thriller drama “Echoes,” but it’s a tad darker than the Hayley Mills classic. Michelle Monaghan plays identical twins that have swapped places each birthday since childhood. They trick their husbands and children. But, the twisted ritual goes wrong one year when they find themselves as prime suspects in a murder, puzzling a local cop who can’t figure out who did it.

While the show may be highly dramatized, in real life, twins committing crimes – together or separately –  isn’t uncommon. It can also be very difficult to figure out who committed the crime.

“Identical twins have identical DNA – that’s an impossible comparison at the genetic level. One is in fact the other, there’s no way to differentiate between the two because the entire genetic code is the same,” Jarrett Ambeau, a criminal defense trial attorney and expert in forensic DNA interpretation told The Post. “There’s a real serious issue at the genetic level with identifying identical twins and even siblings in terms of genetic material left at a crime scene.” 

“Echoes” on Netflix follows twins who swap identities, leaving a trail of mystery and crime.Netflix Michelle Monaghan as identical twin Leni McCleary in “Echoes” on Netflix. While the show may be highly dramatized, in real life, twins committing crimes – together or separately –  isn’t uncommon.Netflix Twin Crimes Oftentimes, twins commit crimes in cahoots. Mouhong Zhou and MouweiZhou, twins from northern China were detained and charged with swapping passports. Mouhong was married to a Japanese man, but, due to a denied visa, couldn’t leave China. She then switched identities with her sister using her passport. She left China more than 30 time before being caught. Meanwhile, her sister impersonated her as she fled to Thailand and other nations, according to South China Morning Post. For their shenanigans, the sisters could face jail time.

In 2010, Georgia-based twin sisters Jasmiyah and Tasmiyah Whitehead, then 16, tried to fool investigators into thinking they’d stumbled on the crime scene of their dead mother. In reality, they were the murderers.

Georgia-based twin sisters Jasmiyah and Tasmiyah Whitehead were charged with killing their mother in 2010.Rockdale County Sheriff’s Office Dooming identical DNA Sometimes it’s a case of only one twin being guilty. In 1992, Alabama siblings Betty Wilson and Peggy Lowe allegedly plotted with a handyman to kill Betty’s husband, Dr. Jack Wilson. The twin sisters were arrested and faced separate murder trials, but in September of 1993, Lowe was acquitted of murder after testifying she did not conspire to kill her sister’s husband. Wilson was convicted and sentenced for capital murder.

In 2004, two Boston men abducted and attacked two women. The attacks were pleaded guilty by one of the men in 2012, but the second man remains at large. Dwayne McNair was a suspect in the attacks. But, police discovered that he also had an identical twin. Testing available at the time couldn’t differentiate between the two, but police were eventually able to secure additional evidence that led to indictments against McNair in 2012. He was convicted in 2018 of eight counts each of aggravated sexual assault and two counts each of armed criminal robbery. He was sentenced for 16 years.

Both Yoan Gomis (Elvin Gomis) were held while French police tried and determined which one was guilty. Yoan Gomis eventually admitted that he was the guilty party. “A number of crimes are complicated by these genetic relation issues,” Ambeau said. JACKSON LEE DAVIS/NETFLIX This case was a landmark. Ahead of the trial, prosecutors discovered a new DNA testing, called second-generation genome mapping, that could distinguish between identical twins, according to the Suffolk County district attorney’s office. This allows scientists to track the genome of each twin and find mutations in cells to determine who is guilty and who is innocent.

Similar circumstances were reported in 2012 in southern France. Six women were reported to have been raped at the hands of one man. Two identical twins were identified by DNA evidence as the suspects in this rape, Yoan Gomis and Elvin Gomis. When victims were asked to identify their attacker, they couldn’t differentiate between the twins, and the DNA was no help either thanks to their identical genetic makeup. Yoan Gomis was finally released after being held in detention for ten months.

Yoan’s lawyer at the time, Vanessa Cerda, told the Daily Mail that there were no hard feelings between the brothers and that Elvin wasn’t upset that Yoan took so long to confess.

“[He] absolutely does not hold it against him,” she said. “It is all part of the mystery of the twins.”

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