A TikToker named Jenna Rose Gerwatowski broke the internet with a story about DNA testing and alleged murder. According to Jenna, a 23-year-old influencer, her decision to use an Ancestry DNA kit has had a major impact on the murder cold case of Baby Garnet, a baby girl who died in 1997. Turns out, the DNA results helped authorities re-open the case as Jenna was found to be Baby Garnet's relative. The alleged murderer? Jenna's grandmother.
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"I've never made a video like this before. I keep stumbling over my words... this might take a few minutes to get through. It's a long story," she said in a viral TikTok video. "I've never met my grandmother, I didn't even know her name until I was 14 or 15 years old. This case was very popular in the town that I grew up in because it was so f***ed up."
The case Jenna mentions is the Baby Garnet case. Back in 1997, a worker discovered Baby Garnet at a waste pit in Garnet Lake, California. The baby was estimated to be at full term and had died from asphyxiation. Due to genetic testing not being as advanced as it is today, the case remained unsolved for 25 years. It all changed in 2022 when Jenna decided to take a DNA test for an Ancestry DNA kit.
A DNA Match
"You spit in a tube, you send it in, and they give you your ancestry results. Little did I know... so I sent it in, got my results back," Jenna continued. "About a year later, I'm at work, and I get a phone call. It's a detective from the Michigan State Police." Police contacted her because her DNA matched Baby Garnet's DNA. Further DNA testing with Jenna's mother confirmed they were relatives of Baby Garnet, who would have been Jenna's aunt.
"The only other person that it could have been was my mom's mother," Jenna said. "We were mind blown. She is literally the person they have been looking for for 25 years. It's all because of an Ancestry DNA kit."
That Ancestry DNA kit led to the arrest of Nancy Gerwatowski, Jenna's grandmother who she never met, in July 2022. She confirmed to the authorities that she was Baby Garnet's mother, and was charged with murder, involuntary manslaughter, and concealing the death of an individual, according to Click on Detroit.
Authorities believe Gerwatoski delivered Baby Garnet at her home, later dying via asphyxiation after Gerwatoski refused to seek medical intervention. She would then allegedly hide the body in an outhouse out of town.
"Thanks to the incredible efforts of investigators across three decades, we are finally able to pursue justice for Baby Garnet more than 25 years after her tragic death," Michigan Attorney General Danna Nessel said. "In 1997, genetics testing was nowhere near as sophisticated as it is today, and I am grateful for the work of detectives and responders on-scene to preserve vital evidence in this matter."
Gerwatoski is currently awaiting a motion hearing scheduled for December 12, 2024. She is residing in Wyoming under home confinement and uses a GPS-tracking device.
