NEW YORK (AP/1010 WINS) — The Brooklyn mother who allegedly drowned her three children has been charged with their murder, police said Wednesday.
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Erin Merdy, 30, was charged with murder, murder with depraved indifference to human life and murder with victim under 11 years old for each victim.
Authorities announced the charges two days after Merdy was found wandering barefoot and soaking wet, about 2 miles from where children were discovered at the water's edge off of Brooklyn’s Coney Island boardwalk.
New York City's medical examiner confirmed Tuesday that the deaths of three children found on the shoreline near Brooklyn’s Coney Island boardwalk were homicides by drowning.
Zachary Merdy, 7, Lilana Merdy, 4, and Oliver Bondarev, 3 months old, were found early Monday after a nearly three-hour search that began when a relative called police, worried the woman intended to harm her children. They were pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.
Merdy has undergone a psychiatric evaluation and remained in the hospital Wednesday, according to police. It wasn’t clear when she might be arraigned in court.
Her estranged ex-husband, Derrick Merdy, told The New York Times his son, Zachary, would arrive for visits dirty and complaining that he wasn’t getting enough to eat. Court records indicated that Merdy had been threatened with eviction for being thousands of dollars behind on her rent.
Acquaintances and relatives, though, also said she loved the children.
“She did a little crazy stuff, but nothing that would lead to harming her children or herself,” an uncle, Eddy Stephen, told The New York Post.
“She loved her children to no end,” her aunt, Dine Stephen, told the Daily News.
It was unclear when a lawyer would be appointed to represent Merdy. A defense lawyer could potentially ask a judge for a psychological investigation to see if Merdy is mentally fit to stand trial.
The children’s bodies were found after a search that began when a relative dialed 911 at around 1 a.m. Monday and expressed concern that Merdy had harmed her children. Officers searched the beach and the boardwalk in the dark, intensifying the hunt when Merdy was discovered alone on the boardwalk.
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