Woman's DNA test leads police to charge her grandmother with newborn's unsolved 1997 death
Nancy Ann Gerwatoski, 58 (photo: Mackinac County Sheriff's Office)
A woman’s DNA test led to a startling discovery linked to a cold case involving the death of an infant more than 20 years ago, and now a judge has a key decision to make in the case.
Back in 2022, Jenna Gerwatowski, 23, received a phone call from a Michigan detective explaining to the woman that a DNA kit revealed she was the half-niece of an infant who died in 1997 who became known as "Baby Garnet."
RELATED: Mom of 'Baby Garnet' extradited to Michigan to face murder charge 25 years later
But additional lab tests conducted by authorities using the remains of the infant led investigators to Nancy Gerwatowski – Jenna’s grandmother – who was confirmed as the infant’s mother.
Nancy was arrested and charged with one count each of open murder, involuntary manslaughter, and concealing the death of an individual, according to a release from the Michigan attorney general’s office.
The 58-year-old woman from Wyoming, formerly from the Garnet area in Mackinac County, was extradited back to Michigan for the murder of her baby, FOX 2 Detroit reported in 2022.
What happened in the Baby Garnet case?
In June 1997, the remains of a deceased infant were discovered in a campground pit toilet at the Garnet Lake Campground in the Upper Peninsula’s Hudson Township in Mackinac County, Michigan.
The case of "Baby Garnet" was investigated by Mackinac County Sheriff’s Office and Michigan State Police during the summer and autumn of 1997 despite there being no witnesses or leads developed in the case, according to a release from the Michigan attorney general’s office.
In 2017, a Michigan State police detective initiated familial genetic genealogical tracing with the assistance of a private laboratory and the Federal Bureau of Investigations.
FOX 2 Detroit reported that the name of Baby Garnet's birth mother was given to investigators by a genealogist. The investigators traveled to Wyoming on July 12, 2022, and made contact with Nancy Gerwatowski.
The woman confirmed to investigators that she was Baby Garnet's birth mother and was arrested on the charge of homicide-open murder. Gerwatowski was denied bond during an arraignment and had a court appearance in August 2024.
The Michigan attorney general’s office noted in a release that Gerwatowski delivered the newborn alone at her home, during which Baby Garnet died due to asphyxiation, and that this death could have been prevented by medical intervention Gerwatowski did not seek. Officials allege that Gerwatowski hid the deceased newborn in an outhouse at the campground in Hudson, Michigan.
Before the discovery of DNA linking Jenna’s grandmother to the case, one of Jenna’s friends got a FamilyTreeDNA test for Christmas and Jenna later got her own. DNA from other Baby Garnet relatives led detectives to Jenna’s FamilyTreeDNA kit, according to CNN, citing court documents.
"My mom had tears in her eyes," Jenna recalled in a recent CNN interview.
The latest on the case
In a court hearing last week, Gerwatowski's defense said the case should be dropped because prosecutors cannot prove that the baby was born alive, CNN reported. They also claimed that she was denied access to an attorney during her interrogation, but the state disputes that claim.
The judge reportedly hopes to rule on the defense request before the end of the year.