Mother of boy found in trash can arraigned
A woman arrested for allegedly abandoning her newborn in a Dorchester trash can is being charged with attempted murder and reckless endangerment — but the boy has survived the ordeal.
Marie Merisier, 33, was held on $100,000 cash bail after appearing in court Monday.
According to prosecutors, Merisier was working in a 73-year-old man’s home in Dorchester Friday when, the man said, she went into the bathroom for an extended period of time, during which he heard noises. She came out, refused medical attention, and left his home, authorities said.
Good Samaritan Silvana Sanchez was walking by Pat’s Pizza — about 200 feet from that apartment — when she heard cries coming from a trash barrel. She flagged EMS for help and that’s when the newborn baby boy was found.
First responders on call from an incident down the road investigated the scene and discovered the child
had been left in the trash can in a double-knotted plastic bag. Inside the bag, they also found a placenta, prosecutors said. They rushed the infant to a local hospital for treatment.
The child is said to be in good condition and with a temporary foster home under the watch of the state
Department of Children and Families.
Video footage obtained by authorities shows Merisier reaching into her leather handbag to dispose of the plastic bag in trash barrel. When arrested, Merisier told police the baby was not hers. After being read her Miranda
rights, she doubled back and said it was her baby, but she did not believe it was alive after delivery, prosecutors said.
Merisier speaks only Haitian and had been living in a room in Milton. She has no relatives in the area, and is likely unable to afford her cash bail — leading defense attorneys to argue that she was essentially being held without bail.
Massachusetts’ “Baby Safe Haven Law” that says that “voluntary abandonment” of a baby 7 days old or younger to a hospital, police department or manned fire station doesn’t in itself count as abuse or neglect, and that it doesn’t automatically waive parental rights.
The law was created in 2004 with the hope it would prevent these situations.
Mike Morrisey, director of Baby Safe Haven New England, said his organization is looking to improve its footprint in Boston to get the word out, especially after this case.
“We’re working all the time to get information to people before they get into this kind of crisis,” Morrisey said, adding his group sees new arrivals — especially immigrants — not knowing help is all around.
“We need to look at what happened Friday and see how we can get into that channel,” he said. He said to stay tuned, Boston is where his group will “ramp up” the focus.