Deaths of 3 Children in New York’s Coney Island Ruled Homicides, Says Medical Examiner

Police work along a stretch of beach at Coney Island which is now a crime scene after a mother is suspected of drowning her children in the ocean in the Brooklyn borough of N.Y., on Sept. 12, 2022. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

The drowning deaths of three children who were found unconscious early on Monday along the shoreline of New York’s Coney Island have been ruled homicides, the city’s medical examiner’s office announced on Tuesday.

The bodies of three children, identified by police as Zachary Merdy, 7, Lilana Merdy, 4, and 3-month-old Oliver Bondarev, were found after an hour-long search prompted by a worried relative who notified police that the child’s mother could harm her children.