A Brooklyn woman was sentenced on Wednesday to 20 years to life in prison for drowning her three children in the ocean and leaving their bodies along the Coney Island shoreline.
The woman, Erin Merdy, 34, pleaded guilty in March in Brooklyn Supreme Court to three counts of first-degree murder in the killings of her children, Zachary Merdy, 7; Liliana Stephen, 4; and Oliver Bondarev, 3 months old.
They were “innocent children whose lives were taken in the most heartbreaking and unthinkable way,” Eric Gonzalez, the Brooklyn district attorney, said in a statement on Wednesday.
“While nothing can bring these children back, this sentence ensures the defendant will be held responsible for taking their lives,” he said.
George Cooke, a lawyer who represented Ms. Merdy through Brooklyn Defender Services, declined to comment.
On Sept. 12, 2022, just after 12:30 a.m., Ms. Merdy brought Zachary, Liliana and Oliver to the beach near West 35th Street, steps away from the Coney Island boardwalk, prosecutors said. Then, she drowned them in the Atlantic.
About an hour later, walking barefoot down the shore in a wet bathrobe, the mother called her family and alluded to what she had done. The relatives dialed 911 and went out to search for Ms. Merdy, prosecutors said. By 2 a.m., officers went to her home on Neptune Avenue. The door was unlocked and the apartment was empty.
Soon after, Ms. Merdy’s family members found her two miles away at the Riegelmann Boardwalk in Brighton Beach, a neighborhood that borders Coney Island. She told them that her children were gone, and that she was sorry.
The police searched for the children by land, air and sea before finding them unconscious on the shoreline around 4:30 a.m., prosecutors said. The children were taken to Coney Island Hospital, where they were pronounced dead.
Ms. Merdy was taken to the 60th Precinct for questioning, and then to a Brooklyn hospital for psychiatric evaluation, the authorities said at the time.
Before the killings, Ms. Merdy had shown signs that something was amiss. Zachary often went without food when he was with his mother, according to his father, Derrick Merdy, who was in a bitter custody battle with Ms. Merdy, his ex-wife. Mr. Merdy said Zachary had told him that, during the family’s frequent stays at homeless shelters, he had to relieve himself in a bowl.
In April 2022, five months before he was killed, Zachary told his father that his mother “makes me starve,” according to an audio clip Mr. Merdy shared with The New York Times. Mr. Merdy said he reported the abuse to child protective services, but nothing was done.
Around the same time, Ms. Merdy seemed open to granting Mr. Merdy custody.
“I am thinking of letting Zachary live with you and possibly giving up my rights,” she wrote in text messages to Mr. Merdy.
“I love him enough to let him stay with you or your mom because I want the best for him,” she continued. “I want him to excel. I want him to have everything and grow up having the best life.”
Chelsia Rose Marcius is a criminal justice reporter for The Times, covering the New York Police Department.
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