Coney Island woman indicted in drowning deaths of her 3 kids
Police investigators at the scene last week in Coney Island where a 30-year-old woman allegedly drowned her three young children. Credit: Getty Images/Spencer Platt
A Brooklyn grand jury has indicted a 30-year-old Coney Island woman on murder charges in the drowning deaths of her three young children, officials said Tuesday.
Erin Merdy, currently under psychiatric watch at a hospital, was indicted on multiple counts of murder stemming from the Sept. 12 incident in which police said she took her children to a Coney Island beach off Riegelmann Boardwalk and West 35th Street and drowned them in the surf, according to a spokesman for Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez.
The latest charges mirror those in a criminal complaint lodged against Merdy last week that accused her of first-degree murder and various counts of depraved indifference murder in the deaths of her son, Zachary Merdy, 7, daughter, Liliana Stephen-Merdy, 4, and infant son, Oliver Bondarev, 3 months.
Erin Merdy was not in court when officials disclosed the indictment, the spokesman said. She has been under observation at NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn since being taken into custody.
The full indictment will be disclosed at her arraignment in the coming weeks, officials said.
Merdy was seen on video early Sept. 12 walking with the children on the beach, according to police. About three hours later, officers saw Merdy alone on the boardwalk, barefoot and wet, about two miles from where police recovered her children.
The children were found unresponsive on the shoreline at 4:40 a.m., according to court papers. All three children were rushed to nearby Coney Island Hospital, where they were pronounced dead.
The original complaint went on to say that relatives had told police that Merdy had said to them that she had hurt her children and that “they were gone.”
In a briefing with reporters last Wednesday, NYPD Chief of Detectives Jame Essig said Merdy had told officers she had dreamed of being in the water with the children.
Merdy's defense attorney, George Cooke, didn’t immediately return an email request Tuesday seeking comment.
Right after the children's deaths, Dine Stephen, an aunt of Merdy, said in a telephone interview that her niece was having mental health problems following the birth of her youngest child. She was also reportedly behind in her rent and facing eviction.
Anthony M. DeStefano has been a reporter for Newsday since 1986 and covers law enforcement, criminal justice and legal affairs from its New York City offices.
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