Denise Merker, of Riverhead, admits killing her baby by stuffing paper towels down her throat 33 years ago, ADA says

A Riverhead woman accused of killing her newborn daughter in 1993 — and then dumping her body in a garbage bag on the side of Route 25 — pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder at her arraignment in Suffolk County criminal court on Monday.

Denise Reichman Merker, 55, trembled with emotion as Suffolk Assistant District Attorney Andrew Lee told acting Supreme Court Justice Steven Pilewski that the defendant admitted killing her baby by stuffing paper towels down her throat nearly 33 years ago.

Merker, wearing a purple turtleneck and blue pants, was so visibly shaken that court officers took the highly unusual step of providing her a chair to sit in as she appeared before Pilewski, who ordered her held without bail.

"I think the allegations are emotional at a minimum," Merker’s defense attorney, Danielle Koysh of Central Islip, told reporters when asked about the defendant’s condition.

Merker, who was 22 years old when the baby was born in 1993, told investigators last month that she hid her pregnancy from her family and the father of the girl, Lee told Pilewski.

She gave birth at her grandmother’s house in Aquebogue when nobody was home, and later stuffed a tightly packed wad of paper towels into the girl’s mouth, to the back of her throat.

The medical examiner, Lee said, ruled at the time that the cause of death of the child — dubbed "Baby Emily" by officials when she was buried in 1995 — was homicide by suffocation.

"Athe 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. 

Lee told Pilewski that Merker packed the baby’s body in a garbage bag and left it on the side of Route 25 near the intersection of Middle Country and Wading-River roads in Calverton on Sept. 27, 1993. The child’s body was later found by a state highway crew under a guard rail, he said, thrown on the side of the road "like garbage,’ Lee said.

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

Lee said Merker "thought she got away with murder," but investigators identified her as the child’s mother, and a suspect in the killing, through forensic investigative genetic genealogy. A law-enforcement source told Newsday last week that the method, which involves comparing DNA from crime scenes with public databases to identify victims and suspects in criminal cases, was a "significant factor" in recently identifying the child.

The newborn was full term when she was born and appeared to be well-nourished and well-developed. She weighed seven pounds and six ounces and was 21 inches tall. Baby Emily had blue eyes and brown hair, Lee said. 

Citing a complaint filed last month in Riverhead Town Justice Court, Newsday reported that Merker had acknowledged killing the baby during a Feb. 2 interview before her arrest.

"I did it, I did everything. I put the paper towel in the baby’s mouth because she was crying," Merker told Suffolk Homicide Squad Det. Michael Repperger, according to the complaint filed in Riverhead town court. Merker said she put the paper towels in the baby’s mouth because the infant was crying, the court documents said.

Merker is scheduled to return to court on April 15. She faces life in prison if convicted, Lee said.

The baby’s identity remained unknown as recently as January 2025, when her information was added to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons Systems database, records show. The child was among nine infants whose information was uploaded by the Suffolk County Medical Examiner’s Office between October 2024 and January 2025.

Suffolk officials launched a multiagency cold case unit to investigate unsolved killings in 2024. The task force is applying modern scientific investigative techniques like forensic investigative genetic genealogy to solve older cases, according to Suffolk District Attorney Ray Tierney