Latest news with #BabyMoses
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Yahoo
Moment baby-killer calmly admits to suffocating, burning newborn ‘Baby Moses' 30 years ago caught on tape: ‘I did it'
The shocking moment a New York woman matter-of-factly admitted to suffocating and burning her infant son in an Albany park nearly 30 years ago was captured on newly released footage, according to a report. DNA testing on the child's remains led investigators to Keri Mazzuca, 52, who was interviewed last year over the death of 'Baby Moses' — a child found wrapped in a towel and burned at the foot of a statue of Moses in Albany's Washington Park in 1997, News10 reported. The technology, which Mazzuca submitted a sample for, was the same used to nab accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann and Golden State Killer Joseph James DeAngelo, according to the outlet. After being shown a gruesome photo of the newborn's charred remains, Mazzuca made an admission with seemingly casual indifference, footage released by the Albany County District Attorney's Office showed. 'I did it,' Mazzuca calmly states to the officer, before attempting to justify her heinous act when she was in her mid-twenties. 'I got pregnant. I had the baby. I gave birth in my bathtub; the baby died. I didn't know how to get rid of it,' she claimed to officers — still not appearing to break into any semblance of emotional response. Mazzuca denied burning Baby Moses, claiming that the child had died in the bathtub during childbirth and that she placed the corpse in a bag and handed it to a 'random person' at the park, video showed. Detectives told Mazzuca that an autopsy found Baby Moses had not died of natural causes and her story was not adding up, News10 reported. 'I didn't know what to do. I set the baby on fire,' Mazzuca admitted calmly, while adjusting the hem of her skirt. 'It was dead.' 'I suffocated the child,' she said, claiming to officers that the child was not alive when she lit him on fire. Mazzuca pleaded guilty to a manslaughter charge in February and was sentenced to 25 years in prison last month, News10 reported. Baby Moses was found on Sept. 7, 1997, in a blue towel — burned to death near a box of wooden matches, according to the Doe Network. The child has a headstone in Graceland Cemetery that reads, 'Moses Washington. Citizen of Albany. Child of God.'
NDTV
22-05-2025
- NDTV
On Camera, Chilling Moment Woman Admitted To Killing Her Baby 30 Years Ago
A New York woman calmly confessed to burning and strangling her baby boy in an Albany park about 30 years ago. A video, from the time of her interrogation in September 2024, shows the startling moment Keri Mazzuca, 52, confessed to killing her newborn son in 1997. She placed his body in a burnt cloth in a flowerbed close to the Moses statue in Albany, New York. A Freedom of Information Law request led to the release of the police interview. Mazzuca was charged with manslaughter in April 2025. The woman was interrogated last year over the death of "Baby Moses" after DNA testing on the baby's remains led investigators to her, News10 reported. Mazzuca provided a sample for the technology, which was reportedly used to apprehend Joseph James DeAngelo, the Golden State Killer, and Rex Heuermann, the alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer, The New York Post reported. According to the footage provided by the Albany County District Attorney's Office, Mazzuca confessed with apparent casual indifference after being shown a graphic image of the newborn's burned remains. She denied setting Baby Moses on fire, saying the infant had died in the bathtub during childbirth and that she had given the body to a "random person" at the park after placing it in a bag. Mazzuca calmly told the officer, "I did it," before trying to defend her horrible action when she was in her mid-twenties. "I got pregnant. I gave birth to the baby. The baby died after I gave birth in my bathtub. I was not sure of how to get rid of it," she told the cops, still not showing any remorse. Detectives told Mazzuca that her story did not add up and that an autopsy revealed Baby Moses had not died of natural causes. "I was unsure about what to do," Mazzuca calmly acknowledged, before adding, "I set the baby on fire. It was dead." Mazzuca was arrested in September 2024, 27 years after the child's death, based on DNA evidence. Judge Roger McDonough of Albany County Court sentenced Keri Mazzuca of Altamont to 25 years in jail for her role in the murder of her newborn entered a guilty plea in February. She also received a sentence for interfering with physical evidence, beginning simultaneously with the manslaughter accusation. After her release, she will also be on probation for five years.
Daily Mail
21-05-2025
- Daily Mail
Breathtaking moment polished middle-aged woman unburdens herself with awful admission that will ruin her life
A middle-aged woman shockingly confessed to being responsible for the mystery death of a baby boy that had baffled detectives for nearly three decades. The remains of the child have been known as Baby Moses since the 1997 discovery under the Moses Statue in Albany's Washington Park in upstate New York. His death had remained unsolved for 28 years until local woman Keri Mazzuca was bought in for questioning based on newly discovered DNA evidence. Authorities in the city have released the clip of her interrogation, captured last September, in which she suddenly confessed that the child belonged to her and claimed that he had died in a bathtub during childbirth. In the clip Mazzuca can be seen inside a police interrogation room being questioned by two detectives. She is shown a picture of the remains and recoils at them. After being informed during the questioning that the DNA testing on the child's remains had been connected to her family, Mazzuca agreed to give her DNA for further analysis. Mazzuca initially told officers that neither she nor any of her relatives were pregnant at the time of Baby Moses's death. Less than an hour later, however, she stunned investigators by admitting that she was the mother and responsible for what had happened. The detective had told her that they would be able figure out if she was the mother via her DNA, which prompted her admission. In the clip, she can be heard saying: 'I did it', the lead detective asks her: 'You did it?', to which she repeats her admission. When asked what happened, Mazzuca says: 'I got pregnant. I had the baby. I gave birth in my bathtub, the baby died. I didn't know how to get rid of it.' She continues: 'I put it in a towel, in my car. I carried it out like it was groceries.' Mazzuca told officers that she had given the remains of the baby to a stranger in the park and had not been responsible for burning them. The detective tells her: 'Keri that doesn't make sense. You did not hand this baby to a random person. That didn't happen.' She then confesses to also setting the baby on fire, saying: 'It was dead. It was dead.' The detective pushes back on her story, saying an autopsy carried out discovered that the baby had been breathing telling her the boy didn't die of natural causes. Mazzuca can then be heard confessing that she suffocated the child by putting him in a bag, saying she couldn't remember if she had smothered him. In February she pleaded guilty to a manslaughter charge and was sentenced last month to 25 years in prison, news10 reported. Prosecutors said that Mazzuca, who was 25 at the time, smothered the child before taking him to the park and setting it on fire. Prior to her sentence being handed down, Mazzuca addressed the court saying: 'I did a horrible, unimaginable thing and I live with remorse and regret 'I am a great mom. I've lived a law-abiding life, and I hope you use your discretion to go toward the lower end.' FBI researchers had been able to identify one of the child's relatives a few years ago after analyzing its DNA. The genetic evidence led investigators probing the death to Mazzuca's doorstep. At the time of the death she had lived just a few blocks from the park. DNA from trash outside her current address confirmed that a woman inside was Baby Moses' biological mother, officers had said. The horrifying scene of her child's final resting place was discovered by park workers in 1997: A partially charred blue pillowcase with burned matches scattered on top. When they nudged the bundle with a shovel, it revealed the lifeless body of a newborn baby boy. The shocking discovery sparked a manhunt that would last nearly three decades. As leads went cold, the city of Albany refused to let 'Baby Moses' be forgotten. They even 'adopted' the infant, naming him Moses Washington after the park statue near where he was found. He was laid to rest in a white casket and his grave was marked by a headstone topped with a marble lamb, the epitaph reads: 'Citizen of Albany, child of God'.
