A 23-year-old Michigan woman’s TikTok video has gone viral after she announced an at-home DNA test kit helped lead to the arrest of a grandmother in Wyoming she had never met in a decades-old Michigan infanticide case.
In a video released in late November with more than 1.6. million views, Jenna Rose Gerwatowski, 23, said she was shocked when the Michigan State Police called her at work to say her Ancestry DNA test kit linked to a cold case dating back to 1997.
The case involved the skeletal remains of an infant locally known as “Baby Garnet” in a campground toilet in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
“Get ready with me when I tell you about how an Ancestry DNA kit is putting my grandma in prison,” Jenna says in the video.
Her grandmother, Nancy Ann Gerwatowski, 61, was arrested in Pinedale in 2022 and charged with one count of open murder, involuntary manslaughter and concealing the death of an individual, according to a release from the Michigan Attorney General’s Office.
When questioned, Nancy Ann Gerwatowski confirmed she was the infant’s mother, the Mackinac County Sheriff’s Office said.
Spit In A Tube
Jenna Rose has never met her grandmother, she explains in her video, and didn’t even know her name until she was 14 or 15 years old. She knew about “Baby Garnet,” however, having grown up in the area.
“This case was very popular in the town that I grew up in because it was so f***ed up,” she said.
The alleged crime ties back to June 1997 when a campground worker discovered a baby girl, estimated to be between 36 to 42 weeks, in an outhouse while emptying a septic tank at the Garnet Lake Campground.
The case remained cold for years with no leads or discernible evidence until 2017, when the Michigan State Police initiated genetic genealogical tracing with the help of a local lab and the FBI, according to the Michigan Attorney General.
The tracing came up with nothing until Jenna sent away for her Ancestry DNA kit.
She explained how she decided to do the at-home test, saying that about two years earlier when she became intrigued when her best friend received an Ancestry DNA kit for Christmas.
“I thought it was dope. I was like, ‘I need one of those,’” she said.
Jenna Rose said she ordered one, spat in the tube, sent it off, and got her results. End of story, or so she thought.
“About a year later, I’m at work, and I get a phone call,” Jenna said. “It’s a detective from the Michigan State Police. I start freaking out. He said he’d reopened the cold case from 25 years ago and your DNA is a direct match to the victim of this case.”
@__jennarose__ sorry this video is so long, but thank you if you stuck around to watch the whole thing. its time we start talking. #foryou #foryourpagetiktok #fyppp #foryourpage #fyp #truecrime #ancestrydna #ancestry #michigan ♬ original sound - jennarose:nazar_amulet::hamsa:
Is It Legal?
Jenna Rose said the police also contacted a cousin and asked her mother to provide a DNA profile to which she agreed. The results were conclusive.
“The only other people that it could have been was my mom's mother,” she says it the video. “So, we were mind blown. Mind you, I've never met this woman before. She is literally the f***ing person that they've been looking for 25 years. It's all because of a f***ing Ancestry DNA kit.”
Since her video aired, Jenna said many viewers questioned whether or not police can use Ancestry profiles as an investigative tool, which she addressed in a subsequent video.
“They absolutely can, and they did,” she said.
According to the site’s guide for law enforcement, Ancestry says it does “not voluntarily cooperate with law enforcement” nor does it allow agencies to use its services to investigate crimes or to identify human remains.
However, the company will disclose records when compelled to do so legally pursuant to valid search warrants from government agencies with proper jurisdiction.
Otherwise, users can voluntarily opt to upload their genetic profiles into public databases like GEDmatch that are accessible by law enforcement.
Home Delivery
Nancy Ann Gerwatowski is accused of delivering the newborn alone at her Newberry, Michigan, home during which the baby died due to asphyxiation.
The state argues that the death could have been prevented by medical intervention, which she did not seek.
Instead, the state argues, she concealed the baby’s death by allegedly hiding her in an outhouse at a campground 20 miles from her home, according to the Michigan Attorney General’s Office.
She’s currently released on bond with a GPS-tracking device awaiting a hearing this month with public records indicating she’s now living in Gillette.
According to ClickOn Detroit, Nancy Ann Gerwatowski is scheduled to appear in Michigan court for a hearing Thursday to decide whether to dismiss the concealing a death charge.
If convicted on the murder charge, Gerwatowski faces the possibility of life in prison, the outlet reports.
Jenna Rose and her mother plan to meet with producers, she said in a Nov. 23 video, about the possibility of turning their story into a documentary.
Contact Jen Kocher at jen@cowboystatedaily.com
Nancy Ann Gerwatowski, who public records say is living in Wyoming, has been linked through DNA to a decades-old death of a baby in Michigan. (Courtesy Photo) 
Jenna Rose Gerwatowski is a 23-year-old Michigan woman who has gone viral on TikTok telling her story of how her mail-in DNA test linked her grandmother, Nancy Ann Gerwatowski, right, who was living in Pindedale, Wyoming, to a decades-old death of a baby in Michigan. (Courtesy Photo) 
Jenna Rose Gerwatowski is a 23-year-old Michigan woman who has gone viral on TikTok telling her story of how her mail-in DNA test linked her grandmother, who was living in Pindedale, Wyoming, to a decades-old death of a baby in Michigan. (Courtesy Photo)
Jen Kocher can be reached at jen@cowboystatedaily.com.
