Thursday 15 September 2022 10:38 AM Coney Island mom charged with murder of her three kids by drowning trends now
A New York City mom accused of drowning her three children on the beach next to a popular tourist spot has been charged with their murders.
Authorities announced the charges on Wednesday, two days after Erin Merdy, 30, was found wandering barefoot and soaking wet, about 2 miles from where children were discovered at the water's edge off of Brooklyn's Coney Island boardwalk.
The city medical examiner determined Tuesday that 7-year-old Zachary Merdy, 4-year-old Liliana Merdy and 3-month-old Oliver Bondarev died by drowning.
Merdy has undergone a psychiatric evaluation and remained in the hospital Wednesday, according to police.
Relatives have said in media interviews that Merdy appeared to have been struggling with the children and was suffering from post-partum depression.
Her estranged ex-husband, Derrick Merdy, told The New York Times his son, Zachary, would arrive for visits dirty and complaining that he wasn't getting enough to eat.
Merdy now faces charges of three counts of second-degree murder, three counts of depraved indifference to human life, and three counts of murder with the victims under 11 years old, an NYPD spokesperson said.
NY Daily News reported a visibly distressed Merdy told family members 'the babies are gone' before she was arrested, while NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig said the mother had told cops she had a dream about walking her kids into the water.
'We believe she went into water and drowned the kids... Regarding the motive, we're going to leave that up to the health care professionals,' Essig said.
Officers hid Merdy with a sheet as she was transferred to a hospital from the precinct in the back of an ambulance
Erin Merdy, 30, is believed to have drowned her three children on Coney Island Beach in the early hours of Monday morning
The grandmother of the three children who were drowned say their mother may have suffered from post-partum depression.
Jacqueline Scott, told the New York Daily News that her daughter was a good mother.
'She might have been going through postpartum depression. She was a good mother,' she told the publication.
'I reached out to her yesterday and she said she was doing laundry and I said I wanted to speak to the kids. I tried to call her twice on the phone and there was no answer.'
Scott added that she was one of a number of concerned relatives who had been trying to reach Merdy on Sunday night.
Police were called to an apartment on Neptune Avenue, Brooklyn, at 1.40am Monday morning after a call from a concerned family member.
The caller said that they believed Merdy may have harmed her three children, and officers attended but could not find the family.
At 3.15am police
