'Thrown To Side Of Road Like Garbage': Mom Confesses To Baby's Murder, Stuffing Paper Towels In Throat: DA

RIVERHEAD, NY — Her hands visibly shaking in her handcuffs, a Riverhead woman who was arrested and accused of murdering her newborn baby in a cold case dating back to 1993, appeared in Suffolk County criminal court Monday for arraignment.

Denise Reischman Merker, 56, is accused of abandoning her deceased infant daughter on the side of the road on Route 25 in Calverton, according to court documents and officials.

Merker pleaded not guilty, her attorney Danielle Coysh said.

According to a Riverhead Town Justice Court representative, Merker, 56, was arrested on Feb. 2. She was charged with second-degree murder and arraigned on Feb. 3 at Riverhead Town Justice Court, according to the representative.

On Monday, Merker, wearing a purple shirt and jeans, appeared before Justice Steven Pilewski at the Arthur M. Cromarty Criminal Court complex.

Assistant District Attorney Andrew Lee said that the infant was found by Department of Transportation workers on Sept. 17, 1993, on Route 25 east of Wading River Road. The DOT worker "came upon a dark garbage bag under a guardrail. And, to their shock and dismay, they observed, inside the bag, a dead female infant," he said.

Also inside the bag were the infant's placenta and a cut umbilical cord, the indictment said.

And, Lee said, the "horror continued: Inside the baby's mouth were what appeared to be moist paper towels," packed so tightly that the baby's mouth remained "forcibly" open.

The worker called 911 and the baby was deemed deceased, Lee said.

"In the months and years that followed, no one came forward to claim her, not even the baby's own mother," Lee said.

The infant was called Baby Jane Doe until 1995, when Msgr. John Fagan, longtime director of the Little Flower Children and Family Services of New York, arranged for the burial, Lee said. "The baby was ceremoniously given the name of Emily, to provide her with honor and dignity - and that's how the People will refer to her," he said.

After Baby Emily was found, Lee said, an autopsy at the medical examiner's office revealed that she weighed 7 lbs., 6 oz. and, when laid flat, was 21 inches tall. "She was well-nourished and well-developed," Lee said. "She was born alive."

Baby Emily, he said, had blue eyes and brown hair.

During the autopsy, it was noted that not only was the baby's mouth "completely filled with paper towels — but they were pushed all the way down to the back of her throat — a tightly impacted wad of paper towels," Lee said.

The medical examiner ruled the baby's death as homicide by suffocation, Lee said.

"For almost 33 years, her identity remained unknown, until recently," Lee said. The District Attorney's Office and Suffolk County Police Department's cold case task force embarked upon studying the baby's DNA and genetic history and identified the child.

According to the indictment, the child's father, who never knew about the pregnancy, was identified and has been working with law enforcement. He told police he worked with a woman named "Denise" at Grimaldi's Meat Market in Riverhead, the indictment said. He was sexually intimate with her between 1992 and 1993 but did not recall her last name at the time, the indictment said.

The father's name is not being revealed to protect his privacy, officials said.

On or about Nov. 20, 2025, detectives met with Merker in a supermarket parking lot, the indictment said. During that meeting, she denied giving birth to anyone other than her two (now adult) children, the indictment said.

Further, she denied ever having a miscarriage or an abortion, the indictment said. During that same interview, the defendant was asked to voluntarily provide a DNA sample; Merker ultimately refused, the indictment said.

After she refused to provide a buccal swab, members of the cold case task force began to covertly surveil Merker with the hopes of obtaining an abandonment sample, the indictment said. On Dec. 22, 2025, members of the CCTF observed her smoking what appeared to be a cigarette while seated inside her car in a public parking lot, the indictment said.

Shortly thereafter, she was observed discarding the cigarette outside of her driver's side window, the indictment said. The discarded item was recovered by the CCTF and brought for further DNA analysis, officials said.

On Jan. 5, a report indicated that a DNA profile was obtained from the abandoned cigarette recovered from the defendant; the DNA profile previously obtained from Baby Jane Doe was compared to the DNA profile obtained from the abandoned cigarette recovered from Merker; and there was "very strong support for inclusion," that Merker "is the mother of Baby Jane Doe — in other words, the DNA profile previously obtained from Baby Jane Doe is included as a possible biological daughter of the defendant as it is 3 x 107 times more likely to see the patterns of DNA if Baby Jane Doe were the biological daughter of the defendant rather than a random member of the United States population."

On Jan. 30, 2026, the task force obtained a search warrant to seize both a buccal swab from Merker as well as her cellular telephone, the indictment said.

On Feb. 2, detectives approached Merker at a gas station in Riverhead; she was interviewed and voluntarily agreed to continue the interview at SCPD's homicide office, the indictment said.

She was given, and waived, her Miranda rights, the DA's office said.

During the interview, Merker admitted to giving birth to Baby Jane Doe, the indictment said.

"As the interview continued, the defendant was confronted with the autopsy report, which indicated Baby Jane Doe was born alive. In response, the defendant stated, in sum and substance: 'Okay, she cried a little bit and I got scared. That's why I put the paper towel down the throat because she was crying and I got scared. I don't know why I was scared. . . I didn't know what to do. No one else was home at the time. It's my fault. I can't turn back time...The baby was breathing and crying . . . That's why I put the paper towels in the baby's mouth,'" the indictment said.

Merker told officials that in 1993, she knew she was pregnant, Lee said. "She was 22 at the time and hid the pregnancy from everyone, including her family and the father of the child. This defendant had no plans for Baby Emily — no crib, no diapers, no bassinet — in her words, 'nothing'," Lee said.

Merker gave birth to her daughter at her grandmother's Aquebogue home; no one was home at the time, Lee said.

Of Merker, he added: "She confirmed that Baby Emily was born alive. She admitted to placing paper towels down the baby's throat because, in her words, 'the baby was crying.'"

Once she realized that Baby Jane Doe was deceased, "she enlisted the aid of another and the two traveled together by car, which culminated in Baby Jane Doe being discarded on the side of the road," the indictment said.

The deceased infant was then "thrown to the side of the road like garbage," Lee said.

The indictment continued: "Upon being advised she was being placed under arrest for murder in the second degree, the defendant indicated, in sum and substance, 'How much time am I spending in jail? I cannot believe this is happening to me. Oh, my god, I'm never going home."

Merker has no prior criminal history and was originally "a minimal flight risk — but that was before, when she thought she had gotten away with murder," Lee said. "All that changed this month. She now faces a second-degree murder charge, and the possibility of spending the rest of her life in prison."

At those words, Merker's hands began shaking and twisting inside the handcuffs; she was brought a chair to sit.

"Based on the heinous nature of the charges — at the moment when Baby Emily needed a mother's nurturing and care, this woman placed paper towels in the throat of an utterly defenseless infant," Lee said the prosecution was asking that she remain remanded to custody without bail.

Attorney Danielle Coysh, now representing Merker — Edward Burke, Jr. was the previous attorney on the case — said that she had only recently met with her client, was still in the process of reviewing preliminary discovery, and would like to reserve the right to ask for a bail application at a future date.

She said she expected further discovery.

When asked about the emotional nature of the case, Coysh said: "Everyone is entitled to a defense. I took an oath to uphold the Constitution, regardless of what someone's charged with. Let's all remember — there's a presumption of innocence. It's an allegation. And she's entitled to a trial. I think it's really important that everybody take a step back and and remember that."

Of her client's visible shaking in court, Coysh said: "The allegations are emotional, at a minimum."

The judge remanded Merker back into custody, her next court date is April 15.