The Coney Island murders: What happened on the night of Sep 12, 2022?

A New York woman who drowned her three children in the ocean and left their bodies along the shoreline near their home in Coney Island was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Wednesday (May 20). Erin Merdy committed the gruesome crime on September 12, 2022. Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said in a statement that the 34-year-old pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder in the killings of her children – Zachary Merdy, 7; Liliana Stephens Merdy, 4; and Oliver Bondarev, 3 months old. “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," Gonzalez said.

What happened on September 12, 2022

According to prosecutors, on the fateful day, Erin Merdy brought her three children to the beach around 12:37 am and drowned them. Less than an hour later, at roughly 1:25 am, she left the beach and went towards the apartment of her youngest child's father, more than two miles away. She made distraught phone calls to family members, but refused to answer questions about the children. Alarmed, the father and other relatives launched a search and called 911. When officers knocked at the door, no one answered, but it was unlocked. A man was in the building who said that he was the father of one of the children.

He told NYPD officials that he thinks the mother and children were on the boardwalk in Coney Island. A full-scale search commenced. Family members eventually located Merdy in nearby Brighton Beach. She was wet and barefoot, and remorsefully told them that the children were gone. At approximately 4:30 am, the police discovered the unresponsive, wet bodies of the three children on the Coney Island shoreline. They were rushed to Coney Island Hospital, where they were pronounced dead.