Surprising Santa DNA Test Results Out of Rhode Island

A determined young Rhode Island resident tried to prove Santa was real by using DNA and the test results are in.

Scarlett, 10, collected her "evidence" on Christmas morning in her personal quest to prove Santa Claus was real. She grabbed partially eaten carrots and leftover Oreo cookies in plastic bags and then sent them to the Cumberland Police Department for help.

In a letter she wrote to police, Scarlett asked if they "could take a sample of DNA and see if Santa is real?"

Cumberland officers obliged.

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Police took Scarlett's evidence straight to the Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) to run an official DNA test on both the cookie and the carrots. The results were just what we all suspected.

According to a release from RIDOH,

[T]here were no complete matches to anyone in the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) that is used to help identify matches with other results across the country to help solve cold cases. Interestingly, there was a partial match to a 1947 case centered around 34th Street in New York City.

The health department added that the carrots had to be tested with modified methods and that it "found presence DNA matching closely with Rangifer tarandus, more commonly known as reindeer."

It's a little surprising that a man whose career is basically breaking and entering was not in CODIS, but it seems the Santa question remains open.

RIDOH officially responded to Scarlett's inquiry:

"While our laboratory was able to apply the most current and technologically advanced methods to solving this case, we are unable to definitively confirm or refute the presence of Santa at your home."

The lab did add that they would need "additional DNA samples from other known Santa encounters to make a more definitive match," so maybe the quest to prove if Santa is real will continue next Christmas.