Brady Harmon has spoken out after toxicology results revealed how his four children were drugged to death.
Harmon, the Utah-based father of Harper, 13, Hudson, 11, and 10-year-old twins Gavin and Gracelynn, posted on Facebook that learning the official findings made the tragedy “even more sickening.” His ex-wife Sarah Myers, 44, and her mother Amy Steadman, 64, carried out the murder-suicide in Mechanicville, New York on June 10.
The Mechanicville Police Department determined that diphenhydramine, the active ingredient in Benadryl, was present at fatal levels in all six bodies recovered from the scene. Mitragynine, a primary compound in kratom, turned up in four of them. Kratom is a psychoactive plant-derived extract with opioid-like properties commonly available at gas stations and convenience stores.
“I will never understand how two people who claimed to love and care about these children could deliberately cause them such unimaginable harm,” Harmon wrote of Myers and Steadman.
“The pain is still as raw as if it happened yesterday,” he added in the Facebook post, which came three months after the killings.
His words sharpened an earlier statement to News10, in which he said the women deserve “a special place in hell.”
“Harper, Hudson, Gavin, and Gracelynn were innocent. They deserved to feel safe. They deserved to grow up, chase their dreams, celebrate birthdays, reach milestones, and live the lives that were stolen from them,” Harmon continued on Facebook.
“I still miss them every second. And I will continue speaking their names and fighting to make sure their lives — and what happened to them — are never forgotten.”
The father’s legal campaign has widened dramatically since the deaths. He filed a 17-page notice signaling intent to sue the City of Mechanicville, Ballston Spa Central School District, Mechanicville City School District, Saratoga County, and the Mechanicville Housing Authority for upwards of $400 million. The filing alleges his children died following years of abuse that authorities missed despite multiple warning signs.
At the center of that claim is an allegation of Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a form of mental illness in which a caretaker deliberately sickens or harms children or falsely creates the impression they are unwell. Harmon contends Myers and Steadman were “regularly drugging” the children “to control them and make them sick” with substances including Benadryl and kratom — the same combination that the toxicology report identified as the cause of death.
