Mother of Three Who Drowned Her Children at Coney Island Arrested and Charged With Three Counts of Second-Degree Murder

Officials said Wednesday that the Coney Island woman who drowned her three children had been arrested and charged for their deaths.

According to reports, 30-year-old Erin Merdy is being charged with three counts of second-degree murder, three counts of depraved indifference to human life, and three counts of murder with the victims under 11 years old.

Family members contacted the police after Merdy told them “the babies are gone” and “the kids are gone.” Police say that Merdy had told them she had been “dreaming of walking the kids in the water.”

On Monday, Chief of Department Kenneth Corey said that first responders performed CPR and other life-saving techniques on the 3 children before they were all pronounced dead at a hospital.

Merdy was found Monday morning in Brighton Beach, adjacent to Coney Island, and was questioned before being hospitalized.

After receiving a 911 call at 1:40 a.m. on Monday from someone worried that “a family member may have harmed her three small children,” the children were found.

According to Corey, the caller requested that police do a welfare check on the woman’s Coney Island apartment.

When police arrived, the father of one of the children expressed concern as well. He told police that he believed the woman and three children to be on the Coney Island boardwalk.

Shortly after, the woman was located by police and other family members, but none of the three children were present.

Officers were able to locate the three children on the Coney Island shoreline at West 35th Street around 4:42 a.m.