Neil Kemmerer and his 21-year-old adoptive daughter, Samantha, each face a felony charge of incest after he allegedly “fathered a child with the adoptive daughter,” a child that was born on July 13, according to court records filed by Lycoming County Detective William Weber.

The investigation began in mid-April when police first received information that Kemmerer, 48, and Samantha, both of 883 Park Ave., “appeared to be acting as a couple, (based on) the way they were interacting with one another (in public). It was then learned that Samantha was pregnant and that Kemmerer was the father of the unborn child, which was due in June,” Weber wrote in an affidavit.

“Rumors had been circulating (in the area) for a few years that they had been a couple,” Weber said, adding that Kemmerer and his wife adopted Samantha in late April 2010.

Weber said he learned from a female relative that the relative in recent weeks learned that when Samantha was 16, the relative was told that Kemmerer and the adoptive daughter were “making out” in Kemmerer’s car.

According to state law, “a person is guilty in incest, a felony of the second degree, if that person marries, cohabits or has sexual (relations)” with a blood relation, but the same provision applies if the relationship is one between a “parent and child of adoption.”

In mid-June, Weber met with a source who “had contact” with Samantha, and Weber learned of a baby shower on June 5 in which the source reported that Neil Kemmerer is the father and “is very excited,” the affidavit stated.

“I received maternity pictures of Kemmerer holding Samantha’s pregnant stomach,” as well as “numerous photos of both Kemmerer and Samantha together with hearts around them,” Weber said.

Three days after the baby was born at Geisinger Bloomsburg Hospital, staff there alerted Lycoming County’s Children and Youth Department that the infant “may be a product of incest” because there were a number of red flags, Weber said. The mother refused to provide the hospital with any information about the identity of the father for the birth certificate, and Kemmerer was always at the hospital, the investigator said in the affidavit.

The medical staff also thought it was odd that the baby was born in Bloomsburg and not in Williamsport, Weber said. Also, the way Kemmerer and Samantha “interacted together” raised staff’s concerns.

Weber alerted the children and youth department that he was already working on the case.

After getting a court-ordered search warrant, investigators obtained DNA samples from Kemmerer, his adoptive daughter and the baby. Test results will take several weeks, Weber said.

Kemmerer and Samantha, who has the same last name, were arraigned Monday afternoon before District Judge Christian Frey and released on $20,000 bail each. The infant is is their care, Weber said.