Mother Arraigned in Coney Island Drowning Deaths of 3 Children

Crime scene tape stretches across a section of the Coney Island boardwalk near a stretch of beach, where three children were found dead in the surf, in New York on Sept. 12, 2022. Joseph Frederick/AP Photo

NEW YORK—A mother charged with drowning her three children at New York’s Coney Island beach was arraigned on murder charges Friday, authorities said.

Erin Merdy, 30, was charged with first and second-degree murder in the deaths of her children Zachary Merdy, 7, Liliana Stephens-Merdy, 4, and Oliver Bondarev, 3 months, a spokesperson for the Brooklyn district attorney’s office said.