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A Brooklyn mother who tragically ended the lives of her three children by drowning them in the Atlantic Ocean near the iconic Coney Island boardwalk is set to spend many years in prison.
Erin Merdy, aged 34, received her sentence on Wednesday after admitting guilt to first-degree murder charges earlier this year for the 2022 deaths of her 7-year-old son Zachary, her 4-year-old daughter Liliana, and her 3-month-old son Oliver.
“No sentence can truly capture the enormity of losing a seven-year-old, a four-year-old, and a three-month-old infant, nor the enduring sorrow their family will bear,” stated Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez.
“We pursued the most severe accountability possible in this heart-wrenching situation, and although nothing can return these children to their loved ones, this sentence ensures that the defendant is held responsible for their deaths,” he continued.
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New York Police investigators examine a stretch of beach at Coney Island where three children were found dead in the surf, Sept. 12, 2022, in New York. (AP Photo/Joseph Frederick)
Gonzalez said the children’s lives were taken “in the most heartbreaking and unthinkable way.”
The children were found the morning of Sept. 12, 2022, after one of Merdy’s relatives called 911 expressing concern the children might be in danger.
Prosecutors said Merdy left the beach around 1:25 a.m. and began walking toward the apartment of the father of her youngest child.
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The children of Erin Merdy, 30, were found unconscious near the shoreline of Coney Island Beach during a frantic overnight search early Monday, Sept. 12, 2022. (Theodore Parisienne/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Authorities later found Merdy barefoot and soaking wet about two miles from where the children were discovered.
According to prosecutors, Merdy repeatedly said the children were gone and that she was sorry.
The children’s bodies were recovered hours later along the shoreline just steps from the boardwalk.
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A Brooklyn woman was sentenced to decades in prison in connection with the drowning deaths of her three children. (Theodore Parisienne/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
The city medical examiner ruled the deaths homicides caused by drowning.
Prosecutors said surveillance video showed Merdy walking toward the ocean with the children shortly before 1 a.m.
Merdy’s mother told the New York Daily News at the time that her daughter had recently struggled with mental health issues and may have been experiencing postpartum depression.
“I reached out to her yesterday and she said she was doing laundry and I said I wanted to speak to the kids,” Jacqueline Scott, 56, told the outlet. “I tried to call her twice on the phone after that and there was no answer.”
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