Grandmother Accused in Shocking Family Tragedy Aft...

Grandmother Accused in Shocking Family Tragedy After Six Relatives Found Dead

Family of 6 Found Dead in Apartment — Police Suspect Grandmother Poisoned Them All

Grandmother, mother and four kids poisoned to death in New York.Credit : WNYT News Channel 13 Albany

A grandmother in New York has been named as a suspect in the deaths of five family members.

Mechanicville Chief of Police William Rabbitt spoke to the media at a press conference on Thursday, June 25, where he named Amy Steadman, 64, as the individual suspected of “intentional poisoning” that led to the death of her adult daughter and four grandchildren inside an apartment.

Sarah Myers, 44, and Harper Harmon, 13, Hudson Harmon, 11, and twins Gavin Harmon and Gracelynn Harmon, both 10, were identified as the victims in a Wednesday, June 24 press release shared by the police department.

During Thursday’s press conference, Rabbitt identified Steadman as Myers’ mother, and Myers was identified as the mother of the children. Myers and her children lived in a separate unit within the apartment complex.

“We will say that there is recovered evidence inside the apartment to indicate intentional poisoning to include numerous persons and over the counter medications,” Rabbitt said.

He added that during their preliminary investigation, there has been no evidence to suggest “any outside individual” was responsible.

“Evidence recovered during the investigation, including a handwritten note and other circumstantial evidence, strongly suggest that Amy Steadman was involved in the deaths,” Rabbitt said of the investigation, which remains active.

The Mechanicville Police Department previously said officers responded to the Harris Ave. home for a welfare check just before 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, June 23, after neighbors grew concerned when they didn’t see the family who lived there for several days.

During Thursday’s press conference, Rabbitt called Mechanicville “a close-knit city.”

The police chief did not disclose a possible motive. While he could not say for certain how long the family had been deceased before the welfare check, he told the reporters it was an “extended period of time.”

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Additionally, he claimed the children were not enrolled in public schools.

The children’s father, Brady Harmon, spoke to WNYT from his home in Salt Lake City, claiming he had not seen his children in-person since November 2019. He added that he had been trying to get custody or visitation with his children for six years, and was just days away from seeing them.

“I wish there was something else I could have done legally,” Harmon told the news station.

“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. You talk about the feeling of, how do you prepare for this? You get down to almost the finish line — just absolutely cut your legs out from underneath you and the only thing left to do is crawl across the finish line to bring the remains home,” he said.

PEOPLE reached out to the City of Mechanicville for comment.