NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) -- The Brooklyn mother of three young children who were apparently drowned at a Coney Island beach remained under psychiatric evaluation and could face charges Tuesday as new details emerged in the tragedy.
Erin Merdy, 30, was in a custody battle with her ex, dealing with mental health issues and facing eviction from her apartment on Neptune Avenue after apparently owing more than $10,000 in back rent, the New York Post reported.
Merdy’s mother Jacqueline Scott, 56, told the Daily News that her daughter was a “good mother” who may “have been going through postpartum depression.”
The psychiatric evaluation will help determine if Merdy is in fact suffering from the depression, which occurs after childbirth.
Merdy hasn’t been arrested or charged with a crime as the investigation continues. However, she may be arraigned Tuesday at the hospital if she’s unable to leave, WABC reported. Authorities are investigating whether “postpartum depression that led to postpartum psychosis” was a factor.
Scott said she tried to talk to her daughter Sunday. “I reached out to her yesterday and she said she was doing laundry and I said I wanted to speak to the kids,” she said. “I tried to call her twice on the phone after that and there was no answer.”
Merdy had worked as home health aide but had taken off in recent months to care for her new baby boy, her family said.
A police source told the Daily News that Merdy told a cousin that she'd drowned her two sons and daughter at the beach. However, she hasn't spoken with police.
“So far, she’s not said anything,” NYPD Chief of Department Kenneth Corey said at a Monday press conference.
Police identified the three deceased children as 7-year-old Zachary Merdy; 4-year-old Lilana Merdy; and 4-month-old Oliver Bondarev.
Zachary’s youth football couch, Alfred Brown, said he remembered the boy as “bubbly” and “full of life.”
“Now I know why I coach,” Brown said. “I coach not to win championships. I coach because each of these kids have a part of my heart. All 62 kids have a part of my heart. And now I feel it.”
Brown said Merdy was a “very soft-spoken, quiet lady, don’t interact too much. But she just was—it was just like she was a loving mother. From what I know she looked like a loving mother.”
A woman who worked at a daycare where one of the children attended said the staff was “very emotional” after learning of the deaths. “The whole community is emotional right now, the whole community, including myself,” she said.
A nearly three-hour search for the kids began around 1:40 a.m. Monday when a relative of Merdy called police, worried she intended to harm her children.
Merdy was found 90 minutes later, barefoot and soaking wet on the boardwalk at Brighton 6th Street.
The lifeless children were discovered by the water’s edge around 4:30 a.m. at W. 35th Street, about two miles away from where their mother was found.
Efforts to revive the kids at Coney Island Hospital failed.
The children’s bodies were found three blocks from Merdy’s Neptune Avenue apartment, where neighbors said they were stunned, upset and angry to hear the news.
The mom was questioned by police at the 60th Precinct stationhouse for about six hours before she was taken to a hospital for a psychological evaluation.
There was no indication of prior abuse or neglect of the children, Corey said.
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