For some unknown reason, people love those at-home DNA tests that supposedly reveal where your people herald from. Never mind that it really just shows where people with similar DNA live now.
The DNA tests aren't completely useless, though. The police find them very handy for cracking cold cases.
For example, Jenna Gerwatowski received a test from FamilyTreeDNA as a gift, and she submitted it. Then a few months later, she got a call from a detective who told her that her DNA was a match for a murdered baby that had been found at Garnet Lake Campground in 1997.
The 23-year-old was perplexed. Baby Garnet was a murder mystery that had become little more than a legend in the area. Lots of people knew about it. She thought the call was a hoax.
And for a good reason:
Later, a forensic analyst called, asking for her FamilyTreeDNA password to access her account to be able to upload her DNA into a separate database.
'I hung up the phone on her, not even thinking twice about it. And we went about our day. I was like, how weird. What a weird thing to scam people about,' Jenna said. 'I wholeheartedly did not think that it was real.'
But it wasn't a scam at all.
Police finally had to contact a family member and have her talk to Gerwatowski, so she would cooperate with them.
A more detailed analysis of her DNA revealed that she was a one-quarter match. When police analyzed her mother, Kara's DNA, it was a one-half match. Her mother was Baby Garnet's half-sister.
'I feel like that is when, like, all of the puzzle pieces kind of started falling together for her,' Jenna said. 'And she told detectives that, if it's going to be anybody, it would be (her) mother.'
Nancy Gerwatowski was estranged from the family. In fact, Jenna had never even met the woman, but Jenna was still shocked her grandmother was the Baby Garnet murderer.
'It was a very hard time … very traumatizing and very nerve-wracking,' said Jenna. 'I've never met this woman, so it was hard for me to even grasp that concept, but even harder for my mom because that was her mother.'
Nancy Gerwatowski was arrested and admitted to leaving the child's body in the park but is pleading not guilty to the charge of murder.
Here is the scoop:
The Michigan attorney general's office alleges Nancy 'delivered the newborn alone at her Newberry home, during which Baby Garnet died due to asphyxiation, and that this death could have been prevented by medical intervention (Nancy) Gerwatowski did not seek.'
However, in a court filing, Nancy's defense argues she unexpectedly gave birth while in the bathtub and the fetus 'became trapped inside her birth canal.' She 'attempted to pull the fetus out of her own body,' the filing says, but couldn't deliver the fetus and lost consciousness 'at some point in the delivery.' When she was finally able to deliver the fetus, it was dead, the filing says.
Her defense argues that Nancy, like the average 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 legal filings she placed the stillborn fetus in a bag and left the remains at the campground, her defense attorneys argue she had been in shock after having had no pain medication during the traumatic birth.
Nancy Gerwatowski faces one count each of open murder, involuntary manslaughter, and concealing the death of an individual, which could lead to a life sentence for the woman.
And all this because a woman wanted to know about her DNA.
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