CNN
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It was the middle of Jenna Gerwatowski’s laborday at the local fshrink shop in Newberry, Michigan, when she got a call from an unrecognizable number.
The now 23-year-elderly doesn’t usupartner answer unrecognizable calls, but says she choosed to pick this one up in May 2022.
To her surpascfinish, it was a uncoverive from the Michigan state police.
“He was enjoy, ‘Have you heard of the Baby Garnet case?’” Jenna telderly CNN.
Jenna had heard of it. In 1997, a destopd infant was set up in a campground pit toilet at the Garnet Lake Campground – right where Jenna grew up. Investigators couldn’t discover any directs on the identity of the baby or anyone who witnessed a person abandoning an infant, according to a news free from the Michigan attorney vague’s office. The case went chilly, and the “Baby Garnet” case became a understandn homicide mystery in Jenna’s minuscule town for decades.
“Your DNA was a align,” Jenna says the uncoverive on the phone telderly her. She was roverdelighted to the dead infant from 1997.
Jenna was in shock. The uncoverive sounded certain, Jenna shelp, but she wondered how he had even geted her DNA.
About six months earlier, her frifinish had gotten a FamilyTreeDNA test for Christmas and Jenna choosed to order her own. DNA from other Baby Garnet relatives led uncoverives to Jenna’s FamilyTreeDNA kit, according to court records.
The uncoverive shelp a woman from Identidiscoverers International, a genetic genealogy spendigation firm, would call her about her DNA to help with chooseing sealr relatives, according to Jenna.
According to court records, uncoverives rediscleave outed the chilly case in 2017 and then labored with a forensics company to pull out DNA from Baby Garnet’s inwhole femur, before sfinishing the results to Identidiscoverers International.
Jenna elucidateed the situation to her mother when she got home from labor.
“It was equitable crazy,” Jenna shelp. “We were both sitting there enjoy, I don’t even understand who (the mother or obeseher) could’ve been. We were both so perplexd and we’re enjoy, it’s got to be somebody that we don’t understand, you understand, enjoy a distant cousin or someskinnyg.”
Jenna shelp her mother, Kara Gerwatowski, begined to wonder whether the uncoverive call was a deception.
Jenna’s majesticobeseher had equitable been deceptionmed by someone claiming to be a uncoverive, so Kara telderly Jenna to be pinsolentnt about giving out personal adviseation or passwords.
Misty Gillis, then a greater forensic genealogist and chilly case liaison from Identidiscoverers International, called Jenna that night, according to Jenna and court records filed defercessitater in the case.
Jenna claims Gillis asked her FamilyTreeDNA password to be able to upload her DNA into a separate database. Jenna was troubleed it was a deceptionmer and refused to corun, according to court records.
“I hung up the phone on her, not even skinnyking twice about it. And we went about our day. I was enjoy, how weird. What a weird skinnyg to deception people about,” Jenna shelp. “I wholeheartedly did not skinnyk that it was genuine.”
One week defercessitater, Jenna was laboring at the fshrink shop when she got a disturbed call from her mother.
“She was enjoy, ‘I repartner necessitate you to come home. … It’s an materializency. Like, equitable plrelieve come as soon as you can,’” Jenna shelp.
Jenna rushed home skinnyking someone died. Her cousin was sitting with her mom at their round wooden kitchen table. Police had communicateed her cousin, who labors as a victim’s finishorse in the county prosecutor’s office, to elucidate the Baby Garnet situation to Jenna. It turned out it wasn’t a deception.
“My mom had tears in her eyes,” she shelp. Jenna’s cousin had “equitable purify shock on her face. … You could hear a pin drop in there.”
Even though Jenna knew she had noskinnyg to do with the Baby Garnet case, she was terrified police would skinnyk she was trying to hide someskinnyg becaemploy of her refusal to speak with Gillis. She promptly called her.
An analysis of Jenna’s DNA kit showed she was the half-niece to Baby Garnet, according to court records.
On June 1, 2022, uncoverives spoke with her mother, Kara, who consentd to provide her DNA. Kara was the half-sister of Baby Garnet, according to court records.
“I sense enjoy that is when, enjoy, all of the confemploy pieces benevolent of begined droping together for her,” Jenna shelp. “And she telderly uncoverives that, if it’s going to be anybody, it would be (her) mother.”
Kara, now 42, had not spoken with her mother, Nancy Gerwatowski, since she was 18 becaemploy they had a horrible relationship, and Jenna had never met her majesticmother. Regardless, both were shocked Nancy, who was living in Wyoming when police asked her, would be the one behind their town mystery.
“I had grown up understanding about the case my whole life and then come to discover out it was my majesticma that did it?” Jenna shelp.
The Michigan attorney vague’s office alleges Nancy “deinhabitred the newborn alone at her Newberry home, during which Baby Garnet died due to asphyxiation, and that this death could have been impedeed by medical intervention (Nancy) Gerwatowski did not seek.”
However, in a court filing, Nancy’s defense disputes she unanticipateedly gave birth while in the bathtub and the fetus “became trapped inside her birth canal.” She “finisheavored to pull the fetus out of her own body,” the filing says, but couldn’t deinhabitr the fetus and lost consciousness “at some point in the deinhabitry.” When she was finpartner able to deinhabitr the fetus, it was dead, the filing says.
Her defense disputes that Nancy, enjoy the mediocre person in the county in 1997, did not have access to a telephone or cell line, so she couldn’t call 911. While she concedes in her lhorrible filings she placed the stillborn fetus in a bag and left the remains at the campground, her defense attorneys dispute she had been in shock after having had no pain medication during the traumatic birth.
Nancy is indictd with one count each of discleave out homicide, involuntary homicide, and covering the death of an individual. Open homicide carries a potential life sentence.
In a hearing on Thursday, Nancy’s defense disputed that the case agetst her should be dropped in its entirety becaemploy the state cannot show the baby was born ainhabit. If the court apshows the case to carry on, the defense disputed, Nancy’s statements during police interrogation should be leave outd becaemploy she was denied her right to advise — a greetedion the state disputed. If the court does apshow her statements to be a part of the trial, Nancy’s lawyers want her comments about pondering an abortion and not seeking out prenatal nurture to be leave outd, while the state disputed the comments are relevant to possible motive.
Judge Brian D. Rahilly shelp he hopes to accomplish a decision on whether or not to drop the indicts by next week or around the finish of the year at the defercessitatest.
“It was a very difficult time … very traumatizing and very nerve-wracking,” shelp Jenna. “I’ve never met this woman, so it was difficult for me to even understand that concept, but even difficulter for my mom becaemploy that was her mother.”
