A mother is facing charges of attempted murder and reckless endangerment of a child after allegedly abandoning her baby in a trash can outside a Dorchester business on Friday.
Marie Merisier, 33, appeared in court on Monday afternoon on the charges, where a not guilty plea was entered on her behalf. Bail was set at $100,000 cash, and she was ordered to have no contact with the child or any witnesses.
Prosecutors said she went to the home of a 73-year-old man she knew on Dorchester Avenue in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood on Friday for the purpose of cooking or cleaning for the man.
The man said he noticed Merisier was visibly pregnant. She went to the bathroom in the apartment and was in there for approximately one hour.
The man said he heard noises from the bathroom, and at some point, he heard a baby crying. When the woman came out of the bathroom, she was carrying a brown leather bag. The man said he heard crying coming from inside the bag she was carrying.
The man said he asked Merisier if she needed an ambulance. She declined, and when she left, the man called 911.
The Massachusetts Department of Children and Families now has custody of the baby found in a Dorchester trash can, but it's still unclear whether the child's mother will face any charges.
A short time later, Silvana Sanchez, a woman who works in the area, walked by a trash barrel outside Pat's Pizza, about 200 feet from the man's apartment. She heard a baby crying from inside the barrel.
Sanchez said the sound "didn't seem right." She noticed an EMS vehicle parked nearby and flagged them down. The emergency medical technicians found a newborn male baby wrapped in a cloth inside two knotted plastic grocery bags.
Sanchez said the incident left her upset.
"I thought it was, like, puppies, because it just sounded fake," she said of her initial reaction.
The baby is safe and healthy in the hospital. He is in the custody of the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families.
Video recovered from the area outside Pat's Pizza showed Merisier in front of the business reaching into her leather bag and putting a plastic bag into the trash barrel, according to prosecutors. When questioned by detectives, she initially denied doing it, but then admitted that it was her, saying she thought the baby was dead and she didn't have anything for it anyway.
Prosecutors asked that Merisier be held on $100,000 cash bail. Her defense attorney, however, argued that she should be released on her own recognizance with GPS and under house arrest, given mental health questions raised in the police report.
"This is a person who is willing to show up for court," the attorney said. "There is nothing in the allegations suggesting an attempt or effort to flee."
Her lawyer said that Merisier has no ability to pay, so setting bail at $100,000 essentially amounted to holding her without bail. She said Merisier was a cook and server at a local Haitian restaurant before losing her job due to the pandemic.
She is scheduled to return to Dorchester District Court on March 29 for a probable cause hearing.
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