Heartbreaking photos show the giant, beaming smile of the 4-year-old girl who was allegedly drowned alongside her two siblings by their disturbed mom in Coney Island this week.
Little Liliana Stephen — who died early Monday — is captured grinning joyfully in a series of snaps released by her heartbroken dad, Shamir Small.
Little Liliana Stephen, 4, smiles in the pics, including this one of her playing with a doll.
One of the snaps shows Liliana and her dad both smiling alongside the youngster’s mom, Erin Merdy, who is now charged with her murder.
In one, the youngster and her dad both smile at the camera — while the girl’s accused murderer, mom Erin Merdy, looks off to the side with a serious expression while eating.
Another snap shows little Liliana smiling at the camera while playing with a doll, while another shows her in the car with her dad while seemingly dressed for ballet class.
Liliana Stephen dressed in ballet attire while with her dad, Erin Merdy’s ex Shamir Small.
The snaps emerged after her 30-year-old mom allegedly confessed to drowning Liliana as well as her two other children: Zachary Merdy, 7, and 3-month-old Oliver Bondarev.
Merdy was hit with nine charges — intentional murder, murder with depraved indifference and murder of a victim less than 11 years old for each of the three kids, cops said.
Merdy has been hospitalized at NYU Langone Brooklyn’s psychiatric ward since late Monday morning and it’s unclear when she’ll be arraigned on the charges.
She had been captured in surveillance footage early Monday walking from her Neptune Avenue apartment to the Coney Island boardwalk with her three children in tow — then leaving alone.
Relatives raised the alarm because the mom — who may have been suffering from postpartum depression — had been acting strangely and making disturbing comments about her kids.
Accused killer mom Erin Merdy, 30, has been hospitalized since soon after her kids were drowned and it is not clear when she will be arraigned on nine murder charges. Paul MartinkaCops found the mom near the Brighton Beach boardwalk just after 3 a.m.
She was soaking wet, barefoot and walking through the sand in a bathrobe, and did not answer questions about her kids’ whereabouts, police have said.
The NYPD’s harbor and aviation unit scoured the sand and sea and made the gut-wrenching discovery of the three kids’ lifeless bodies around 4:40 a.m. They were taken to Coney Island Hospital but could not be saved.
