A TikToker named Jenna Rose recently put out a video in which she tells a bizarre story about how an Ancestry DNA test uncovered a dark family secret and led to the reopening of a 25-year-old cold murder case.
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In the video, Rose gave a gripping account of how her DNA match helped law enforcement identify her own grandmother as the suspect in a notorious Michigan case known as the “Baby Garnet” investigation.
Rose started by telling her audience that she had “never met my grandmother” and that she “didn’t even know her name” until she became a teenager.
The case in question had been well known in her hometown. “It was the Baby Garnet case,” she said. “And I know a lot of people are curious.”
The story began when Rose decided to get an Ancestry DNA kit as her best friend had done. “I watched my best friend get an Ancestry DNA kit for Christmas, and I thought it was dope. I was like, ‘I need one of those,’” she said.
The TikToker had no idea where this path would lead. About one year later, she received a phone call from a Michigan State Police detective who told her that her DNA was a “direct match to the victim of this case,” according to the video.
“I was like, ‘Oh, cool.’ I was like, ‘What case?’ And he was like, ‘You’ve heard of the Baby Garnet case, right?’” Rose recounted.
At first, Rose and her mother believed the call was a scam. But her cousin later confirmed that the officer was legitimate. “I’ve been in contact with them all morning,” her cousin said, according to Rose.
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The authorities requested Rose’s permission to obtain DNA samples from Rose and her mother. The results were alarming. “We ended up finding out that it’s not a distant relative to my mom, but a direct relative. And the only other people that it could have been was my mom’s mother,” Rose recounted.
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The revelation shocked Rose even though she had never met her grandmother. “They kind of started doing their own investigating and figured out that that’s who it was. So we were mind blown. Mind you, I’ve never met this woman before. She is literally the…person that they’ve been looking for for 25 years,” the TikToker recalled.
Rose indicated that she is not able to share more of the details of the case because she is “Not really allowed to talk about anything that has happened outside of that right now.” But she did speculate that “Obviously, it’s going to come out.”
The Michigan Attorney General’s Office issued a press release in May 2024 announcing the arrest and indictment of Nancy Gerwatowski, who is now 60 years old. She will be standing trial for the Baby Garnet case and is being charged with Open Murder, Involuntary Manslaughter, and Concealing the Death of an Individual. The first charge carries a possible life sentence.
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The remains of the infant were discovered in 1997 at the Garnet Lake Campground in Hudson Township. The initial investigation did not yield any leads. But in 2017, a Michigan State Police Detective initiated familial genetic genealogical tracing. A lab received the skeletal remains of the victim in 2020 and returned a DNA profile in 2022. This is what led the authorities to Rose and eventually to her grandmother, who was living in Wyoming.
“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,” said Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel.
@__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🧿🪬