Arrest warrant reveals what led to Danbury woman's recent arrest in 2018 baby murder
Stamford police began investigating the death of a newborn in October 2018 after the baby's body was found at City Carting.
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The arrest warrant for a Danbury woman recently charged in the 2018 death of a baby boy is now unsealed, revealing new details about the lengthy investigation that ultimately led police to arrest her nearly eight years later.
Dominique Harrison, 28, of Danbury, is charged with murder with special circumstances, the most serious homicide charge in Connecticut, in the death of her newborn son. Harrison was taken into custody on June 18.
The investigation began on Oct. 16, 2018, when Stamford police responded to City Carting, a trash and recycling facility, after an employee discovered the body of a dead baby boy among trash and recycling that had been dumped there. At the time, City Carting provided refuse and recycling collection services to more than 11,000 residential and commercial customers in Fairfield County and Westchester County, NY, per the warrant, giving investigators a large area of where the baby could’ve come from.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner examined the newborn and determined it had been born alive and was full-term with its umbilical cord attached, according to the warrant.
The OCME said the child “had blunt torso trauma, blunt extremity trauma and blunt head trauma,” likely from going through the machines at the facility, the warrant said. In 2019, the cause of death was ruled as "being placed in the garbage" and the manner of death as "homicide (neglect).”
The case had no leads until October 2023 when police got a break the baby could be related to a family in the Danbury-Bethel area. The warrant said investigators spent the next two years doing ancestry research, DNA comparisons and forensic analysis to identify the baby's father, which was confirmed through testing a cigarette that police recovered during surveillance of him in November 2025.
Investigators then used the man's public Facebook profile to identify Harrison as one of two women he was dating in 2018. The warrant said surveillance of Harrison led investigators to test a straw she threw out in December 2025, which confirmed she was the newborn's mother.
Detectives interviewed Harrison several times between March 31 and June 17, according to the warrant, which said Harrison initially told police she "never had a kid," then admitted to the pregnancy but said she hid it from her family and the baby's father. According to the warrant, she gave multiple accounts of the child's birth and death, including that the newborn was stillborn and died shortly after birth. She eventually told police she delivered the baby alive in a bathtub when no one in her family was home on Oct. 12, 2018.
The warrant said she later confessed to leaving her son in a remote dumpster behind a shopping plaza on Backus Avenue while he was still alive. She told police the child was still moving and “not crying as much” when she disposed of him, per the warrant.
Police believe the newborn died when he and the contents of the dumpster were loaded into a recycling truck, then compacted, before being brought to City Carting.
The warrant also said police determined Harrison was pregnant at least two other times after the 2018 pregnancy—once in 2019 and once in 2021. She told police she left the second baby at the doors of Danbury Hospital in 2019, though police noted they haven't been able to confirm or dispel that, the warrant said. Investigators verified the third child was surrendered by Harrison’s friend at her request to Danbury Hospital in April 2021 under the Safe Havens Act, per the warrant.
Harrison was arraigned on June 22, where the prosecutor said police continue to investigate Harrison and additional serious charges are expected. She’s being held on a $2.5 million bond and is due back in court on July 10.
PRIOR COVERAGE: Prosecutor: Danbury woman charged with murder left newborn in remote dumpster in 2018
Police renew attention to Safe Havens Act after Danbury woman charged with killing newborn
