Two women have recently been arrested for two different decades-old cold cases, according to authorities. Both are suspected of contributing to their children’s deaths.
One was apprehended in Arizona for a Georgia cold case murder of a 6-year-old boy found in 1999 and identified as William DaShawn Hamilton. The other was arrested in Wyoming in connection with the death of an infant known as “Baby Garnet” that was found in Michigan in 1997.
District Attorney Sherry Boston of DeKalb County, Ga., announced Wednesday that a grand jury returned an indictment against 45-year-old Teresa Ann Bailey Black on two counts of felony murder, two counts of cruelty to children, aggravated assault and concealing the death of another in connection with Hamilton’s murder. She was arrested June 29 in Phoenix, Ariz., and was awaiting extradition to Georgia as of Wednesday.
According to a press release from the DeKalb District Attorney’s Office, Hamilton’s remains were found in a wooded area near a church cemetery the corner of Clifton Springs Road and Clifton Spring Church Road in Decatur, Ga., on Feb. 26, 1999.
“The child, whose body was significantly decomposed, was determined to be an African American male between the ages of 5 and 7 and was estimated to have been deceased for three to six months prior to his discovery,” said the press release. “The victim was wearing a blue and white plaid shirt, red denim jeans, and brown Timberland boots. The manner and cause of his death was undetermined.”
He went unidentified for decades despite efforts by the DeKalb County Police Department, the Medical Examiner’s Office and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. A NCMEC Forensic Artist completed a new facial reconstruction rendering 20 years after Hamilton was found “that received media coverage and drew public interest back to the case.”
Then, in May 2020, the NCMEC received a tip. Someone who knew Black and her son in 1998 saw a rendering of the child. Per an investigation, Black was going by the last name Bailey and living in Charlotte, North Carolina with her son and another family member before she suddenly withdrew him from school in December 1998 and moved to Atlanta, Ga.
When she returned to Charlotte in 1999, she did not bring her son with her “and told differing stories about his whereabouts at the time.” DNA collected from Teresa Ann Bailey Black earlier this year links her to the remains of the child’s remains found near that church cemetery more than 23 years ago, said authorities.
“This case is a perfect example of why we never give up hope,” said Angeline Hartmann, Director of Communications at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. “For more than two decades, a woman in Charlotte who knew William and his mother followed her gut feeling that something wasn’t right and kept looking for him. We’re grateful she never stopped until she found a rendering of William online and gave investigators the missing piece to help solve this 23-year-old mystery.”
In Wyoming, an unnamed woman was arrested this week on the charge of homicide-open murder in connection with the “Baby Garnet” cold case in Michigan, according to the Mackinac County Sheriff’s Office. Authorities have not identified the woman as of Saturday, simply referring to her as a “58-year-old woman” who is awaiting extradition to Michigan.
Cowboy State Daily News in Wyoming said Mackinac County Sheriff Edward estimated the woman will be held at the Sublette County Jail for up to 30 days while police and judges get her extradition authorized. The outlet reported Thursday that “the only 58-year-old woman being held at the Sublette County Detention Center as of Thursday was Nancy Ann Gerwatowski, who was listed as being a ‘fugitive from justice.’”
According to the Mackinac County Sheriff’s Office, their investigators joined the Michigan State Police St. Ignace post in 1997 to investigate remains of an “unidentified infant discovered in a vault toilet at the Garnet Lake Campground in Hudson Township of Mackinac County.”
Local officials ended up calling the infant “Baby Garnet,” as the investigation went on. The case was cold for 20 years, until investigators reopened the investigation. After a review of reports, investigators decided to use forensic genetic genealogy to follow up on the initial research into the case.
Through this forensic genetic genealogy process, experts provided the name of who they determined to be the infant’s birth mother. When they followed the name, they found a former Garnet-area resident who moved to Wyoming.
Investigators traveled to the woman and she confirmed that she was the baby’s birth mother. Authorities said she made additional statements that led to her arrest.
“No further information is being released at this time,” said the sheriff’s office.
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