Is the stamp son of the acoustic prothesis?

We describe an unusual case of deficient paternity testing, requested by the heirs, the wife and two legitimate daughters, on a father and his putative son, deceased respectively in 2007 and 2011. The analysis was resolved on two personal items of the defuncted: a postcard stamp 17 years-old, presumably sent by the putative son, and an acoustic prothesis belonged to the alleged father. Twenty-two autosomal short tandem repeats (STRs) from the commercial kit Powerplex® Fusion kit (Promega, Madison, WI) were analyzed on the acoustic prothesis and the mother–daughters trio, giving a probability of paternity (W) of 99.999% and therefore confirming that the father owned the prothesis. Analysis of both autosomal and Y-chromosomal STRs by means of Powerplex® Fusion System and Powerplex® Y23 System (Promega, Madison, WI) was carried out on the two personal belongings.The obtained probability of paternity value W of 99.998% from autosomal STRs and the presence of an identical Y-chromosomal haplotype shared between the two males confirmed the genetic compatibility of the alleged father and his son.