{"id":239038,"date":"2026-05-21T07:47:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T07:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/239038\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T07:47:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T07:47:08","slug":"brooklyn-mother-who-drowned-her-three-children-in-the-ocean-near-coney-island-sentenced-to-decades-in-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/239038\/","title":{"rendered":"Brooklyn mother who drowned her three children in the ocean near Coney Island sentenced to decades in prison"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Brooklyn woman<\/a> who drowned her three children in the Atlantic Ocean near Coney Island\u2019s famous boardwalk will spend decades behind bars.<\/p>\n

Erin Merdy, 34, was sentenced Wednesday after pleading guilty earlier this year to first-degree murder charges<\/a> in the 2022 deaths of her 7-year-old son Zachary, her 4-year-old daughter Liliana and her 3-month-old son Oliver.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo sentence can fully measure the loss of a seven-year-old, a four-year-old and a three-month-old baby, or the grief their loved ones will carry forever,\u201d Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe sought the strongest possible accountability in this devastating case, and while nothing can bring these children back, this sentence ensures the defendant will be held responsible for taking their lives,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

JUDGE SENTENCES NEVADA MOM FOR DROWNING YOUNG SON, DAUGHTER: \u2018I WILL REMEMBER YOUR CASE FOREVER\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Gonzalez said the children\u2019s lives were taken \u201cin the most heartbreaking and unthinkable way.\u201d<\/p>\n

The children were found the morning of Sept. 12, 2022, after one of Merdy\u2019s relatives called 911 expressing concern the children might be in danger.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said Merdy left the beach around 1:25 a.m. and began walking toward the apartment of the father of her youngest child.<\/p>\n

COLLEGE STUDENT ACCUSED OF LETTING NEWBORN DROWN \u2013 POLICE REVEAL PHONE PHOTOS OF \u2018HATED MOM\u2019 CASEY ANTHONY<\/a><\/p>\n

Authorities later found Merdy barefoot and soaking wet about two miles from where the children were discovered.<\/p>\n

According to prosecutors, Merdy repeatedly said the children were gone and that she was sorry.<\/p>\n

The children\u2019s bodies were recovered hours later along the shoreline just steps from the boardwalk.<\/p>\n

MELODEE BUZZARD\u2019S GRANDMOTHER SHREDS POSSIBLE INSANITY DEFENSE FOR ACCUSED KILLER MOM: \u2018PLANNED EVERYTHING\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

The city medical examiner ruled the deaths homicides caused by drowning<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said surveillance video showed Merdy walking toward the ocean with the children shortly before 1 a.m.<\/p>\n

Merdy\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI reached out to her yesterday and she said she was doing laundry and I said I wanted to speak to the kids,\u201d Jacqueline Scott, 56, told the outlet. \u201cI tried to call her twice on the phone after that and there was no answer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Associated Press contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Brooklyn woman who drowned her three children in the Atlantic Ocean near Coney Island\u2019s famous boardwalk will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239039,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-239038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}