Grandma arrested

Woman solves murder case with home DNA test kit

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/AFP, tiktok.com/@__jennarose__)

DNA tests for home use are becoming increasingly popular - they allow you to search for clues in your family tree. However, one American woman made an unpleasant discovery: Jenna Rose found out that her grandmother was a wanted child murderer.

When one of her friends received a DNA kit as a Christmas present, Rose became curious - she wanted to try it out and find out more about her ancestors, the woman told TikTok. 

Police called a year after the test
Two years ago, she ordered a DNA test from Ancestry. "At first everything was normal, but about a year later I received a phone call," the US-American describes the events. It was a police officer, which really upset her. "I thought to myself, what have I done and panicked," says Rose

The video of Jenna Rose on TikTok:

She was eventually told that the police had found out that she was related to a murder victim from a case that happened 25 years ago. Back then, a dead infant was found in the toilet pit of a campsite at Garnet Lake.

Relationship with murder victim established
When her DNA was uploaded to a worldwide database, the connection to the cold case was discovered. However, because the murder victim was only distantly related to her - the executive eventually also took a DNA sample from her mother to get to the bottom of the mystery - it was determined that her mom was a close relative. 

This finally led the investigators to a suspect: Rose's grandmother. She had never met her; she had only learned her name as a teenager. 

The grandmother, Nancy Gerwatowski, immediately confessed that she was the mother of the baby who had been killed. She said that she had given birth to the child alone in her house. The police assume that it suffocated there too. Afterwards, Gerwatowski is said to have "disposed of" the dead baby, who was only 36 to 42 weeks old, at the campsite. However, due to a lack of witnesses and evidence, the investigation had to be closed at the time.

Investigators did not look into the case again until 2017. Parts of the victim's skeleton were sent to a laboratory, which created a DNA profile. This was also compared with data from the Ancestry database.

Grandma must answer for her actions in court
The police suspect that the death of the child, who was christened "Baby Garnet" in the investigation, could have been prevented if Gerwatowski had sought medical help. The 60-year-old is therefore being tried for murder and concealing a death. If she is found guilty, she faces life imprisonment.