NYC mom accused of drowning 3 kids at Coney Island beach indicted for murder

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A New York City woman was indicted Thursday on first-degree murder and related charges for allegedly drowning her three young children in the ocean near their home on Brooklyn’s Coney Island. 

Erin Merdy, 30, of Coney Island, Brooklyn, was arraigned before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun on an indictment in which she is charged with three counts of first-degree murder and nine counts of second-degree murder. Her children were 3 months old, 4-years-old, and 7-years-old. 

The announcement from Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez comes several weeks after the tragic September 12 drowning incident. 

According to the investigation, at approximately 12:37 a.m., Merdy is accused of taking her three kids – Zachary Merdy, 7, Liliana Stephens Merdy, 4, and Oliver Bondarev, 3 months – to the beach near West 35th Street in Coney Island and drowned them in the ocean.

3 CHILDREN DEAD AFTER DROWNING INCIDENT AT CONEY ISLAND BEACH, MOTHER BEING QUESTIONED 

At approximately 1:25 a.m., she began walking from the beach, alone, towards the apartment of the father of the youngest child, located in Brighton Beach, over two miles away. 

Police work along a stretch of beach at Coney Island which is now a crime scene after a mother is suspected of drowning her children on September 12, 2022.  (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

The defendant called family members upset, and when she would not answer questions regarding the whereabouts of her children, relatives and the father went to look for her and called 911.

Police initiated a search and, at about 4:30 a.m., located the children, who were unresponsive and wet, on the shoreline near West 35th Street. They were pronounced dead at Coney Island Hospital. 

Three children are dead after being found unconscious on a Coney Island beach.  (FOX 5 New York)

When the defendant’s family members found her in Brighton Beach wet and barefoot, Merdy repeatedly said that the children were gone and that she was sorry, according to the investigation.

Crime scene tape stretches across a section of the Coney Island boardwalk near a stretch of beach where three children were found dead on Sept. 12, 2022.  (AP Photo/Joseph Frederick, File)

"These innocent young children had their entire lives ahead of them when their own mother allegedly drowned and left them on a Coney Island beach," Gonzalez said in a statement. "This is a shocking and unspeakable crime, and with this prosecution, we will seek justice."

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The mother was initially hospitalized for a psychiatric evaluation when taken into custody. 

Merdy is facing a maximum sentence of life without the possibility of parole if convicted of the top count, Gonzalez said. She is being held without bail and was ordered to return to court on November 30.