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Logan Gifford was just 10 years old when his mother, Doreene, sexually abused him for the first time.
This horrific encounter spiralled into a seven-year campaign of sexual abuse, which only ended when Logan reported Doreene to the police at 17.
However, Logan’s nightmare didn’t stop there.
While speaking to his therapist about his ordeal, they asked him a stomach-churning question: Could Logan’s younger brother, who was born during the period of abuse, actually be his biological son?
Growing up, Logan had believed that his brother was the product of an alleged affair between Doreene and a co-worker.
Logan had always treated the boy — who was born in 2009 and can’t be named for legal reasons — as such.
At first, Logan, from Las Vegas, Nevada, said he took the therapist’s suggestion ‘with a grain of salt.’
He recalled approaching his own father about completing DNA tests, but was always shut down.
‘I always got told to f*** off,’ Logan said, adding: ‘So I stopped fighting and had to wait to do it the right way.’
It was only after his mother was imprisoned for her heinous crimes that Logan was able to set about learning the truth.
Sure enough, DNA tests have since found that Logan and his dad have a 99.9% match to the sibling — although they don’t yet know which of them fathered the child.
Logan’s traumatic abuse started in 2008 when the now-28-year-old was ‘asked to stay up late and led to [his] mother’s room’.
‘The door was locked behind me and I turned the corner and I saw a [adult] film playing on the television,’ he said.
‘She then began to expose herself and I was sexually assaulted by her for the first time that evening.’
Logan said that, ‘as the years went on,’ his ‘not well’ mother ‘became more ill and more sinister.
‘I remember she took me to abandoned houses and included narcotics and cigarettes in it.’
This is when Logan’s stark reality hit him: ‘I should have been in school doing homework.’
During this time, in which Doreene was allegedly using drugs, she fell pregnant with another child. It also marked the unravelling of Doreene’s abuse towards her eldest son.
Logan described the birth of his younger brother as ‘traumatic.’ He was delivered with ‘a severe lack of oxygen,’ which led to long-term developmental complications.
Logan said both his parents were not ‘functioning’ in this period, so he was tasked with looking after his younger brother.
However, Doreene’s abuse of Logan continued.
It wasn’t until 2013, when a tragic accident occurred, that Logan finally spoke out.
He recalled: ‘All of our family went to Walmart to get this $600 above ground pool.
‘I got in and then eventually the two youngest got in as well and we were playing.
‘But then I went inside and was sexually assaulted.’
Logan confessed that moment was ‘by far one of the worst experiences ever.’ He was so upset that he locked himself in the bathroom and cried himself to sleep.
However, the next morning, his father yelled from across the house to go outside and check the pool. Logan’s heart dropped when he turned the corner and found his younger brother floating ‘face down’ in the water.
Liam, who was three at the time, had drowned.
Child Protective Services immediately investigated the family and provided Logan with a therapist. He confessed everything, and in 2015, eventually felt strong enough to report his mother to the police.
Doreene was convicted of attempted sexual assault and lewdness with a child under 14 and sentenced to eight to 20 years in prison after taking an Alford plea deal in 2015. She ultimately served nine years.
This is a specific type of plea deal where a defendant formally pleads guilty to a criminal charge while simultaneously maintaining their innocence. Often, this is because they acknowledge a conviction at trial is likely.
With his mum behind bars at the time, Logan decided to pursue the DNA tests.
In January, 2025, Logan filed a paternity case asking for a judge to order an advanced DNA test to determine who the teenager’s father is.
That test was inconclusive, but Logan said he and his father, Theodore, could still both be the teenager’s biological father, after their DNA both matched 99.9% to the sibling.
In September 2025, a Clark County judge in Nevada awarded Logan temporary custody of the teenager after his father failed to respond to the case.
The judge also recommended the pair seek further genetic testing to determine the boy’s biological father.
Speaking to the Key Witness: Aftermath podcast, Logan said: ‘The therapist I had confided to at the time was the one who asked me outright to get a DNA test.
‘And my stomach just sank. It was the first time I sat down to talk to anybody about it.
‘They have to break it down to the genome and molecular level and those things cost thousands of dollars,’ Logan, who is now fundraising for an advanced genetic test, said.
‘The [relationship] we have is complex, but I love that kid to death like every day. I’d do anything for him.’
Logan added that his mother’s crimes have left a harrowing mark on his family — especially between the brothers.
Speaking about having his own family now — Logan has a seven-month-old daughter — he recalled the heartbreak of his brother asking: ‘Is this my niece or is this my sister?’
Logan said that really ‘hurt’ and that a ‘small piece of [him] dies every single time he asks a question like that.’
However, his abuse has also made Logan realise the true meaning of fatherhood.
He said he ‘never knew how much fraternity meant’ until he held his baby daughter in his arms.
‘As a girl dad, I can either be my daughter’s first love or first heartbreak and that’s important to me
‘So being sure I uphold to that standard, being kind to everyone, leaving things in a better place and finding it, you know, justice and being honourable and honest.
‘It’s not rocket science, but if you do the small things well, you’ll be okay – you’ll be a decent person.’
He added: ‘Family life now is exciting and watching my daughter and brother interact with has been the greatest blessing.
‘We are doing our very best to recover and continue to support our children with their unique comparative advantages.’