Police reveal chilling texts allegedly sent by mother and grandmother before four children were killed
Warning: This article contains discussion of content that some readers may find distressing.
A mother and grandmother spent days plotting the deaths of four children before taking their own lives, investigators have said.
Amy Steadman, 64, and her daughter Sarah Myers, 44, were found dead in a New York apartment along with children Harper Harmon, 13, Hudson Harmon, 11, and 10-year-old twins Gavin Harmon and Gracelynn Harmon, on Tuesday 23 June.
Authorities visited the home of Steadman after neighbours said they hadn’t seen the family in days.
Advert
Upon arriving, police discovered the six bodies as well as ‘numerous prescriptions and over-the-counter medications’.
Mechanicville Police Chief Bill Rabbitt said at the time: “Evidence recovered during the investigation, including a handwritten note, and other circumstantial evidence, strongly suggests that Amy Steadman was involved in the deaths.”
Authorities have since confirmed that the deaths have been officially ruled as four homicides and two suicides.
In a press conference on Tuesday (4 August), Rabbitt said that Steadman and Myers had been planning the deaths on 5 June and indicated that the alleged murders happened on 10 June.
In text messages, the pair allegedly talked ‘obtaining medications, where the murders would occur and how those medications would be administered,’ the police chief said.
"Those communications are important because they document far more than planning. They show that Steadman and Myers were communicating and coordinating while the murders were taking place," Rabbitt told reporters.
The investigation also found that Steadman had visited multiple pharmacies in the days leading up to the deaths.
The police chief said: “Surveillance footage, purchase records and evidence collected through search warrants documented that Steadman obtained multiple doses of over-the-counter sleep aids and multiple medications that had been prescribed to her.”
The deaths came just days before the children were due to go to Utah to spend summer with their dad Brady Harmon.
At the scene, investigators found a signed note from Steadman which claimed ‘that they believed killing the children was the only way to keep them safe from alleged abuse in Utah’, Rabbitt said.
"Amy Steadman and Sarah Myers consistently portrayed these murders as a way to protect the children," he said.
"Whatever they believed to justify their actions, the murder of four children cannot be described as protection."
Rabbit told reporters investigators have been unable to verify any abuse claims made by Myers or Steadman and Harmon has denied the allegations.
Speaking to WNYT, Harmon said he had spent years trying to obtain custody or visitation for his kids.
He said: “I wish there was something else I could have done legally.
“But I went through everything I could. Everything that my lawyers could do, everything. I just never thought that someone would go and do this.”
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, please don’t suffer alone. Call Samaritans for free on their anonymous 24-hour phone line on 116 123 or contact Harmless by visiting their website https://harmless.org.uk.
Claire Reid