The deaths of three children on Coney Island Beach have been ruled homicides.
The New York City medical examiner confirmed to The Independent on Tuesday that seven-year-old Zachary Merdy, Liliana Stephen, four, and three-month-old Oliver Bondarev drowned. The children were found on the shoreline at West 35th Street in the early morning hours on Monday.
Erin Merdy, the kids’ mother, was interrogated by authorities immediately after. Ms Merdy, who reportedly suffers from postpartum depression, allegedly confessed to family members that she drowned the children, the New York Post reported.
A police source told the Post that Ms Merdy was captured on surveillance video walking to the beach with the children after midnight. The source also said she was seen later on footage without her kids.
Authorities are investigating whether the children’s deaths followed an episode of psychosis.
Ms Merdy’s boyfriend and the father of her younger child first alerted authorities around 3.30am on Monday that she was acting bizarrely. He told police she was on Coney Island Beach and he feared she could harm the kids.
Ninety minutes after they began searching police found the children. Harrowing footage obtained by the Post showed officers giving CPR to the children before they were transported to Coney Island Hospital, where they were pronounced later.
Ms Merdy was found wet and barefoot in the area.
Derrick Merdy, Ms Merdy’s ex-husband, told The New York Times that he was in the middle of a custody fight to gain custody of Zachary, his biological child, and Liliana. He alleged that Ms Merdy kept the children in shelters and starved them.
“I don’t know, she makes me starve,” Zachary allegedly told Ms Merdy when he asked him why his mother starved him. “I didn’t do nothing bad; she makes me starve.”
Ms Merdy told the Times that he had tried to call CPS several times.
“They would tell me, ‘Oh, you don’t have any real evidence.’ But they didn’t do a real investigation,” he claimed.
The Independent has contacted the medical examiner’s office and family of the deceased for comment.
