Deaths of 3 kids drowned on Coney Island deemed homicides

The drowning deaths of three younger youngsters on a Coney Island seashore had been dominated homicides, the town Medical Examiner stated Tuesday, as their mom remained hospitalized after allegedly confessing to the crimes.

The siblings, 7-year-old Zachary Merdy, 4-year-old Liliana Stephen and 3-month-old Oliver Bondarev, had been found unresponsive alongside the shoreline at West thirty fifth Avenue round 4:40 a.m. Monday after a frantic manhunt sparked by mother Erin Merdy’s troubling conduct.

Merdy, 30, allegedly informed relations she drowned her youngsters — who had been rushed to the hospital Monday, however couldn’t be saved.

Surveillance video captured the mother of three strolling from her condominium together with her youngsters in tow simply after midnight. Merdy was holding child Oliver, whereas Zachary and Lillyana walked beside her and the 4 entered the boardwalk space of the seashore round 12:50 a.m. collectively.

About 45 minutes later, Merdy is caught on surveillance footage once more close to West eighth Avenue and Riegalman Boardwalk West with out her youngsters, the sources stated. 

The mom had a historical past of psychological sickness together with bipolar schizophrenia, relations and police sources informed The Publish, and he or she could have been affected by postpartum despair, in response to regulation enforcement sources.

Cops are searching for to find out if her psychological points, particularly postpartum psychosis, introduced on by postpartum despair, had been an element within the youngsters’ tragic deaths, the sources stated.

Within the early morning hours on Monday, relations of Merdy known as 911 after rising involved about her irrational conduct and the security of the three youngsters over alarming texts they obtained from her.

Cops headed over to Merdy’s condominium to conduct a wellness examine, however the condominium door was unlocked and nobody was house, police stated. 

Simply after 3 a.m., Merdy’s boyfriend and the daddy of child Oliver known as 911 and informed police he too was involved about how she acted earlier at his condominium and stated she appeared dazed and delirious. He added he was additionally involved that Merdy had harmed the youngsters and that he believed they had been on Coney Island seashore. 

Quickly after, cops positioned Merdy, her boyfriend, and her sister close to Brighton sixth Avenue and located the mother barefoot, soaking moist and in a bathrobe, showing disoriented and unable to reply questions. 

Her youngsters had been nowhere in sight, main the NYPD’s harbor and aviation models to conduct a frantic seek for the lacking youngsters throughout the seashore. 

Round 4:40 a.m., cops made the heartbreaking discovery of their our bodies within the sand on the shoreline close to West thirty fifth Avenue, about two miles from the place the mother was discovered and simply three blocks from their house on Neptune Avenue. 

They had been transported to Coney Island Hospital the place they had been pronounced useless.

The mother is presently dealing with eviction from her Neptune Avenue condominium, in response to courtroom data and was dealing with a custody dispute over her oldest little one along with his father.

Derrick Merdy, the daddy of little Zachary and mother Erin Merdy’s ex-husband, stated his son was usually soiled and hungry when he picked him up for visits.

“She makes me starve,” the kid informed his dad, in response to an interview the daddy gave to The New York Times. 

Merdy was transported late Monday morning to NYU Langone hospital in Brooklyn for a psychiatric analysis and remained there Tuesday.

She has but to be charged in reference to what’s now a murder investigation, but when she is, she may face a bedside arraignment.