Women who worked at same restaurant find out they're biological sisters

March 2 (UPI) -- A pair of women who became close friends while working at the same restaurant discovered nine years later that they are biological sisters.

Cassandra Madison and Julia Tinetti said they met in 2013 when they were both working at the Russian Lady restaurant in New Haven. The women said they quickly became friends and bonded over both having Dominican Republic tattoos and being adopted.

Madison and Tinetti said they suspected they might be related, but information from Tinetti's adoption paperwork -- which they only later discovered was erroneous -- made a biological connection between the two seem impossible.

Madison said she reconnected with her biological family two years ago, and only recently learned from her father that the family had another daughter who was put up for adoption.

A DNA test in February proved Madison and Tinetti were sisters. The women said they now know they have seven other siblings who were raised by their birth parents.