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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).
Denise Reischman Merker, aged 55, was taken into custody on February 2, facing murder charges over three decades after the alleged crime. Authorities accuse her of killing her newborn daughter and leaving the body in a garbage bag at the side of a road in Calverton, located in eastern Long Island, New York. According to court records obtained by the local newspaper Newsday, maintenance workers discovered the deceased baby on the morning of September 27, 1993, at an intersection.
Upon identifying Merker as the suspect, police report that she allegedly admitted to the crime during an interview, stating, “I did it. I did everything.”
During the interrogation, as reported by Newsday, Merker revealed to the authorities, “I put the paper towel in the baby’s mouth because she was crying.” At the time of the alleged incident, Merker was 22 years old. Further details about the circumstances leading to the baby’s death have not been disclosed publicly.
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.