A Long Island mother allegedly confessed to killing her newborn daughter and dumping her on the side of the road more than 30 years ago — chillingly admitting to police, “I did it.”
Denise Merker, 55, allegedly made the stunning confession to investigators on Feb. 2 that she stuffed a paper towel in the infant’s mouth because she wouldn’t stop crying.
The child, identified only as Baby Jane Doe, was found dead and stuffed in a plastic bag by a garbage man near an intersection in Calverton — about 70 miles east of Manhattan — on Sept. 27, 1993.
The case went cold for nearly 33 years.
“I did it,” Merker told Suffolk Homicide Squad Det. Michael Repperger, according to a felony criminal complaint obtained by Newsday.
“I did everything. I put the paper towel in the baby’s mouth because she was crying,” Merker said, according to the complaint.
Merker, of Riverhead, was just 22 years old and went by Denise Reischman at the time. No additional details about the crime were revealed in the charging document.
Forensic investigative genetic genealogy [FIGG] was a “significant factor” in identifying the child and leading detectives to Merker, police sources told the newspaper.
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.
A wedding announcement published in Newsday in 1996 shows that Merker lived in Selden and worked as a dentist office manager in Jamesport.
Merker’s attorney, Edward Burke Jr., told Newsday the case was “gut-wrenching” and “emotional,” but declined to comment further.
Merker is charged with second-degree murder and remains locked up at the Suffolk County jail.
She is expected to appear in court on March 2 after two previously scheduled court dates were postponed for unknown reasons.