|
Erin Merdy, 34, pleaded guilty earlier this year to first-degree
murder charges in the 2022 killing of her 7-year-old son
Zachary, her 4-year-old daughter Liliana and her 3-month-old son
Oliver.
“No sentence can fully measure the loss of a seven-year-old, a
four-year-old and a three-month-old baby, or the grief their
loved ones will carry forever,” Brooklyn District Attorney Eric
Gonzalez said in a statement. He added that the children’s lives
were taken “in the most heartbreaking and unthinkable way.”
A message left with Merdy’s attorney was not returned.
The frantic search for the three children began in the early
hours of Sept. 12, 2022, after New York City police received a
call from Merdy's relatives, concerned that she intended to harm
her kids.
Officers first found the mother, barefoot and soaking wet, 2
miles (3 kilometers) down the boardwalk from the section of
Coney Island where she lived. She repeatedly said that the
children were gone and that she was sorry, according to
prosecutors.
Hours later, the bodies of the children were recovered from the
shoreline of the Atlantic Ocean, steps from the boardwalk and
about a dozen blocks from the stadium where the Brooklyn
Cyclones minor league baseball team plays.
The city medical examiner’s office ruled their deaths homicides
by drowning.
The evidence against Merdy included video showing her walking
toward the ocean with the children just before 1 a.m., according
to the criminal complaint.
At the time, relatives said she may have been going through
postpartum depression.
All contents © copyright 2026 Associated Press. All rights
reserved |
|
