A Coney Island mother was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison for drowning her three children in the ocean near their home, prosecutors announced Wednesday.
Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun sentenced Erin Merdy, 34, for killing her 3-month-old son Oliver, 4-year-old daughter Liliana and 7-year-old son Zachary, drowning them in the Atlantic Ocean near W. 35th St. just after 12:30 a.m. on Sept. 12, 2022.
Wake Held For Children Murdered By Drowning In Brooklyn
Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News Erin Merdy’s three children from left to right: Oliver, Liliana and Zachary.
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said in a statement the siblings were “innocent children whose lives were taken in the most heartbreaking and unthinkable way.”
“We sought the strongest possible accountability in this devastating case, and while nothing can bring these children back, this sentence ensures the defendant will be held responsible for taking their lives,” he said.
Merdy previously pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder in March.
After drowning her three children, Merdy walked alone from the beach toward her infant son’s father’s apartment about two miles away in Brighton Beach, prosecutors said.
Three Children Killed In Brooklyn
Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News A 3-month-old boy, a 4-year-old girl and a 7-year-old boy were discovered unconscious on the beach near the shoreline at W. 35th St. at 4:42 a.m. (Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News)
Merdy called her family members upset, and when she wouldn’t answer questions about where the children were, relatives went looking for her and called 911.
The mother turned up alone — barefoot, wet and wrapped in a bathrobe — on the boardwalk in neighboring Brighton Beach. After a massive search, authorities found the children near the shoreline. All three were pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.
A day after the unfathomable Sept. 12 triple homicide, Merdy told an officer at NYU Langone Hospital that she had a nightmare about her children being overwhelmed by water.
Three Children Killed In Brooklyn
Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News After a massive search, authorities found the children near the shoreline. (Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News)
“The waves, the waves,” she told a police officer while she was being treated in the emergency room, according to court documents.
“I keep having bad dreams that I was holding my baby and the baby was crying,” Merdy allegedly said. “I was in the water and my boy was crying and trying to help. I couldn’t save him. I know I was wet and I was trying to kill myself. I am having a bad dream.”
In a videotaped statement at the 60th Precinct stationhouse on Sept. 14, she said she got a call from Oliver’s father and argued with him about custody issues, then went to the boardwalk to “hurt herself,” the court filing details.
In her dream, Merdy recounted, she called her sister and told her, “The kids are gone,” then lay down on a bench, wet and cold, surrounded by family members.
Dine Stephen, Merdy’s aunt, previously told the Daily News, “Last I spoke to Erin, she was struggling. However, I did not realize it was this bad. Many family members have struggled with mental illness.”
Merdy has a history of mental health problems dating to 2019, and admitted herself to the hospital with post-partum depression after the birth of Oliver in May, authorities said.
The city Administration for Children’s Services botched its handling of Merdy, who had been under the agency’s watch following Oliver’s birth, a source familiar with the case told The News at the time.
“She fell through the cracks,” the source said of Merdy.
“Her [youngest] baby was born in May and she was discharged from [ACS] services on July 15,” the source explained. “Someone in the [ACS] Family Services Unit discharged her when they shouldn’t have. At the very least, a psych exam should have been done — and that wasn’t done.”
Her stunned family members have described Merdy as a loving mother who was sick.
“I don’t care what no one says. What she did was monstrous, but she herself is not a monster,” Liliana’s father, Shamir Small, said after his young daughter’s funeral.
