Welcome to my guide for the finale of Roottreemania. This is intended as a companion piece to my guide for the rest of the story, found here. If you would like to see somebody else's overall more to-the-point take on the ending, check out this guide.

Here be massive spoilers! I highly recommend that you do not read this until you have completely filled out the Roottreemania tree!

This guide also assumes that you have already filled out the new optional entries unlocked in the finale (if you need help with those, check out my other guide). It instead covers the other part of the Roottreemania finale: going over each possible Roottree, and concluding whether or not they are blood relatives.

The game conveniently collects all the pertinent evidence in the form of a list of "smoking guns". However, if you've been following my Roottreemania guide closely (and maybe even if you haven't), you won't have found all of these yet - not all are necessary to just identify the person! So this guide will go over the searches necessary to locate the remaining smoking guns, and then examine the evidence for each possible Roottree in turn.

Some points to establish about this up front:

• Most importantly, these are intended to be gone through in order! In several cases we will take evidence or conclusions from one person's investigation, and use it again in another investigation that comes later. If you read this guide out of order, you won't necessarily get the full picture!
  
• Everything in the finale is optional. As long as you submit a guess as to blood relative status of each possible Roottree, you can trigger the ending, and it will be no different if you got them all right vs. if you got them all wrong, save for a couple of lines of dialog recognizing it if you were 100% correct.
  
• The ending will also give you an explanation for each possible Roottree.
  
• As a result, this guide will cover a lot of the same ground that the ending does. I do go into a lot more detail here and put my own spin on the reasoning, but know that if you just go watch the ending, the game will also tell you a good amount of this stuff.
  
• Also, if you read my Roottreemania guide, you'll notice that this covers some of the same evidence as that one. That's on purpose - even if we've seen it before, we want to review the evidence to make sure we have the full picture when drawing conclusions here!
  
• When guessing whether each possible Roottree is a blood relative or not, the game expects you in almost every case to answer either "yes" or "no" - if there's no evidence that disproves a person being a blood relative, you should guess yes. The ONLY exception and case where you should say "impossible to prove" is the single most obscure person of the bunch - the one for whom it would be hardest to verify anything.
  
• If you are missing smoking guns, there's not much in the way of specific chains of logic that lead to them; you just have to do a deep dive on the person you're investigating and everybody close to them. It can be very difficult to find every last piece of evidence connected to somebody; I myself had to use the rubber duck several times when making this guide, so don't feel bad if you can't find everything by yourself either!
  
• Finally, for full disclosure, I am not in full agreement with the game when it comes to this part - I personally think that most of these cases should fall under the banner of "impossible to prove" and that will come across a few times in the guide. There's also some cases where I think the game leaves significant evidence out of the list of smoking guns, and so add additional ones of my own. I still go over the full reasoning for each conclusion and have tried to look at it as objectively as possible; just know that I have some bias in this.

With all that established, let's dive in!

Frank Williams

We already have all smoking guns.

Ursprungligen skrivet av 6Pieces:

Elias and Gwyneth were known to loudly argue, sometimes about another woman. Sam also says her son Ernie once asked her "Who's Beth" because he overheard them yelling about someone with that name.

Ursprungligen skrivet av Diary - Cruelty:

They mimic Grandma Gwyneth's lisp and see her kindness as a weakness: "Eliath, Eliath, Pleath remember Tham."

Ursprungligen skrivet av Frank "Wildcat" Williams on SpiderSearch:

He grew up an orphan, because his family died in a hurricane when he was very young. He could barely remember his mother, and had no memory of his father.

Ursprungligen skrivet av Bess Williams on SpiderSearch:

Bess Williams was an author born in the late 1800s. She lived just outside of Miami, and died tragically young in a major hurricane that struck the area in 1926.

We already discussed this pretty well back in my main Roottreemania guide. The evidence certainly fits the theory of Frank being the child of Elias and Bess: Elias and Gwyneth argued over somebody who was likely her, his parents died early and so did Bess, and he never knew his father, which would make sense if he never lived near him. There's no evidence to specifically refute Frank being a Roottree, and personally I think it's quite likely. Ordinarily we would mark him as a blood relative.

However, this is the special case that I referred to in the introduction. In this case, since Elias and especially Bess lived so long ago, even Frank is already dead, and there's limited information available about his origins, even the game acknowledges that there is no way to verify this claim (other than potential DNA testing of his descendants, which is said in the conclusion to be off the table for the moment). Thus, we will never truly know.

Verdict: Frank Williams might be a Roottree, but it's impossible to prove.

Stuart Clementine

We already have all smoking guns (a whopping two!).

Ursprungligen skrivet av Mary-Beth Clementine on SpiderSearch:

She also spoke as an advocate for the benefits of adoption in front of the United States Congress in 1949... She was specifically there to detail her experience going through the system to adopt Stuart.

Ursprungligen skrivet av Mary-Beth Clementine in Butler County Times:

Mary-Beth Clementine came to Butler County a few times, and played religious hymns at the Miracle Congregation's church. She's mentioned two times, though the first visit from 1949 was significantly more substantial...
...[Miracle said] "She and her son are welcome to stay in our guest home."

Look closely into the information we have about his mother, and Stuart turns out to be perhaps the easiest case in the entire story. Mary-Beth didn't visit Miracle's church until 1949, the same year in which she spoke to Congress about adopting Stuart. In the Butler County Times article about this first visit, Miracle specifically references a son that Mary-Beth already had. Therefore, there is no possible way that Stuart could have been conceived in an affair at this time; he was already born before any Roottrees entered the picture.

Verdict: Stuart Clementine is NOT a Roottree.

Mark Clementine

There's more to look at with Mark than with his brother. We need to find three more smoking guns. I'll cut to the chase and jump to the relevant parts of stuff that we've already searched for:

Ursprungligen skrivet av Mark "Crocodile" Clementine on SpiderSearch:

There's a very small note about him being the "Basket Baby of 1950"

• SpiderSearch "Basket Baby of 1950"

Skip for now to the next lead...

Ursprungligen skrivet av Billy Simms in Picotee:

According to police paperwork, Crocodile Clementine's bail was paid for by Tostaritto Jacobson.

• SpiderSearch "Tostaritto Jacobson"

Ursprungligen skrivet av Tostaritto Jacobson on SpiderSearch:

According to a few different sources, Tostaritto Jacobson used to be named Lucinda.

To follow the trail here, we either need to get lucky, do a comprehensive search of periodicals, have an even more freakishly specific memory than me, or best of all, take a look at the original family tree to look for a familiar name.

If we do the latter, we find Tostaritto's last name again: Miracle Jr.'s wife's name is Edith Jacobson.

The next bit you may already remember doing if you were thorough in the original story.

• SpiderSearch "Edith Jacobson"

Ursprungligen skrivet av Edith on SpiderSearch:

You find a link that seems to be a partial and corrupted list of archived articles from the Butler County Times. The article is cut off but it mentions an Edith Jacobson and an arrest.

• Search "Edith Jacobson" in Butler County Times

That fills in our last smoking gun. Now let's take a look at all of them. A couple quotes are repeated below to put all smoking gun quotes in one place:

Ursprungligen skrivet av Tostaritto Jacobson on SpiderSearch:

According to a few different sources, Tostaritto Jacobson used to be named Lucinda.

Ursprungligen skrivet av Basket Baby of 1950 on SpiderSearch:

Apparently, she was a rather prominent supporter of the concept of adoption, and someone decided to test how much. They left a baby on her doorstep in a basket. According to the sites, she adopted him without question and raised him as her own son...
...From context, you know that it's Mary-Beth Clementine who would later be shunned due to her personal life and her son Mark, who would later be known as Crocodile Clementine.

Ursprungligen skrivet av Mary-Beth Clementine on SpiderSearch:

She adopted two children in the late 1940s, Stuart and Mark...
...Her other son was adopted later and according to a single line on one adoption site, under "unusual circumstances".

Ursprungligen skrivet av Billy Simms in Picotee:

According to police paperwork, Crocodile Clementine's bail was paid for by Tostaritto Jacobson.

Ursprungligen skrivet av Mary-Beth Clementine in Butler County Times:

Mary-Beth Clementine came to Butler County a few times, and played religious hymns at the Miracle Congregation's church. She's mentioned two times, though the first visit from 1949 was significantly more substantial...
...[Miracle said] "She and her son are welcome to stay in our guest home..."
...The second visit was a few years later, in 1953....
...It also mentions that the "unusual circumstances of her second son's adoption have prevented her from touring recently" but doesn't clarify.

Ursprungligen skrivet av Edith in Butler County Times:

In 1971, when she was 18, Edith and her sister Lucinda were arrested for trespassing at the Miracle Congregation's Church in Butler County.

And I'll add a bonus one:

Ursprungligen skrivet av Miracle Jr. on SpiderSearch:

According to a website called "ClergyWatch" he was exposed, and subsequently charged with conspiracy to defraud the public in 1979 when he claimed to heal someone in a wheelchair. A news expose revealed it was his wife Edith's sister in a disguise.

Put all of this together and we know and can deduce the following:

• Mary-Beth adopted Mark in 1950, and there is no record of where he came from before that.
  
• She stayed in Miracle's guest house the year before.
  
• She also stayed out of the public eye during the time around the adoption.
  
• Given the above, it is possible that she had an affair with Miracle, gave birth to Mark as a result, and cooked up the Basket Baby story to cover it up.
  
• Later in life, Mark knew Tostaritto Jacobson, who was very likely the same Lucinda Jacobson that is Miracle Jr.'s sister-in-law. Further building this case, Lucinda had already pulled off a couple of wild stunts earlier in her life (trespassing on church property and later helping Miracle Jr. with a faux healing), so legally changing her name for the Tostaritto promo would be in character.
  
• Given this, it is likely that Mark maintained ties to Miracle's family. This would be all the more likely if he was actually related to them by blood.

Personally, I don't think this is enough to draw a definitive conclusion; there's no proof that Mark wasn't actually left on Mary-Beth's doorstep, a tie to Miracle's family does not prove that he is a blood relation, and even the association with Tostaritto doesn't definitively prove that he's connected to the rest of the family (she is only a sister-in-law to them, after all). However, as far as the game is concerned this case is closed, perhaps because DNA testing can confirm it. The evidence does fit the theory of Mark being Miracle's son, and there is nothing to contradict it. Therefore:

Conclusion: Mark Clementine is a Roottree BLOOD RELATIVE.

David Fellowes/5Peez

For someone who was supposedly verified before we even started to work, there's a lot of stuff to look into for this guy! Even after finding the truth about Anonymom, we're missing nine smoking guns for 5Peez. Let's start by checking into his DNA test: shouldn't this have been an easy verification?

Ursprungligen skrivet av Rubie Legal Enterprises in Business Watch:

It seems that Rubie actually approached the Roottrees sometime in Late March, after the Roottree Rift (but well before Roottreemania.)

Ah-ha. She was involved well before 5Peez. That means that his DNA verification can't be trusted, and also serves as a hint that we should look into Rubie for this one as well. Let's get to work!

• SpiderSearch "Rubie Spratt"

Ursprungligen skrivet av Rubie Spratt on SpiderSearch:

Rubie grew up in foster care, but excelled at school and earned a scholarship to study at MidEastern University...
...There are a few high profile corporate-involved cases she was a part of... Another was to help a local gas station chain (in her hometown of Portland)

Mideastern and Portland? This wouldn't have meant much at the start of the story, but by now we have periodicals for both.

• Search "Rubie Spratt" in The Hederald
  
• Search "Rubie Spratt" in The Portland Telegraph

Ursprungligen skrivet av Rubie Spratt in The Portland Telegraph:

Rubie chose to raise money to build a fountain she called Foster Fountain.

• SpiderSearch "Foster Fountain"

Ursprungligen skrivet av The Fountain of Youths on SpiderSearch:

The Fountain of Youths, also known as "Foster Fountain" is a fountain found in a small park in Portland.

• Search "The Fountain of Youths" in The Portland Telegraph

This fills out our knowledge about Rubie. Now let's look more into 5Peez himself. Rabbit holes incoming.

Ursprungligen skrivet av Felix Fellowes on SpiderSearch:

An article you find... gives his most recent album "Root of all Evil" 1 star

• SpiderSearch "Root of All Evil"

Ursprungligen skrivet av Root of All Evil on SpiderSearch:

"All Your Problems" was the first and only single released.

• SpiderSearch "All Your Problems"

There's one. Now for another.

Ursprungligen skrivet av Felix Fellowes on SpiderSearch:

The review mentions his real name is David and he used to go by "Dirtay Davey"

• SpiderSearch "Dirtay Davey"

Ursprungligen skrivet av Dirtay Davey on SpiderSearch:

There are some people selling his old mixtapes on auction sites. One is apparently called "Dirtay Devil"

• SpiderSearch "Dirtay Devil"

Ursprungligen skrivet av Dirtay Devil on SpiderSearch:

(One of the songs, "Yes I Can Jump" seems to be at the center of the confusion.)

• SpiderSearch "Yes I Can Jump"

And now another one. For this one we have to get creative and look him up in a new source.

• Search "5Peez" in Teen Blast!

Ursprungligen skrivet av 5Peez in Teen Blast!:

he claimed on a song called "17 Magazine" that he turned 17 in 1992.

• SpiderSearch "17 Magazine"

That covers 5Peez himself. Now let's look further into the DNA test. We more recently found a page that could lead to more about it:

Ursprungligen skrivet av Courtney-May Watts on SpiderSearch:

"Mom was advised by Ryan and Cork to tell NEWSTime that seeing 5Peez on the cover was what inspired her to go public!"

• SpiderSearch "Ryan and Cork"

A piece of evidence is added.

Ursprungligen skrivet av DNA Test:

The test is from a company called DNATECO

• SpiderSearch "DNATECO"

Our last smoking gun is more or less impossible to find if we're just searching for things related somehow to 5Peez. Instead, it comes as a result of doing a deeper dive on other topics related to the Roottreemania story. Frankly it's a bit out of order for the purposes of this guide, but to keep things from getting hopelessly messy, I'll just cheat and give you the relevant search directly:

• Search "The Roottree Rift" in Business Watch

Whew! Now that we've collected all of those, let's take a look at them. Buckle up!

Actually, the 15 sources that we already have listed for 5Peez aren't enough for me; I'm inserting a couple more into this list to make some points clear.

Ursprungligen skrivet av NEWSTime - 5Peez Issue:

5Peez says that his mother Joanna was Zac Morden's secretary when he retired, and then Guy Hudson's secretary for only one or two weeks after that before she quit. (The first few weeks that he was president...)
...He was born Felix Fellowes to Riley and Joanna Fellowes...
...It also confirms she died of a drug overdose and that Felix went into foster care soon after.

Ursprungligen skrivet av Company Records - 1976-1977:

1977: Joanna Fellowes and Beth Knox are no longer employed by Roottree.

Ursprungligen skrivet av Company Records - 1978-1979:

1978: Guy Hudson replaces Zacariah Morden.

Ursprungligen skrivet av All Your Problems:

"You say money is the root root of all your problems
Let me take those problems away"

Ursprungligen skrivet av Felix Fellowes on SpiderSearch:

The review mentions his real name is David and he used to go by "Dirtay Davey"

Ursprungligen skrivet av 17 Magazines on SpiderSearch:

The intro states it was written on Davey's 17th birthday

Ursprungligen skrivet av 5Peez in Teen Blast!:

he claimed on a song called "17 Magazine" that he turned 17 in 1992.

Ursprungligen skrivet av The Fountain of Youths on SpiderSearch:

The Fountain of Youths was originally conceived by Rubie Spratt, an alumni of the foster care system.

Ursprungligen skrivet av The Roottree Rift on SpiderSearch:

a third, much shorter press release came the next day... It also stated that any compensation planned would be based on a "stringent verification" process.

Ursprungligen skrivet av Yes I Can Jump on SpiderSearch:

This reference has caused some confusion amongst the fanbase. Because of it, it is agreed upon that the mixtape had to come out in 1992 at the earliest, but others point out that Fellowes references seeing the movie on his 17th birthday. This would have been in 1994...
...Others claim that he was likely just trying to make himself sound older

Ursprungligen skrivet av Anonymom on SpiderSearch:

As more details came out, people became skeptical of her story due to the extreme similarity to 5Peez'.

Ursprungligen skrivet av Courtney-May Watts on SpiderSearch:

"My mom approached the Roottrees BEFORE 5Peez was ever on the cover of NEWSTime!"...
...The site has a scanned letter from the Rubie Legal Group to Courtney-May’s mother, Beatrice. In very polite legal terms, it seems to accuse her of exploiting their name and orders her to leave the Roottrees alone. It’s dated from a few weeks before the 5Peez article appeared in NewsTIME, and it seems legitimate.

Ursprungligen skrivet av DNATECO on SpiderSearch:

Whenever they take a sample in person they put the name of the person on the test according to their legal ID, which is why it says "David" instead of "Felix..."
...they tested Felix's hair vs. a hair sample sent from the Roottrees. It's listed as "Jane Doe" because it wasn't collected in person, but the Roottree Company let them know it was from Bonnie Kellogg (Guy Hudson's sister.)

Ursprungligen skrivet av The Fountain of Youths in The Portland Telegraph:

The article calls out that all of the performers and speakers (with the exception of the mayor) were foster care alumni and most of them grew up together as close friends. This includes poets, musicians, and dancers. Dirtay Davey was listed as one of the musicians.

Ursprungligen skrivet av Rubie Spratt in The Hederald:

Her Valedictorian speech was somewhat controversial at the time, as it was quite serious, with a heavy focus on wealth inequality.

Ursprungligen skrivet av Rubie Spratt in The Portland Telegraph:

Rubie Spratt grew up in the foster care system...
...Rubie chose to raise money to build a fountain she called Foster Fountain.

Ursprungligen skrivet av Rubie Legal Enterprises in Business Watch:

It seems that Rubie actually approached the Roottrees sometime in Late March, after the Roottree Rift (but well before Roottreemania...)
...they officially hired her in early April.

...and I actually have no idea what from the Business Watch article on The Roottree Rift is supposed to be relevant to this case.

That is a lot of information, but let's try to organize it and draw a conclusion:

• We know for sure that 5Peez lied about at least two details in his NEWSTime article. He said that his mother was a secretary during the first weeks of Guy's tenure as president, but she had already left the company the previous year. He also said that he was born Felix Fellowes, when his actual birth name was David. On its own this doesn't prove that he was lying about everything, but it is worth noting.
  
• 5Peez and Rubie Spratt both were in foster care in Portland, and the articles about the fountain there indicate that they knew each other - 5Peez performed at the ceremony for it under his old moniker, and almost everybody at the ceremony was close friends. This indicates that they had an existing relationship prior to his claim to be a Roottree.
  
• Both 5Peez and Rubie have spoken/sung about themes of redistributing wealth/taking it from the rich in the past, which could motivate them to target the Roottrees and the Clanced Trust.
  
• Rubie began working for the Roottrees before 5Peez came out with his story and kicked off Roottreemania. This means that she was in position to tamper with the DNA test that 'proved' his lineage. Furthermore, the sample from the Roottrees was sent in, not collected in person, making it even easier to send a false sample.
  
• As long as Courtney-May didn't forge the letter from Rubie's law firm and her story is legitimate, then Anonymom told her story to them before 5Peez released his story. Rubie might have stolen from this to make a fake story for 5Peez, giving him an "in" to the Clanced Trust.
  
• 5Peez's exact age is unclear and different sources suggest different answers. In at least one old song, though, he claimed to be 17 in 1992, which would have made him born in 1975 - several years before Guy became president of Roottree, which would virtually eliminate any chance of his involvement.

From this, we can draw up a sound theory as to what really happened. 5Peez was born under circumstances completely unrelated to Guy Hudson, and his mother left the company before Guy ever became president. He had no true connection to the Roottrees. However, after his foster care friend Rubie became the Roottrees' lawyer and looked over a story of another secret blood relative, she cooked up a scheme to get him into the Clanced Trust and take a portion of the Roottrees' wealth (possibly to distribute it to others, but the precise motive remains unclear). She got rid of the woman who would later be known as Anonymom, adapted her story to 5Peez, had him publicize it, and forged a DNA test that supposedly confirmed his lineage.

We don't currently have hard confirmation on any of this, but there is no evidence that refutes it. 5Peez was definitely lying about at least some of his story, and it is strongly indicated that he was also lying about the most important part. Therefore:

Verdict: David Fellowes is NOT a Roottree.

James and Robert Garland

Conveniently, we can look at these two guys at the same time, as all their evidence is the same. We're missing one smoking gun, and there's one person associated with the trail of clues we followed earlier whom I didn't fully investigate at the time:

Ursprungligen skrivet av Steve Garland in Butler County Times:

It seems that a local author by the name of Mark Zimmer was sued by Garland after Garland saw Zimmer promoting his book "Kitchen Tales" on television.

We looked Zimmer up in the Times and we looked up his cookbook, but we never finished looking him up everywhere.

• SpiderSearch "Mark Zimmer"

The last smoking gun is added to our evidence. Now let's look at them all:

Ursprungligen skrivet av 6Pieces:

Elizabeth had a daughter, who Sam never met, but who worked as one of Guy's secretaries. According to Elizabeth, a caterer from a local restaurant called "Antonellis" met her daughter at one of Guy's parties, and they eloped quickly, due to a pregnancy...
...Rumor has it that her daughter showed up with Guy, and didn't seem comfortable switching partners.

Ursprungligen skrivet av Chef's Signature:

Robert (who is three years younger than James)

Ursprungligen skrivet av The Plaited Loaf:

For years two bakers Floura and Yates flirted... But he was one day whisked away...
...It was 10-12 years later that they met again...
...Upon seeing Yates, Floura was both delighted and distraught... She had not been made aware of the gift and had already prepared buns for the palace ovens...
...Yates eased her pain... But he shared her fear of retribution: He knew if they did not solve her predicament, they'd miss their final chance to bake together... They twisted and entwined their doughs, and baked them as one.

Ursprungligen skrivet av Company Records - 1976-1977:

1977: Christine Pharoah is no longer listed amongst the secretaries but a Christine Garland has been hired.

Ursprungligen skrivet av Steve Garland in Butler County Times:

The second is from months later, in September of 1978: A listing for his weekend cooking classes, "Gourmet For The Groovy." The blurb mentions that he's been giving lessons from his home kitchen for the last month, so that he can keep an eye on his son...
...Mark Zimmer was sued by Garland after Garland saw Zimmer promoting his book "Kitchen Tales" on television. His recipe book was partially plagiarized from the recipes that Steve Garland would give his students

I'll add a couple more of my own here.

Ursprungligen skrivet av Antonellis in Butler County Times:

there's a puff piece from Valentine's Day 1978 that asked recently married residents of Butler County how they met.
Christine Garland responded. She and her husband Steve, who was a chef at Antonellis, met years ago when she delivered produce from her mother's farm... Although they grew apart when the restaurant switched suppliers, they reconnected by chance and eloped at the end of last year. Now, she has a bun in the oven

Ursprungligen skrivet av Company Records - 1978-1979:

1978: Christine Garland is no longer working for Rootree.

Taken all together, this paints a pretty clear picture of what happened with James and Robert's parents. They knew each other for a while, but when Antonellis switched suppliers, they stopped seeing each other and figured they wouldn't again. During this time, Christine started working for Roottree and having an affair with Guy before suddenly meeting Steve again when Antonellis catered a party.

While it's couched in storybook language and fake names, the resemblance between the stories makes it pretty clear that the Plaited Loaf story is an autobiographical one by Steve - and Mark later "borrowed" it from Steve when he published his book. Look at the story closely, and it's strongly implied that Christine was already pregnant when they reconnected (especially with the shared term "bun in the oven". Steve didn't let this get in the way of their romance, but they did have to elope before other people finding out about the pregnancy could get in their way. With this being the case, and Christine having come to the party with Guy, it's pretty easy to figure out who impregnated her. The Butler County Times article about Steve fits in with this story, as the two got married in 1977 and already had James by the next year. The timeline fits.

As for Robert, we know that he is three years younger than James. We can also infer that James is the first son who was "in the oven" when his parents got together, since he was born under the Garland surname and the 1978 article only mentions Steve having one son. Therefore, Robert would have been born in 1980 or 1981. The likelihood of Christine and Guy getting back together after she ran off with Steve is low enough that we can dismiss it as an option, especially when she stopped working for Roottree two to three years before Robert's birth. While technically it isn't impossible that she snuck off during that time, there is absolutely no evidence to support the idea, so we can safely assume that she and Steve indeed had the storybook ending, and Robert is in fact the true son of both.

Verdict: James Garland is a Roottree BLOOD RELATIVE. Robert Garland is NOT a Roottree.

Courtney-May Watts

The hardest part was finding her. Even after locating her, we were missing one smoking gun, but we found it (Ryan & Cork) while looking into 5Peez, so by the time we get to Courtney-May, all are accounted for.

Ursprungligen skrivet av Unobscured NEWSTime Cover:

This is the original, unobscured cover photo from the NEWSTime feature on Jane Doe Roottree and her anonymous mother.
You found it on Courtney-May Watts' website.

Ursprungligen skrivet av DNA Test:

Ryan and Cork, who were representing Anonymom, have confirmed that the sample they sent to the Roottrees was definitely Courtney-May's hair.

Ursprungligen skrivet av Courtney-May Watts on SpiderSearch:

"My mom approached the Roottrees BEFORE 5Peez was ever on the cover of NEWSTime!..."
...The site has a scanned letter from the Rubie Legal Group to Courtney-May’s mother, Beatrice. In very polite legal terms, it seems to accuse her of exploiting their name and orders her to leave the Roottrees alone. It’s dated from a few weeks before the 5Peez article appeared in NewsTIME, and it seems legitimate...
"...Mom is 100% confident that there's nobody else who could be the father!"

Ursprungligen skrivet av Anonymom on SpiderSearch:

...As more details came out, people became skeptical of her story due to the extreme similarity to 5Peez'...
...Within a week, a DNA test proved that Anonymom's daughter could not be related to the Roottrees. This was announced at a joint press conference with lawyers representing both Anonymom and the Roottrees. Each party ensured their respective clients provided accurate samples.

Ursprungligen skrivet av Anonymom in NEWSTime:

An anonymous woman appeared on the cover of NEWSTime holding a picture of her daughter “Jane Doe Roottree”.

From the fact that Courtney-May possesses an unobscured version of the NEWSTime cover, it's safe to assume that she is in fact Anonymom's daughter. The DNA test further confirms this as it's a third-party source that verifies that Courtney-May was involved in the DNA testing. We thus turn to her testimony. She says that her mom approached the Roottress before 5Peez, and produces credible evidence supporting this. Earlier, we concluded that 5Peez's story was at least partially false and that he was in cahoots with Rubie Spratt, the Roottrees' lawyer, who stole Anonymom's story and adapted it for 5Peez; only after that did Anonymom have the ammunition needed to come out with her story as well.

Based on the 5Peez investigation, this is a pretty believable story. If we can take Courtney-May and her mom's word for this much, then we can probably also take their word that there's no other possible father, which would mean she has to be the daughter of Guy. The only evidence that exists to refute this is the DNA test, and given Rubie's untrustworthiness, that doesn't count for anything. We thus have a story that fits the facts with no evidence to refute it, so the conclusion is made.

Verdict: Courtney-May Watts is a Roottree BLOOD RELATIVE.

Lang Min/Lucy Lang

We already have all smoking guns.

Ursprungligen skrivet av Company Records - 1980-1981:

1980: 5Pieces Flavor Development (STRAWBERRY)
$10,000 / mo
1980: 5Pieces Flavor Development (XIGUA)
$10,000 / mo
1980: 5Pieces Flavor Development (BUTTERSCOTCH)
$10,000 / mo
1980: 5Pieces Flavor Development (CAVIAR)
$10,000 / mo
[all of the above entries repeated in 1981]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Hangin' with the Hans on SpiderSearch:

"I was absolutely terrified to move to the United States but my big sister was desperately in love with the idea. She used to have this 'Butch Cassidy' poster on her wall and was obsessed with Robert Redford.
But somehow, Jerry and I were the ones sent here, and now we couldn't possibly imagine going back. When we had Mike we never even considered giving him a traditional name. Meanwhile my sister stayed in China and has thrived there. She doesn't even like visiting the US anymore.
Our kids are complete opposite though!"

Ursprungligen skrivet av Qigenes in Business Watch:

Qigenes will sometimes claim that they performed IVF when they did not. This would often be used as an excuse for an otherwise unexplainable pregnancy.

Ursprungligen skrivet av LangTai in Business Watch:

Apparently, at the time, the CEO of LangTai was Lang Hongbo, and his younger daughter Lang Xinyao and her husband could not have children, so in an attempt to create a suitable heir he paid Qigenes to have their child implanted in his older daughter, who was unmarried.

Hold on here. What's with these 5Pieces flavors? We've never heard of any of these wacky ones except for Caviar, and if we look back at the history of the Caviar flavor:

Ursprungligen skrivet av Guy Hudson on SpiderSearch (archive):

Fancy Flavors was an addition to the 5Piece Product line for less than a year in 1979.

It (to say nothing of other flavors) should not have still been being developed for the next two years! We can thus assume that these payments are covering up something else. Also remember how 5Pieces flavors were originally named: based on the initials of Elias's children. If we look at the initials of these flavors, we have several matches: Caviar-Christine Garland, Butterscotch-Beatrice Watts, and now Xigua-Xinyu Lang. And "Xigua" is an unusual choice that would be highly unlikely to show up as a flavor for any other reason.

The conclusion we draw from this, then, is that the 5Pieces flavor development payments were really hush money to cover up pregnancies that Guy's affairs were responsible for. (We don't have hard evidence to confirm this, but the game wants us to roll with this assumption.) This further bolsters the cases we earlier established for James Garland and Courtney-May Watts, even though the records didn't show up as smoking guns in their cases. It also further disproves the 5Peez claim, since there is no "J" flavor for his mother Joanna.

Going back to the task at hand, then, the above evidence tells us the following about Min:

• Her mother, Xinyu, was formerly obsessed with America and redheads.
  
• She later presumably received hush money payments from Guy.
  
• Xinyu traveled to the US for an IVF procedure, but the company used was later found to sometimes fabricate these procedures in order to cover up unexplained pregnancies.
  
• Her sister, whom she was doing the IVF procedure for, has a child who seemingly was born normally.
  
• There is no other explanation for Min's birth or parentage.

From this, we can infer that Xinyu and Guy had an affair, she got pregnant with Min, and to preserve family honor the "IVF" trip was arranged, even though her sister didn't actually need help to have a child. There is no evidence to disprove this theory, therefore:

Verdict: Lang Min is a Roottree BLOOD RELATIVE.

Flavio Soares

Not many smoking guns for him, but we're still missing one. We can still do a deeper dive on his mother.

Ursprungligen skrivet av Transmissãopaulo on SpiderSearch:

Transmissãopaulo is a massive media group owned and run by a mysterious woman named Sonia Alves. It seems Sonia Alves is a common name in Brazil so she has shortened her name to Nia to stand out in the public's eye.

Searching Sonia Alves anywhere yields nothing useful. Fortunately we're given an alternate search term here.

• Search "Nia Alves" in Business Watch

That fills in our last smoking gun, so let's look at them all:

Ursprungligen skrivet av Company Records - 1980-1981:

1980: 5Pieces Flavor Development (STRAWBERRY)
$10,000 / mo

Ursprungligen skrivet av Transmissãopaulo on SpiderSearch:

"Nia received a significant inheritance in 1980, and invested it in "many different manufacturing businesses" in her hometown in Brazil.

Ursprungligen skrivet av Nia Alves in Business Watch:

The journalist claimed that this was to shut down a story he was doing about her personal life including that her marriage in 1973 was not of her own choice... It also claims that past appearances with her husband have been for show, they do not live together...
...The final claim was that she must have made her money under the table through nefarious (and possibly illegal) means during Brazil's dictatorship, as his research uncovered that she could not possibly have earned enough to start a media company otherwise.

I'll also add:

Ursprungligen skrivet av Flavio Soares on SpiderSearch:

his age (18)

Ursprungligen skrivet av Picotee - Page 1:

In Christmas 1979 he [Guy] went to Brazil to open the 'Roottree Brazil' factory.

In the main Roottreemania guide, we established that Sonia Alves and Sonia Soares are the same person. We more recently established that the "flavor development" payments are actually a cover for hush money to Guy's various mistresses. We haven't found anybody else who would be a match for "Strawberry" (Susan Ford would be, but as we'll get to in a bit, there's another flavor that matches her better), so it is likely that this was the payment for Sonia. This is further supported by the large amount of money she got early in the decade, which local sources say couldn't have been gained legitimately.

Furthermore, she did not like or live with her husband, rendering it very unlikely that she would have conceived Flavio with him. This makes it very likely that Flavio is actually Guy's son.

If we check on Flavio's age, and the current date on our computer (August 1999), we find that he must have been born between September 1980 and August 1981. If Guy is the father, then the affair would have happened during his visit to Brazil in Christmas 1979, which would make the birth month... September 1980. It checks out.

With no evidence that he's not the son of Guy, we can consider the matter concluded.

Verdict: Flavio Soares is a Roottree BLOOD RELATIVE.

Heather and Melissa Ford

The twins, of course, can be verified as a pair. We already have all smoking guns, too!

Ursprungligen skrivet av Picotee - Page 2:

He sent his mistress, Suzy something, into the bathroom to proposition me.

Ursprungligen skrivet av Company Records - 1982-1984:

1982: 5Pieces Flavor Development (SUGARPLUM)
$20,000 / mo
CANCELLED AFTER 5 Months ($100,000)

Ursprungligen skrivet av Grandorf Dove in Butler County Times:

According to the reporter's investigation into the police reports, trials, and restraining orders, Mr. Hughes was convinced that he was not the father of Mrs. Hughes' current pregnancy.

In the main Roottreemania guide, we concluded that "Suzy" is the same as Susan Ford/Hughes, the teacher and later principal at Grandorf and the twins' mother. The evidence here confirms that she was having an affair with Guy, and we earlier concluded that the flavor development budget was really hush money payments. "Sugarplum" matches with "Susan", and the payment for this is double that of all the others, suggesting that it's for two babies instead of one. Mr. Hughes also had reason to believe that he was not the father, and we find no evidence here to refute his belief. Everything fits into place, so...

Verdict: Heather Ford and Melissa Ford are both Roottree BLOOD RELATIVES.

All right, we're all finished up... wait, what do you mean we have two possible Roottrees still to identify? We got everybody from this tree?

Okay, take a big step back. Look at the entire tree... including the original. It turns out that somebody else is now also considered to be in question.

Ron and Robbie Roottree

Gwynn's sons aren't considered to be guaranteed blood relatives? Odd. What's up with them? Unless you were specifically following up on people from the original story, there's been no reason to research anything related to them. As a result, there's still a whopping eleven smoking guns to uncover. (Ten if you've been following this guide and cheated for one of them.) Time to get busy!

• SpiderSearch "Ron Roottree"
  
• SpiderSearch "Robbie Roottree"
  
• SpiderSearch "RR Productions"

Ursprungligen skrivet av Ron Roottree on SpiderSearch:

Some veer into heavy speculation based on an article about Ron in Business Watch...
...Three weeks ago, Ron's mother, Gwynn died in Paris, France. He and his brother Robbie have seemingly made amends.

• SpiderSearch "Gwynn Roottree"
  
• Search "Ron Roottree" in Business Watch

Ursprungligen skrivet av Gwynn Roottree on SpiderSearch:

Her biggest role was in the minor hit movie "Guys Like Us."

Guys Like Us was also mentioned in the RR Productions result. Let's have a look.

• SpiderSearch "Guys Like Us"

Ursprungligen skrivet av Guys Like Us on SpiderSearch:

Starring Gwynn Roottree, Lesley Florence, and Harrison Lane...
...Even so, it did sell modestly well and there have been talks of a remake.

-SpiderSearch "Lesley Florence"
-SpiderSearch "Guys Like Us Remake"

Ursprungligen skrivet av Lesley Florence on SpiderSearch:

it came out that she died of a genetic disease known as Huntington's in the late 1960s.

• SpiderSearch "Huntington's"

Our chain runs out here. Let's look elsewhere now - other notable family members connected to Ron.

• SpiderSearch "Wild Bill Williams"
  
• SpiderSearch "Penelope Tessa-Greene"
  
• Search "TMS" in Teen Blast!

Finally, let's review what we read before about Ron and Robbie's supposed parents.

• Search "Gwynn Roottree" in Starlet
  
• Search "Wild Bill Williams" in Starlet

All right, now let's pore over all this new evidence, shall we?

Looking over all of the smoking guns listed for Ron and Robbie Roottree:

Ursprungligen skrivet av Revisiting the Diary - Clark:

Gwynn divorced Wild Bill just before she had her second

Ursprungligen skrivet av Wild Bill Williams on SpiderSearch:

he's in his 70s, still lives in Paris, and is still in perfectly fine health.

Ursprungligen skrivet av Gwynn Roottree on SpiderSearch:

Not much is known about her death except that it was announced that she died "peacefully, in her sleep while being treated for a sudden, severe case of pneumonia." Before that, she had apparently been in "relatively good health" according to her friends and family in Paris. She was 67.

Ursprungligen skrivet av Robbie Roottree on SpiderSearch:

"My brother and I, after spending time together caring for her and mourning, have finally made amends. It was a highly transformative few weeks when it came to our relationship."

Ursprungligen skrivet av RR Productions on SpiderSearch:

RR Productions seems to have no projects listed in development other than "Guys Like Us Remake."

Ursprungligen skrivet av Guys Like Us on SpiderSearch:

Even so, it did sell modestly well and there have been talks of a remake.

Ursprungligen skrivet av Penelope Tessa-Greene on SpiderSearch:

"Up until recently I didn't know anything about Huntington's. In the last few months I've gone from knowing nothing about it to learning more than any one person should ever have to."

Ursprungligen skrivet av The "Guys Like Us" Remake on SpiderSearch:

According to leaked news, the remake has been put on indefinite hiatus due to its director (who is speculated to be Ron Roottree) dropping out in the wake of a serious medical issue

Ursprungligen skrivet av Huntington's disease on SpiderSearch:

After symptom onset (somewhere between age 30 and 50), those affected by Huntington's typically live another 15 to 18 years as their symptoms worsen...
...Huntington's is passed genetically from parent to child...
...Huntington's cannot be passed on recessively, meaning it cannot skip a generation. In other words, if someone has a mother or father with Huntington's, but they themselves did not receive it from that parent, their children (and their grandchildren, and so on) will also never have it.

Ursprungligen skrivet av Lesley Florence on SpiderSearch:

Lesley Florence was the other actress (besides Gwynn Roottree) in Guys Like Us...
...she died of a genetic disease known as Huntington's in the late 1960s.

Ursprungligen skrivet av Wild Bill Williams in Starlet:

Ironically, the third is a rumor that his divorce from Gwynn was due to multiple affairs, including one with another actress. An American reader on vacation in Paris claims to have overheard Wild Bill and Gwynn arguing in public, while she was holding a baby and visibly pregnant. Not long after, Gwynn announced she was divorcing Wild Bill and also that she was pregnant again

Ursprungligen skrivet av Gwynn Roottree in Starlet:

Most mentions were around the time of her divorce in 1958 from "Wild Bill Williams..."
...There is also an interview from earlier, in mid 1957...
..."Wild Bill and I have a child on the way"

And I'll add one more:

Ursprungligen skrivet av TMS in Teen Blast!:

"Last year I lost my wife, and only a few months ago I found out someone close to me has a pretty serious disease. He asked me not to talk about it but over the next five or ten years it will likely get worse."

OK, the key point in all of this is the Huntington's disease. The news about the Guys Like Us remake and the interviews with TMS (who worked with Ron on Brother Trouble back in the day) and Penelope (Ron's wife) strongly suggest that Ron Roottree has Huntington's. From the articles about Huntington's, we conclude that if somebody has Huntington's, one of their parents must have had it as well. (I don't know how that actually works or where the original case of Huntington's comes from in that case, but nevertheless this the point we need to take from this.) Huntington's affects someone's health in the age range of 30-50, and usually kills that person within 20 years with their health visibly worsening as it goes. But Ron's supposed father Wild Bill is still alive and fine in his 70s, and his mother Gwynn lived into her late 60s in good health as well. Therefore, at least one is not his real parent. And while Gwynn and Wild Bill always acted as though he was their child, there is no documentation proving that he was actually born to them.

The only other person we can find with any likely case of Huntington's is Lesley Florence, who was Gwynn's co-star. The most likely explanation is thus that Ron is her son, but she found out that she had Huntington's when she was pregnant with him (her death comes about 10-12 years later, which fits the timeline if not perfectly). It's also possible that Wild Bill is the real father, and that his affair with Lesley led to his divorce from Gwynn, though none of this can be proven. In any case, in this theory Leslie would have had Gwynn take Ron and raise him as her own child - and nobody was the wiser until you looked into his case of Huntington's.

This theory cannot be proven with the evidence we have, but there is nothing to disprove it either. (And it is confirmed in the conclusion, where Sam Madsen tells you she got the story from Ron himself, who learned it from Gwynn on her deathbed.) In any case, the lack of Huntington's in either of Ron's supposed parents is considered to be sufficient evidence to prove that he is not truly Gwynn's son. Apparently there is no possibility of her having had an affair with somebody who had Huntington's.

As for Robbie, his case is much clearer. Multiple sources confirm that Gwynn WAS pregnant with him after Ron was already born. Most likely he was Wild Bill's son as well and conceived before but born after their divorce, but that's not truly relevant. Gwynn is a Roottree by blood, so if she gave birth to Robbie, he is as well.

Verdict: Ron Roottree is NOT a Roottree (ironically). Robbie Roottree is a Roottree BLOOD RELATIVE.

And that's it for my guide to the Roottreemania finale! I hope it proves helpful in understanding all of the logic that goes into the conclusion, and that it's as much fun for some people to read as it was for me to write. Let me know in the comments if I missed anything important or got anything wrong! I'm happy to incorporate suggestions to improve this guide if I agree that they are necessary. Thanks for reading!