Mother Charged With Murder Of 3 Children At Coney Island Beach: NYPD

NEW YORK CITY — A woman faces murder charges in the shocking drowning deaths of her three children found on a Coney Island beach, police said.

Erin Merdy, 30, was arrested Wednesday on three murder counts after medical examiners ruled the deaths of her children — Zachary Merdy, 7, Lilana Merdy, 4, and Oliver Bondarev, 3 months old — homicides by drowning, authorities said.

Merdy had been considered a suspect since early Monday, when police embarked on a desperate search for her and her three children after family members raised concerns.

She had told relatives that she drowned her children, the New York Post reported. And when police found her along a Brighton Beach boardwalk, she appeared to have been in the water.

"The mother was soaking wet," said Kenneth Corey, the NYPD's chief of department.

The bodies of her three children were found shortly after along a stretch of beach near West 35th Street, about two miles away, authorities said.

Despite efforts to save the children, doctors pronounced them deceased at Coney Island Hospital, police said.

Merdy had a history of mental illness, and police are looking into whether she suffered from serious issues brought on by postpartum depression, the New York Post reported.

Police requested charges against Merdy of murder with intent, murder with depraved intent and murder of victims under the age of 11.