Background: News footage of the scene in Calverton, N.Y., where a newborn baby was found dead in 1993 (News 12 Long Island). Inset: Denise Merker (Suffolk County Police Department).
A New York woman who was accused of killing her newborn baby and leaving her in a trash bag on the side of the road has allegedly confessed to police.
Denise Reischman Merker, 55, was arrested on Feb. 2 and charged with murder, more than 30 years after police said she killed her newborn daughter and left her on the side of the road in Calverton, New York, in eastern Long Island. According to court documents obtained by local newspaper Newsday, the baby was found dead by maintenance workers on the morning of Sept. 27, 1993, on the side of an intersection in a garbage bag.
Police said that after Merker was identified as the suspect in the baby's death, she confessed during an interview, saying, "I did it. I did everything."
Newsday reported that during the interview, Merker told police, "I put the paper towel in the baby's mouth because she was crying." Merker was 22 years old at the time of the alleged crime. More details about how the baby died were not publicly available.
Police did not specify what linked Merker to the baby, who was known only as Baby Jane Doe until 2025, but told Newsday that genetic genealogy was a "significant factor" in identifying her. The baby girl was one of nine unidentified babies whose DNA profiles were added to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons Systems database last year in an effort to find out who they were.
Merker pleaded not guilty to one count of murder at her arraignment and was remanded to the Suffolk County Jail in Riverhead, New York. She remains in custody without bail. Her next court appearance was scheduled for March 2.