3 Children Found Dead On Coney Island Beach, Mother Questioned: NYPD

Update: NYPD officials identified the children as Zachary Merdy, 7, Lilana Merdy, 4, and Oliver Bondarev, three months old.

NEW YORK CITY — Three young children were found dead on Coney Island Beach after a frantic search for them and their mother, who is suspected of drowning them, according to police and reports.

The mother, 30, is being questioned by police attempting to piece together what happened early Monday, said Kenneth Corey, the NYPD's chief of department.

"We don't know exactly what happened here," he said.

Police are investigating whether the woman drowned her children, who were a 7-year-old boy, a 3-year-old girl and a three-month-old infant boy, according to a report in The New York Daily News.

The incident began with a 911 call about 1:40 a.m. from a member of the woman's family, Corey said.

"The caller indicated that she was concerned that her family member may have harmed her three small children," he said.

Officers responded to a Neptune Avenue apartment, where they met the children's father, who also expressed concerns, Corey said. He said the father told police he believed the woman and children were on Coney Island's boardwalk.

About 90 minutes after the search began, police found the woman — alone, barefoot and not speaking — on the boardwalk in Brighton Beach near Brighton Sixth Street, Corey said.

"The mother was soaking wet," he said. "Whether she had been out in the rain, or whether she had been in the water, again, is all speculative at this point."

About 4:42 a.m., police discovered the three children near West 35th Street, about two miles from where officers found the kids' mother, Corey said.

He said officers started life-saving measures, including CPR, before medics rushed the children to Coney Island Hospital. But it was too late: doctors pronounced all three children dead, Corey said.

Corey said the woman is at the 60th Precinct, but is not in custody at this point. He said police had no indications of past abuse or neglect on the mother's part toward her children.

"Detectives are attempting to speak with her at this moment, but so far she has not said anything," he said.