Inside The Nearly 8-Year Investigation That Led To Danbury Mother’s Arrest In Newborn's Death

DANBURY, CT — Employees at a Stamford recycling facility made a gruesome discovery in October 2018: the body of a full-term newborn boy moving through the plant's machinery.

What followed was an investigation that took nearly eight years and eventually led police to Dominique Harrison, a 28-year-old Danbury woman charged with murder in connection with the 2018 death.

Court documents also detail investigators' findings regarding the death of a second baby born in 2019, though Harrison has not been charged in that death and the investigation is ongoing.

Harrison has since been arrested and charged with murder of a victim under 16 years old, with a bond set for $2.5 million. Her next appearance is scheduled for July 24 at 10 a.m. at Danbury Superior Court.

Court documents detail the years-long investigation involving several secret pregnancies between 2018 and 2021 as Harrison awaits trial.

A Newborn Found Among Garbage

City Charting & Recycling collects waste from homes and businesses across Fairfield County, New Haven County, and Westchester County, where it is placed onto a conveyor belt system, according to the affidavit.

The materials traveled through machinery designed to tear open garbage bags and separate lighter items from heavier objects. Investigators said the newborn traveled approximately 250 feet and passed through three rotating drums equipped with paddles before an employee monitoring the hopper saw his body.

An autopsy determined the newborn was born alive and was full-term with the umbilical cord still attached. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Connecticut ruled the newborn had been placed alive in the garbage, and its manner of death was homicide from neglect.

The report documented extensive blunt-force injuries, including skull fractures and injuries to the brain, torso, and extremities. Investigators said the trauma was consistent with the child being crushed during the collection and recycling process.

Detectives still faced one enormous question: Where had the baby entered the waste stream? Stamford police were unable to generate a significant lead until October 2023.

A Family Tree With Dozens Of Possibilities

A breakthrough finally came when investigators learned the newborn could be biologically connected to descendants of a family with ties to Bethel and Danbury.

But the patriarch's obituary listed 21 grandchildren, all of whom initially represented possible parental candidates or close relatives of the newborn, according to the affidavit.

After the unexpected June 2025 death of a 28-year-old member of the family detectives had been examining, investigators had the opportunity to narrow the family line.

Because the death was investigated by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, a blood sample was available for comparison. Testing showed an uncle-nephew relationship between the deceased man and the newborn, according to the affidavit, indicating one of his brothers was likely the father.

A Cigarette And A Dunkin' Cup Identified The Parents

On Nov. 10, 2025, Stamford Police observed one brother discard a cigarette in Danbury. After collecting it and conducting DNA testing, investigators were able to confirm a parent-child match.

With one of the brothers confirmed as the father, detectives looked into his previous romantic relationships, using Facebook to identify two potential mothers he was dating at the time.

One of these women was Dominique Harrison.

As police began surveilling Harrison, they collected a discarded Dunkin' cup. DNA testing confirmed she was the baby's mother.

'I Never Had a Kid'

Investigators first met Harrison on March 31, 2026. They told her they believed she was the mother of a deceased newborn found at a recycling facility.

"I didn't have a kid, I never had a kid," Harrison initially responded, according to the affidavit.

But she later acknowledged being pregnant in 2018, that she had been in a poor mental state and in a physically and verbally abusive relationship at the time.

Harrison said she did not realize she was pregnant, but began to suspect it about four or five months into the pregnancy.

She told police she went to Planned Parenthood in Danbury and considered an abortion but was too far along.

Despite living with her mother and sister, no one knew Harrison was pregnant because she wore oversized clothing.

She described giving birth in a bathtub, hearing the baby cry, cutting the umbilical cord, and wrapping him in a Snoopy blanket.

Harrison said she called a friend for help and that the friend took the newborn to Danbury Hospital. She said she went to the hospital the next day to receive medical treatment after birth.

But the friend gave investigators a different account.

He was adamant that the hospital surrender occurred in 2021, not 2018. Medical records and Department of Children and Families information later confirmed that a separate newborn was surrendered at Danbury Hospital under Connecticut's Safe Haven law in April 2021, several years after the deceased newborn was found.

Three Pregnancies and Conflicting Accounts

On April 3, Harrison sent detectives text messages saying she had confused the events surrounding her pregnancies.

“I had 2 kids and the reason for my 1st kid is why I didn’t want another one,” she wrote, according to the affidavit. “I mixed up my first and second.”

She went on to claim the baby from her first pregnancy was not crying after birth and that she held the newborn for about an hour, hoping the child would cry.

Harrison said she had been afraid to seek medical treatment and claimed a friend told her hospital workers might believe she had killed or injured the baby.

“I could have never done that,” she wrote, according to the affidavit. “I love babies and kids.”

She told detectives she gave birth on Oct. 12, 2018, in the bathtub of her Prince Street apartment. In one version, she said she propped the child up while water remained in the tub, left the room, and returned to find him submerged.

Harrison said she later brought the newborn to a wooded area near Backus Avenue and left him there. She said she returned after seeking medical treatment and discovered he was gone.

But Harrison's account continued to change.

She later admitted that she brought the baby to a dumpster in a secluded area at 15 Backus Ave. in the Danbury Square shopping plaza.

During an interview on June 17, Harrison acknowledged the child was still moving and "not crying as much" when she placed him inside.

Medical records complicated Harrison’s explanations.

Records received from Planned Parenthood showed she was treated there in September 2019, not during the 2018 pregnancy as she had initially suggested. Those records confirmed a third pregnancy and indicated she was considering adoption, according to the affidavit.

Investigators concluded that Harrison had been pregnant at least three times:

• The 2018 pregnancy that resulted in the death under investigation.
• A 2019 pregnancy addressed through Planned Parenthood.
• A 2021 pregnancy that ended in a Safe Haven surrender at Danbury Hospital.

Police said Harrison provided multiple versions of each pregnancy, with some details confirmed by records and others contradicted by witnesses, medical documentation, or her own later statements. All three babies were carried to full term and born alive.

The second child was also born in Harrison's bathtub in 2019, according to the affidavit. She said that baby was also alive when she brought it to the same dumpster in Danbury. Police wrote that neither baby was fed or given medical care. The affidavit details investigators' findings regarding the 2019 death, but Harrison has not yet been charged in connection with that death.

The affidavit also describes concerning circumstances surrounding the 2021 birth.

DCF records reportedly stated the newborn was covered in mud, twigs and other organic material. Harrison told investigators she had brought the baby outside and left him near a fence while waiting for a friend to take him to the hospital because she did not want anyone inside the home to hear.

Medical records described the child as cyanotic, with bluish extremities, according to the affidavit.

That baby survived and was surrendered at Danbury Hospital.

Harrison remains held on a $2.5 million bond.