The Red Wing woman who was identified and arrested earlier this year as the mother of two of the three newborn children who were found dead in the Mississippi River in southeastern Minnesota between 1999 and 2007, has entered not guilty pleas to murder charges.
52-year-old Jennifer Matter faces two counts of second-degree murder and is scheduled to return to court for a settlement conference in late December.
DNA testing identified Matter as the mother of a newborn boy whose remains were found in Lake Pepin at Frontenac in December 2003.
A second child, a newborn baby girl found deceased on November 4, 1999, in the Lower Boat Harbor of the Mississippi River near Red Wing, was also determined through DNA to be Matter's child.
Matter has not been charged in connection with her infant son's death, which remains under investigation.