I had no idea I’d solved 27-year-old cold case after taking at-home DNA test – my gran was arrested over baby’s murder

An arrest following an Ancestry DNA test has led to the resolution of a renowned 27-year-old murder mystery.

In an open cold case, 23-year-old TikToker Jenna Rose Gerwatowski disclosed that her grandma was arrested as a result of a DNA test.

Jenna described how she used a simple Ancestry DNA kit to put her grandma in jail in a video that has received over 15 million views to date.

Jenna described the circumstances leading up to the arrest in the seven-minute video.

She stated: “I thought it was awesome when I saw my best buddy receive an Ancestry DNA kit for Christmas two years ago.

I thought, I’d like to have one of those. I’d like to see everything she’s seeing at the moment. I therefore purchased one.

“You swab your mouth and they give you your ancestry results,” she explained. I had a great time doing that, and it’s pretty cool.”

Jenna disclosed that the Michigan police approached her a year after she obtained her results.

“I got a phone call while I was at work,” she stated.

“It’s a detective from theMichiganStatePoliceout of Saint Hicks.”

She claimed that the phone call “freaked her out” and made her fear that someone had died or that she would be sent to jail.

How the police were able to locate her DNA is unknown.

The detective reopened a cold case, according to Jenna, and her DNA was a “direct match to the victim of this case.”

The 23-year-old said that after her DNA matched that of a 1997 cold case known as “Baby Garnet,” the police contacted her.

A “term or near term” newborn’s body was discovered in an outhouse at Garnet Lake Campground in Naubinway, Michigan, in the notorious case.

Jenna stated in the video that she was advised to call a woman from Chicago following that phone conversation.

According to her, he wants me to speak with her so that she can upload my DNA to a global database that she manages.

“He told me that he would give her my number and she would call me after I got off work.”

However, after being asked for her password, Jenna immediately hung up the phone, raising suspicions that the call was a fraud.

After a week, Jenna’s mother and her cousin contacted her to clarify that the police had been at the cousin’s house and that it was not a fraud.

After that, she consented to have her DNA checked in the database, which showed that she was a distant relative of the infant who had died 27 years prior.

A DNA test conducted by Jenna’s mother also showed a clear connection to the victim.

In the video, Jenna described how the police started looking into Jenna’s grandma, Nancy Gerwatowski, after they found the new piece of the puzzle.

“Mind you, we were mind blown,” she remarked.

“This woman is someone I’ve never met before.

“They have been searching for her for the past twenty-five years.

“And an Ancestry DNA kit is the reason behind it all.

“Everything unfolded from there.”

She is not permitted to discuss anything that has transpired since the DNA discovery, Jenna continued.

In a subsequent video, Jenna responded to the question of how the police obtained her DNA.

She stated: “There is a lot of debate in the comments section on the legality of police using ancestry DNA for such purposes.

“They absolutely can, and they did.”

The contents of communications and any information pertaining to an Ancestry user’s DNA will only be made public with a valid search warrant from a government entity with the appropriate authority, per Ancestry’s law enforcement guide.

“If we receive a valid request under U.S. law to preserve records that constitute potentially relevant evidence in legal proceedings, we will preserve, but not disclose, a temporary snapshot of the relevant account records for 90 days pending service of valid legal process as described above.”

Nancy Ann Gerwatowski, 60, was arrested in 2022 on accusations of murder, involuntary manslaughter, and concealing a body after the findings of the DNA test, according to Click on Detroit.

According to authorities, she gave birth at home, and the infant asphyxiated to death.

At the Garnet Lake campground near Hudson, she allegedly concealed the newborn’s body in an outhouse.

Gerwatowski allegedly told investigators she is the child’s mother.

Court documents indicate that a hearing is planned for December 12, 2024.

Ancestry DNA and Michigan State Police have been contacted by The Sun for comment.

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