A New York mother who drowned her three children in 2022 will serve at least 20 years behind bars.
According to The New York Times, Brooklyn district attorney Eric Gonzalez stated that 34-year-old Erin Merdy was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison Wednesday for the murders of:
- Oliver Bondarev (3 months)
- Liliana Stephens Merdy (4)
- Zachary Merdy (7)
Prior to Wednesday’s sentencing, Merdy pleaded guilty in March to three counts of first-degree murder, during a hearing at the Brooklyn Supreme Court.
“While nothing can bring these children back, this sentence ensures the defendant will be held responsible for taking their lives,” Gonzales said.
The incident happened on September 12, 2022, at the Coney Island Beach, near West 35th Street, where Merdy brought the three children in the water at around 12:37 a.m. Security footage captured her walking away without the children, barefoot and in a bathrobe.
Merdy reportedly walked toward an apartment where the youngest child’s father lived, and told relatives that the children were gone.
Family members then called 911 and reported that Merdy had appeared upset but would not divulge where the children were or what happened.
Following an hours-long search, authorities found the children unresponsive on the shoreline at around 4:30 a.m. They were later pronounced deceased at the Coney Island Hospital, CNN reports.
The city medical examiner’s office later ruled the children’s deaths as homicide by drowning.
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At the time of her arrest, police said that Merty had no “indication of prior history of abuse or neglect of these children.”
Zachary Merdy’s father, Derrick Merdy, however, told The Times that he had been in a custody battle with the defendant at the time, and that his son said that he had been abused. The child alleged that Merdy made him use a bowl for a toilet during their stays in homeless shelters, and didn’t provide enough food.
Derrick Merdy said that he reported the issues to child protective services, but that nothing ever came from it.
Zachary’s football coach, Allen McFarland, stated that coaches would often have to feed him and bring him to and from the fields, the Times-Tribune reports.
Relatives believed that Merdy may been experiencing postpartum depression and/or issues with bipolar disorder.
“Zachary, Liliana and Oliver were innocent children whose lives were taken in the most heartbreaking and unthinkable way. No sentence can fully measure the loss of a seven-year-old, a four-year-old and a three-month-old baby, or the grief their loved ones will carry forever,” Gonzales added.
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