A New York appeals court has overturned the 2007 murderconviction of a Queens mother accused of killing her 4-year-old 17 years earlier and burying her on eastern Long Island.

Khairual Abdul

Khairual Abdul was convicted of depraved indifference murder in the 1990 beating death of 4-year-old Jennifer Shafiq .

Authorities say Abdul and her then-husband killed the little girl and buried her in a shallow grave in a wooded area in Manorville off of the Long Island Expressway.

The body was found by a hiker six years later. The identity of the child had remained a mystery until 2005.

The couple was arrested in Sacramento, Calif. in March 2006. Each spouse blamed the other.

The child’s father, Parmjit Singh, later pleaded guilty to manslaughter and hindering prosecution.

The appeals court ruled that Suffolk County Court Judge C. Randall Hinrichs failed to properly answer a technical legal question from the jury.

Suffolk County prosecutors say they will appeal the ruling ordering a new trial.

With Associated Press.