Drowning deaths of 3 kids on Coney Island beach ruled homicides: medical examiner
The drowning deaths of three young children on a Coney Island beach were ruled homicides, the city Medical Examiner said Tuesday, as their mother 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, were discovered unresponsive along the shoreline at West 35th Street around 4:40 a.m. Monday after a frantic manhunt sparked by mom Erin Merdy’s troubling behavior.
Merdy, 30, allegedly told relatives she drowned her children — who were rushed to the hospital Monday, but couldn’t be saved.
Surveillance video captured the mom of three walking from her apartment with her children in tow just after midnight. Merdy was holding baby Oliver, while Zachary and Lillyana walked beside her and the four entered the boardwalk area of the beach around 12:50 a.m. together.
About 45 minutes later, Merdy is caught on surveillance footage again near West 8th Street and Riegalman Boardwalk West without her kids, the sources said.
The mother had a history of mental illness including bipolar schizophrenia, relatives and police sources told The Post, and she may have been suffering from postpartum depression, according to law enforcement sources.
Cops are seeking to determine if her mental issues, especially postpartum psychosis, brought on by postpartum depression, were a factor in the kids’ tragic deaths, the sources said.
In the early morning hours on Monday, relatives of Merdy called 911 after growing concerned about her irrational behavior and the safety of the three children over alarming texts they received from her.
Cops headed over to Merdy’s apartment to conduct a wellness check, but the apartment door was unlocked and no one was home, police said.
Just after 3 a.m., Merdy’s boyfriend and the father of baby Oliver called 911 and told police he too was concerned about how she acted earlier at his apartment and said she appeared dazed and delirious. He added he was also concerned that Merdy had harmed the kids and that he believed they were on Coney Island beach.
Soon after, cops located Merdy, her boyfriend, and her sister near Brighton 6th Street and found the mom barefoot, soaking wet and in a bathrobe, appearing disoriented and unable to answer questions.
Her children were nowhere in sight, leading the NYPD’s harbor and aviation units to conduct a frantic search for the missing kids across the beach.
Around 4:40 a.m., cops made the heartbreaking discovery of their bodies in the sand on the shoreline near West 35th Street, about two miles from where the mom was found and just three blocks from their home on Neptune Avenue.
They were transported to Coney Island Hospital where they were pronounced dead.
The mom is currently facing eviction from her Neptune Avenue apartment, according to court records and was facing a custody dispute over her oldest child with his father.
Derrick Merdy, the father of little Zachary and mom Erin Merdy’s ex-husband, said his son was often dirty and hungry when he picked him up for visits.
“She makes me starve,” the child told his dad, according to an interview the father gave to The New York Times.
Merdy was transported late Monday morning to NYU Langone hospital in Brooklyn for a psychiatric evaluation and remained there Tuesday.
She has yet to be charged in connection with what is now a homicide investigation, but if she is, she could face a bedside arraignment.
