Prosecutors say DNA genealogy helped identify a Long Island baby found dead in a garbage bag beside a Calverton road more than 30 years ago.

RIVERHEAD, N.Y. — A Long Island woman has pleaded not guilty to murder after prosecutors said she killed her newborn daughter in 1993, put paper towels in the baby’s mouth and left the body in a garbage bag along a road in Calverton.

The case moved from a cold-file mystery to an active homicide prosecution after investigators said modern DNA work helped identify the infant once known only as Baby Jane Doe. Denise Merker was arrested Feb. 2, arraigned first in local court and later brought before Suffolk County Court, where prosecutors laid out a case built on old evidence, newer forensic testing and statements they say she made to detectives. The immediate stakes are whether prosecutors can turn a decades-old investigation into a conviction and whether the defense can weaken the confession and the timeline around the baby’s death.

The investigation began in late September 1993, when transportation workers cleaning near Route 25 in Calverton found a garbage bag under or near a guardrail by the intersection with Wading River-Manorville Road. Inside was the body of a newborn girl. Early reports said the infant’s umbilical cord was still attached, and the Suffolk County Medical Examiner ruled the death a homicide by suffocation one day after the body was examined. The baby was never publicly identified at the time, and no arrest followed. The file stayed open for years as one of the region’s unresolved infant death cases. Prosecutors now say the child had been carried to full term and was born alive. In court papers described by local news outlets, detectives said Merker later told them, “I did it. I did everything,” a statement prosecutors are expected to treat as a central piece of the case.

Authorities have not released every detail they believe they can prove, but several key claims have emerged through court appearances and charging documents. Prosecutors say Merker was 22 in 1993, hid the pregnancy from people around her and gave birth at her grandmother’s house. They say the baby was alive, breathing and crying after birth. Court records cited by local outlets say Merker told detectives she put a paper towel in the infant’s mouth because the baby was crying. Prosecutors also say the body was then placed in a bag and left on the side of the road in Calverton. Merker has denied the charge in court by entering a not-guilty plea. It remains unclear what physical evidence from 1993 was preserved, whether any witness saw the bag being left at the roadside and whether the defense will challenge the circumstances of the police interview that produced the alleged confession.

The case matters beyond one courtroom because it reflects how old homicides are being rebuilt through forensic genealogy and renewed cold-case review. Suffolk County officials have said a recently formed task force submitted DNA for genealogy testing, and that work helped connect the baby to Merker. Police have also said genetic genealogy was a significant factor in identifying the child, one of several previously unnamed infants whose DNA profiles were added to a national missing and unidentified persons database in an effort to restore their identities. That broader context helps explain why a case that sat dormant for decades moved quickly once investigators had a biological lead. Earlier reporting from 1993 described a grim scene: a newborn discarded beside a highway, no family member stepping forward, and no immediate path to a suspect. In that period, the science that now drives many cold-case breaks was not available in the same form or speed.

The procedural path has also become clearer as the case has advanced. Merker was arrested Feb. 2 and arraigned the next day in Riverhead Justice Court, where records show she was held without bail. She was later indicted by a Suffolk County grand jury on a count of second-degree murder and brought into Suffolk County Court in Riverhead for arraignment on the indictment. At that appearance, prosecutors summarized the allegations in open court, including their claim that the baby was silenced and discarded after birth. Merker pleaded not guilty. An earlier court date was moved before the county-court appearance, and later reporting said she was due back in court on April 15. No trial date has been announced publicly. It is also not clear yet whether prosecutors will seek to introduce recorded interview excerpts, expert testimony on the baby’s cause of death, or additional genealogy evidence to explain how detectives identified the child after so many years.

The courtroom account has been accompanied by the stark details of where the case began. Calverton is a hamlet of open roadway, industrial parcels and stretches of undeveloped land, and the place where the baby was found has remained part of local memory because of the age of the victim and the brutality described by investigators. The discovery by road workers, rather than family or neighbors, underscored how isolated the scene was. In later coverage, prosecutors said the infant had no chance to survive once her airway was blocked. Defense counsel earlier called the matter an extremely emotional case, a brief public acknowledgment of the weight carried by both the accusation and the history behind it. For investigators, the arrest closed one chapter by naming the child’s mother as a suspect. For the court, the harder chapter is just beginning: testing whether the old records, preserved evidence and alleged statements can withstand the scrutiny that comes with a murder prosecution.

Merker remains jailed and the murder count pending as prosecutors prepare for the next court date on April 15.

Author note: Last updated March 23, 2026.