The woman responsible for the 1997 death of her infant son, who became known to the public as "Baby Moses," pleaded guilty Thursday to causing the boy's death in Albany County Court.

Keri Mazzuca, 52, of Altamont, pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter and tampering with physical evidence, and was taken to the County Correctional Facility. She faces up 25 years in state prison when she is sentenced April 18, Albany County District Attorney Lee Kindlon said.

Mazzuca previously pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, concealment of a human corpse and tampering with physical evidence in connection with the death.

Her arrest stemmed from the discovery of a deceased newborn who Kindlon said was found abandoned, smothered and burned in a flower bed beside the Moses monument in Albany's Washington Park on the morning of Sept. 7, 1997. 

A DNA profile provided to Albany detectives by the FBI linking Mazzuca to the crime played a significant role in her arrest, made in September 2024.

“They never stopped, from the city workers to the police officers, detectives, the politicians, the criminal justice professors, the students, the forensic team, the FBI officials, our prosecutors – they never stopped caring about Baby Moses,” Kindlon said. “Now, 27 years later, we can look at this collective investigative effort combined with the emerging science and be reinvigorated that we can tackle even more cold cases going forward.”