Prior to their terrible death on Monday, the Brooklyn mother, Erin Merdy who is accused of drowning her three children was going through an eviction, a custody dispute, and mental health concerns.
30 year old Erin Merdy, of Coney Island, reportedly owed over $10,000 in back rent for her Neptune Avenue apartment where she lived with her kids, Oliver, 3, Liliana, 4, and Zachary, 7. Since January after the COVID-19 eviction moratorium was lifted, Erin Merdy has reportedly been threatened with eviction, according to the New York Post.
According to court documents cited by the Post, Merdy stopped paying her $1,531 monthly rent in July of last year and received an eviction notice before the moratorium even ended.
Family members talk about Erin Merdy
Levy Stephen, Merdy’s uncle, also disclosed that his niece was engaged in a custody battle with Zachary’s father prior to Monday’s tragedy. After “going off the grid,” the boy’s father, according to Stephen, “had difficulties with the way she was raising” him.
“He had issues with the way she was raising the child, from what I understand,” Levy said. “She kind of went off the grid after that, changed her numbers. She wasn’t on social media — at least not to the point that I could find her.”
Authorities say around 1 a.m. Monday, concerned relatives called police to report Merdy might be drunk and might have done something to harm her children. Several hours later, she was found by police appearing dazed walking barefoot on the Coney Island beach in a bathrobe.
Law enforcement sources told the Post that she had told relatives she “drowned all three kids” before cops arrived.
Her children’s bodies were pulled out of the water on the shoreline just three blocks away from their home, and were eventually pronounced dead at Coney Island Hospital.
Now, her family is speaking out on the mental heath issues that came along with those other issues, with an aunt, Dine Stephen, saying she “knew she was struggling” and that the family “has a history of mental illness.”
“I knew she was struggling in the sense she was trying to find her way through life. In this family we do have a history of mental illness to varying degrees. A few of us have battled with bipolar disorder, but I didn’t know her mental struggles,” the aunt said.
The aunt added that while she was “trying to find a way for her children… it was the mental issues that took over.”
“I just knew she was trying to find a way for her children, a way to get on her feet. … It was the mental issues that took over.”
Another uncle, Eddy Stephen, told the Post he was “speechless” when he heard from relatives that “Erin killed her three children.”
“She did a little crazy stuff, but nothing that would lead to harming her children or herself,” Eddy told the outlet.
Prior to a six-week visitation scheduled with the child’s father, according to law enforcement sources, Erin Merdy failed to bring her son to a custody exchange in July.
And in May, Erin Merdy abruptly removed the youngster from his youth football team, according to Allen McFarland, the boy’s coach, who claimed “she appeared to be juggling a lot.”
At practice on Monday night, according to the Post, McFarland informed Zachary’s former teammates of his passing. Zachary’s jersey number 15, together with the words “Zachary, we love you,” were released into the air as balloons by the young football players as a final farewell.