diff --git a/protected/gatk-tools-protected/src/main/java/org/broadinstitute/gatk/tools/walkers/variantutils/ReferenceConfidenceVariantContextMerger.java b/protected/gatk-tools-protected/src/main/java/org/broadinstitute/gatk/tools/walkers/variantutils/ReferenceConfidenceVariantContextMerger.java
index fcb3dca0a..2780c3806 100644
--- a/protected/gatk-tools-protected/src/main/java/org/broadinstitute/gatk/tools/walkers/variantutils/ReferenceConfidenceVariantContextMerger.java
+++ b/protected/gatk-tools-protected/src/main/java/org/broadinstitute/gatk/tools/walkers/variantutils/ReferenceConfidenceVariantContextMerger.java
@@ -53,6 +53,7 @@ package org.broadinstitute.gatk.tools.walkers.variantutils;
 
 import htsjdk.variant.variantcontext.*;
 import htsjdk.variant.vcf.VCFConstants;
+import org.broadinstitute.gatk.tools.walkers.genotyper.GenotypeLikelihoodCalculator;
 import org.broadinstitute.gatk.tools.walkers.genotyper.GenotypeLikelihoodCalculators;
 import org.broadinstitute.gatk.utils.GenomeLoc;
 import org.broadinstitute.gatk.utils.MathUtils;
@@ -431,13 +432,72 @@ public class ReferenceConfidenceVariantContextMerger {
 
         // create the index mapping, using the <NON-REF> allele whenever such a mapping doesn't exist
         for ( int i = 1; i < targetAlleles.size(); i++ ) {
-            final int indexOfRemappedAllele = remappedAlleles.indexOf(targetAlleles.get(i));
+            final Allele targetAllele = targetAlleles.get(i);
+
+            // if there’s more than 1 DEL allele then we need to use the best one
+            if ( targetAllele == Allele.SPAN_DEL && g.hasPL() ) {
+                final int occurrences = Collections.frequency(remappedAlleles, Allele.SPAN_DEL);
+                if ( occurrences > 1 ) {
+                    final int indexOfBestDel = indexOfBestDel(remappedAlleles, g.getPL(), g.getPloidy());
+                    indexMapping[i] = ( indexOfBestDel == -1 ? indexOfNonRef : indexOfBestDel );
+                    continue;
+                }
+            }
+
+            final int indexOfRemappedAllele = remappedAlleles.indexOf(targetAllele);
             indexMapping[i] = indexOfRemappedAllele == -1 ? indexOfNonRef : indexOfRemappedAllele;
         }
 
         return indexMapping;
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Returns the index of the best spanning deletion allele based on AD counts
+     *
+     * @param alleles   the list of alleles
+     * @param PLs       the list of corresponding PL values
+     * @param ploidy    the ploidy of the sample
+     * @return the best index or -1 if not found
+     */
+    private static int indexOfBestDel(final List<Allele> alleles, final int[] PLs, final int ploidy) {
+        int bestIndex = -1;
+        int bestPL = Integer.MAX_VALUE;
+
+        for ( int i = 0; i < alleles.size(); i++ ) {
+            if ( alleles.get(i) == Allele.SPAN_DEL ) {
+                final int homAltIndex = findHomIndex(i, ploidy, alleles.size());
+                final int PL = PLs[homAltIndex];
+                if ( PL < bestPL ) {
+                    bestIndex = i;
+                    bestPL = PL;
+                }
+            }
+        }
+
+        return bestIndex;
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Returns the index of the PL that represents the homozygous genotype of the given i'th allele
+     *
+     * @param i           the index of the allele with the list of alleles
+     * @param ploidy      the ploidy of the sample
+     * @param numAlleles  the total number of alleles
+     * @return the hom index
+     */
+    private static int findHomIndex(final int i, final int ploidy, final int numAlleles) {
+        // some quick optimizations for the common case
+        if ( ploidy == 2 )
+            return i + (i * (i + 1) / 2);   // this is straight from the VCF spec on PLs
+        if ( ploidy == 1 )
+            return i;
+
+        final GenotypeLikelihoodCalculator calculator = GenotypeLikelihoodCalculators.getInstance(ploidy, numAlleles);
+        final int[] alleleIndexes = new int[ploidy];
+        Arrays.fill(alleleIndexes, i);
+        return calculator.allelesToIndex(alleleIndexes);
+    }
+
     /**
      * Generates a new AD array by adding zeros for missing alleles given the set of indexes of the Genotype's current
      * alleles from the original AD.
diff --git a/protected/gatk-tools-protected/src/test/java/org/broadinstitute/gatk/tools/walkers/variantutils/CombineGVCFsIntegrationTest.java b/protected/gatk-tools-protected/src/test/java/org/broadinstitute/gatk/tools/walkers/variantutils/CombineGVCFsIntegrationTest.java
index c5a1c8c84..8ac40aa74 100644
--- a/protected/gatk-tools-protected/src/test/java/org/broadinstitute/gatk/tools/walkers/variantutils/CombineGVCFsIntegrationTest.java
+++ b/protected/gatk-tools-protected/src/test/java/org/broadinstitute/gatk/tools/walkers/variantutils/CombineGVCFsIntegrationTest.java
@@ -222,6 +222,39 @@ public class CombineGVCFsIntegrationTest extends WalkerTest {
         executeTest("testSpanningDeletions", spec);
     }
 
+    @Test
+    public void testMultipleSpanningDeletionsForOneSample() {
+        WalkerTestSpec spec = new WalkerTestSpec(
+                "-T CombineGVCFs --no_cmdline_in_header -o %s -R " + b37KGReference +
+                        " -V " + privateTestDir + "spanningDel.many.g.vcf",
+                1,
+                Arrays.asList("5c88e10211def13ba847c29d0fe9e191"));
+        spec.disableShadowBCF();
+        executeTest("testMultipleSpanningDeletionsForOneSample", spec);
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testMultipleSpanningDeletionsForOneSampleHaploid() {
+        WalkerTestSpec spec = new WalkerTestSpec(
+                "-T CombineGVCFs --no_cmdline_in_header -o %s -R " + b37KGReference +
+                        " -V " + privateTestDir + "spanningDel.many.haploid.g.vcf",
+                1,
+                Arrays.asList("76fc5f6b949ac0b893061828af800bf8"));
+        spec.disableShadowBCF();
+        executeTest("testMultipleSpanningDeletionsForOneSampleHaploid", spec);
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testMultipleSpanningDeletionsForOneSampleTetraploid() {
+        WalkerTestSpec spec = new WalkerTestSpec(
+                "-T CombineGVCFs --no_cmdline_in_header -o %s -R " + b37KGReference +
+                        " -V " + privateTestDir + "spanningDel.many.tetraploid.g.vcf",
+                1,
+                Arrays.asList("0ec79471550ec5e30540f68cb0651b14"));
+        spec.disableShadowBCF();
+        executeTest("testMultipleSpanningDeletionsForOneSampleTetraploid", spec);
+    }
+
     @Test
     public void testWrongReferenceBaseBugFix() throws Exception {
         final String cmd = "-T CombineGVCFs -R " + b37KGReference + " -V " + (privateTestDir + "combine-gvcf-wrong-ref-input1.vcf"