Mom in Coney Island drownings facing multiple murder counts in deaths of three kids, officials say
A mentally-ill Coney Island mom was indicted for the drowning deaths of her three small kids in a shocking seaside triple homicide, the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office confirmed Tuesday.
Erin Merdy, 30, faces one count of first-degree murder and nine counts of second-degree murder in the chilling deaths where she walked the doomed kids from their nearby apartment to their demise in the Atlantic Ocean, officials said. It was unclear when the suspect would be arraigned.
Merdy was arrested in the early morning hours of Sept. 12 after worried family members called 911 to report their concerns over her three missing children: 3-month-old Oliver, 4-year-old Liliana and 7-year-old Zachary.
“The babies are gone,” a disoriented Merdy told relatives after turning up alone, barefoot and wet while wrapped in a bathrobe on the boardwalk in neighboring Brighton Beach. A massive search in the darkness by authorities located the youngsters lying on the beach near the shoreline, with all three pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.
Merdy, who had a history of mental health issues dating to 2019, had recently admitted herself to the hospital with post-partum depression following the birth of little Oliver this past May, officials said. The kids were located after a frantic manhunt on a rainy night.
She was initially taken to the 60th Precinct before being transferred to a Brooklyn hospital for psychiatric evaluation. Two days later, she was charged with murdering the helpless kids. According to authorities, Merdy told police after her arrest of a dream where she walked the children into the ocean waters.
When arraigned from her hospital bed at NYU Langone-Brooklyn hospital last week, Merdy wore a yellow hospital gown and answered questions with her eyes closed tight. Scores of devastated relatives gathered for a sad wake last Friday shortly after her remote court appearance.
