Brooklyn Mother Sentenced to 20 Years to Life in Prison For Killing Her Three Children

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wednesday, May 20, 2026

Brooklyn Mother Sentenced to 20 Years to Life in Prison

For Killing Her Three Children

Woman Drowned Children in the Ocean off the Coney Island Boardwalk

Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez today announced that a Brooklyn woman has been sentenced for drowning her three children - who were three-months-old, four-years-old, and seven-years-old - in the ocean near their home in Coney Island.

District Attorney Gonzalez said, "Zachary, Liliana and Oliver were innocent children whose lives were taken in the most heartbreaking and unthinkable way. No 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. We 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."

The District Attorney identified the defendant as Erin Merdy, 34, of Coney Island, Brooklyn. The defendant was sentenced today by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun to 20 years to life in prison, over the objection of prosecutors. The defendant pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder on March 4, 2026.

The District Attorney said that, according to the investigation, on September 12, 2022, at approximately 12:37 a.m., the defendant took her three children - Zachary Merdy, 7, Liliana Stephens Merdy, 4, and Oliver Bondarev, 3 months - to the beach near West 35^th Street in Coney Island and drowned them in the ocean.

At approximately 1:25 a.m., she began walking from the beach, alone, towards the apartment of the father of the youngest child, located in Brighton Beach, over two miles away. The defendant called family members upset, and when she would not answer questions regarding the whereabouts of her children, relatives and the father went to look for her and called 911.

The police initiated a search and, at about 4:30 a.m., located the children, who were unresponsive and wet, on the shoreline near West 35^th Street. They were pronounced dead at Coney Island Hospital. When the defendant's family members found her in Brighton Beach wet and barefoot, she repeatedly said that the children were gone and that she was sorry, according to the investigation.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Ernest Chin, Deputy Chief of the District Attorney's Homicide Bureau, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Leila Rosini, Homicide Bureau Chief.

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