A Brooklyn woman was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison Wednesday for drowning her three young children in the ocean near Coney Island\u2019s famed boardwalk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Erin Merdy, 34, pleaded guilty this year to first-degree murder in the 2022 killings of her 7-year-old son, Zachary; her 4-year-old daughter, Liliana; and her 3-month-old son, Oliver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNo sentence can fully measure the loss of a seven-year-old, a four-year-old and a three-month-old baby, or the grief their loved ones will carry forever,\u201d Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said in a statement. He added that the children\u2019s lives were taken \u201cin the most heartbreaking and unthinkable way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A message left with Merdy\u2019s attorney was not returned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The frantic search for the three children began in the early hours of Sept. 12, 2022, after New York City police received a call from Merdy\u2019s relatives, concerned that she intended to harm her kids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Officers first found the mother, barefoot and soaking wet, 2 miles down the boardwalk from the section of Coney Island where she lived. She repeatedly said that the children were gone and that she was sorry, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hours later, the bodies of the children were recovered from the shoreline of the Atlantic Ocean, steps from the boardwalk and about a dozen blocks from the stadium where the Brooklyn Cyclones minor league baseball team plays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The city medical examiner\u2019s office ruled their deaths homicides by drowning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The evidence against Merdy included video showing her walking toward the ocean with the children just before 1 a.m., according to the criminal complaint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the time, relatives said she may have been going through postpartum depression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n