Two close friends and former co-workers at a Connecticut bar recently discovered that they're actually biological sisters.
Julia Tinetti, 31, and Cassandra Madison, 32, have known each other since 2013, working alongside one another at the Russian Lady Bar in New Haven, Good Morning America reports.
At some point, they both learned that the other person also had a tattoo of the flag of the Dominican Republic, and both were born and adopted from the country, creating a strong bond.
"After that moment, we were so tight," Tinetti told 'Good Morning America.' "We started hanging out. We would go out for drinks, for dinner. We started dressing alike."
"I thought she was cool," Madison added. "We just kind of hit it off right away, It was very natural."
Tinetti said co-workers would often point out how similar the two woken looked, but when they compared adoption papers, the documents didn't match up.
"Papers said we were from two different cities [with] different last names. And, our mothers' names on our paperwork were different," Tinetti said.
However, the timelines, birth dates -- Tinetti was born in 1989 and Madison in 1988 -- and resemblance was enough for the two to look their background, as they remained in contact even after Madison moved from Connecticut to Virginia Beach.
Madison said her adopted mother gave her a 23andMe DNA genetic testing kit for Christmas to find out more information about her background.
Eventually, Tinetti's childhood friend, Molly Sapadin, 31, helped solve the mystery.
Sapadin, who was also adopted from the Dominican Republic after her birth in 1990, told 'Good Morning America' that she compared her adoption papers with Madison's, believing they could possibly be half-sisters since their documents showed that they had the same last name and person listed as their mother.
Since Sapadin and Tinetti were adopted on the same day, the three women believed there was a possibility that Sapadin's and Tinetti's adoption papers were mixed up.
Sapadin also said her actual DNA test results showed he has a a twin, and that Madison is her third cousin, but not her sister as originally thought.
Madison told 'Good Morning America' that she matched with a first cousin through DNA and connected with her biological father, Adriano Luna Collado, who still lives in the Dominican Republic, while her mother, Yulianna Collado, died in 2015 after suffering a heart attack.
In 2018, Madison traveled to the Dominican Republic to meet her birth father and siblings.
Fast forward to last month and Madison said her father revealed he also gave up another child. Madison said she jumped in her car and made a last minute trip back to Connecticut to get her Tinetti to do a 23andMe test, with the results coming back on January 27.
"It's exciting. We've got one more sister," Madison said. "Especially since Julia [Tinetti] and I were already friends."
In total, Tinetti and Madison's parents had nine children together, which includes three boys and four other girls, but Tinetti and Madison were the only two adopted.
More information can be found on GoodMorningAmerica.com.