A 23-year-old social media influencer was just trying to learn a little bit more about her family’s lineage.
But she got way more than she bargained after discovering that her grandmother is the prime suspect in a notorious murder case that’s baffled authorities for decades.
Jenna Rose Gerwatowski, 23, revealed how a simple Ancestry DNA test may have solved the 27-year murder mystery known as the Baby Garnet case — and landed her grandmother behind bars.
Gerwatowski’s clip, which has been viewed more than 1.3 million times since Wednesday, said that she decided to take a DNA test a few years ago merely because it seemed “dope.”
“Little did I know,” she said with a chuckle — cutting to how a year later a detective from the Michigan State Police called her at work, scaring her that she could be in trouble.
@__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🧿🪬
The police told her he had reopened a cold case from 1997 “and your DNA is a direct match to the victim of this case,” she recalled being told.
She was told the case was about Baby Garnet, the well-known death of a “term or near-term” newborn found in an outhouse at Garnet Lake Campground in Naubinway, Michigan.
Further official DNA testing confirmed Jenna’s mother was directly related to the child — meaning it had to be tied “to my mom’s mother,” Gerwatowski said of Nancy Gerwatoswki, 61, whom she had never met.
“I was mind blown,” she said. “She is literally the f**king person they’ve been looking for for 25 years — and it’s all because of a f**king Ancestry DNA kit,” she alleged in the now-viral video.
According to media outlet Click on Detroit, Nancy Gerwatoswki was arrested in 2022 and charged with murder, involuntary manslaughter, and concealing the death of an individual.
Nancy admitted being Baby Garnet’s mother, according to the outlet.
She is thought to have given birth to the child at home where it died of asphyxiation, before she left the body in the outhouse, according to the outlet.
Prosecutors argue that the baby could have been saved if medical help had been sought.
In October 2023, Nancy was released on a personal recognizance bond and had to comply with GPS monitoring and home confinement.
She now faces the possibility of life in prison if convicted.