ST. IGNACE, Mich. (Court TV) — A woman accused of disposing of her newborn baby at a campground nearly 30 years ago has asked a judge to toss statements she made to police from evidence.
Nancy Gerwatowski appears in court for a hearing on Dec. 12, 2024. (Court TV)
Nancy Gerwatowski was indicted on a charge of open murder in the death of the infant, known as “Baby Garnet,” 25 years after the child’s body was first discovered.
On June 26, 1997, Michigan State Police and officers with the Mackinac County Sheriff’s Office were dispatched to the Garnet Lake Campground after a call reporting human remains had been found. A commercial sewage company was onsite and pumping out the men’s outhouse when workers saw what they first believed to be a doll, but on closer inspection, it was revealed to be the severely decayed remains of an infant.
The case was cold for years until Michigan detectives retrieved a femur from the FBI in 2020 and sent it for DNA testing. Using genealogical testing, detectives could link the infant to Nancy Gerwatowski’s granddaughter.
Michigan detectives traveled to Wyoming, where Gerwatowski lived in 2022, to ask her about the case, but she initially denied being the infants’ mother. Detectives took DNA samples from her and returned her home. But several hours later, Gerwatowski called the police and asked to speak with the detectives at the station if they would pick her up.
When the detectives brought her in, Gerwatowski asked for an attorney but was told none were present. When the detectives asked if she still wanted to speak with them, she allegedly said, “I guess, ya.” She then admitted to detectives in a recorded interview that she was going through a divorce when she got pregnant and was not sure who the father was. She said she hid the pregnancy and went into labor while home alone.
“All of a sudden, she was in labor giving birth to the baby. The baby came out halfway and then got stuck. She tried to pull the baby out and could not completely deliver the baby. At this point Nancy lost consciousness. She had no idea how long she was out, she just knew when she came to the baby was delivered. When she picked the baby up, it was blue and not breathing.”
Gerwatowski owned neither a landline nor a cell phone in 1997 and never called 911. She said she took the dead child, put it in a bag and dumped the child at the campground when she passed it on the way to her own mother’s house.
Gerwatowski’s attorney argued to the judge that her statements to investigators should not be allowed to be used as evidence because she had invoked her right to an attorney before questioning. The judge said he would issue his ruling after taking the issue under consideration.
