‘Whole thing is absolutely insane’: You’ll never forget the jaw-dropping story of the DNA kit that solved a decades-old cold case

DNA kits offer diverse benefits. They can trace your ancestry, provide insights into your health risks, and may even connect you with relatives you never knew you had. For one woman, a simple test led to solving a crime that had investigators stumped for decades — an outcome she surely wasn’t expecting.

TikTok user Jenna Rose (@__jennarose__), from Michigan, shared a video wherein she explained the events that transpired after taking an AncestryDNA test. Two years ago, Jenna’s best friend received an AncestryDNA kit for Christmas, and she thought the information her friend gathered from taking the DNA test was interesting, so she bought one for herself. AncestryDNA reveals details about your heritage, including ancestral origins, DNA matches, unique traits, and other fascinating insights into your personal history.

Jenna sent back her swab and received her results without issue. A year later, however, she received a phone call from a detective at the Michigan State Police, which alarmed her. In her mind, she was either going to jail or someone close to her was dead. What the detective told her next was not what she was expecting at all. It turned out her DNA was a match to the victim in the 25-year-old unsolved Baby Garnet case. It was a notorious case in Jenna’s hometown and finding out that she was connected to it came as a shock.

The detective told Jenna to connect with a woman from Chicago who’s in charge of a worldwide DNA database. Jenna got a call from the woman, and she permitted her to include her DNA results in the database, but the woman needed her password to do so. Believing it was a scam, she hung up the call. One week later, her mom called her while she was at work, telling her to come home immediately because of an emergency.

When she got home, Jenna’s cousin was there and told her that the call she got a week ago wasn’t a scam. Her cousin had been talking to the police that day, and she told Jenna to call back the woman because her DNA was needed. She did so, and her DNA was uploaded into the database. It showed she was a distant relative of the victim in the Baby Garnet case, in which an unidentified baby was found tossed into a waste pit of an outhouse. Authorities also swabbed Jenna’s mother for her DNA, and the results showed she was a direct relative.

Users flooded the comments section, with one saying the “whole thing is absolutely insane.” Another wrote about her experience with a DNA kit saying, “I just found out my dad isn’t my dad bc of ancestry but this one takes the cake.” Yet another said, “My husband found out he has a half-sister and his mother found out her dad was not her dad. DNA kits breaking up family left and right.”

In 1997, a deceased newborn was discovered in an outhouse at the Garnet Lake Campground in Michigan. The autopsy findings showed that the baby, at 36 to 42 weeks gestation, died of asphyxiation. The investigation didn’t turn up any leads and the case went cold. In 2022 a DNA profile was developed from Baby Garnet’s skeletal remains, and thanks to genetic testing, an arrest has been made.

Nancy Gerwatowski, Baby Garnet’s mother, was charged with open murder, concealing the death of an individual, and voluntary manslaughter. As for how Nancy is related to Jenna, she is her maternal grandmother and Baby Garnet was her aunt. Jenna said she had never met Nancy and only found out her name when she was 15 years old. Nancy’s trial is scheduled for Dec. 12, and based on her charges, she’s facing the possibility of spending the rest of her life in prison.