Woman Arraigned From Hospital Bed In 3 Kids' Drowning Deaths: DA

NEW YORK CITY — A woman accused of drowning her three children along Coney Island's beach made her first court appearance Friday from a hospital bed, prosecutors said.

Erin Merdy, 30, was arraigned by video on murder charges from NYU Langone-Brooklyn, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney's office.

A judge ordered Merdy held without bail in the hearing, during which she kept her eyes closed and responded to questions with a whisper, the New York Daily News reported.

Authorities said Merdy drowned her three children — Zachary Merdy, 7, Lilana Merdy, 4, and Oliver Bondarev, 3 months old — early Monday, around the time her family raised concerns for the kids' safety and NYPD officers began a desperate search for them. Police first found Merdy in Brighton Beach.

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

Shortly after finding Merdy, police found her three children about two miles away on Coney Island's beach near 35th Street, authorities said. Doctors pronounced them deceased at Coney Island Hospital.

Merdy's mental state has been a focus of investigators since she called her family early Monday and said the "babies were gone," the Daily News reported. When questioned, she told police about a dream she had where she took her children into the water, according to the report.

Merdy has been undergoing a psychiatric evaluation at NYU Langone-Brooklyn, the Daily News reported.