Toxicology results show four slain New York siblings were drugged with allergy medication and kratom before they were killed by their mother and grandmother in a murder-suicide, according to a new report.
The children — Harper Harmon, 13; Hudson, 11; Gracelynn, 10; and Gavin, 10 — all had diphenhydramine, the active ingredient in Benadryl, and kratom in their systems when they died in June, sources told NewsChannel 13. The toxicology findings reveal a deliberate drowsiness-inducing concoction administered before the killings in Mechanicville, an upstate community near Albany.
Kratom, a psychoactive herbal extract sometimes called “gas station heroin,” can produce opioid-like effects, according to the Food and Drug Administration. Diphenhydramine is an over-the-counter antihistamine known to cause sedation. The combination suggests a calculated effort to subdue the children before the violence that followed.
Authorities said three of the siblings — Harper, Hudson and Gracelynn — died from poisoning. Gavin, the youngest, was stabbed while attempting to defend himself against the attack.
The killings were carried out by the children’s mother, Sarah Myers, 44, and their grandmother, Amy Steadman, 64, who then took their own lives, authorities said. The children’s bodies lay undiscovered for 13 days inside the home.
Myers had been embroiled in a prolonged custody dispute with her ex-husband, Brady Harmon, who resides in Utah. Harmon had not seen his children in person since November 2019, nearly four and a half years before their deaths. The murders occurred shortly before the children were scheduled to spend summer vacation with their father in Utah.
In a letter found by investigators after the slayings, Myers claimed Harmon had abused her and the children, and she portrayed the killings as the only means of protecting them from further harm. Harmon flatly rejected those allegations.
“My kids suffered,” Harmon told a local station. “To poison them and also to stab them – there’s a special place in hell for people like that.”
Harmon added that there is “a special place in hell” for his ex-wife.
The case has drawn national attention for its combination of familial destruction, the prolonged custody battle spanning multiple states, and the methodical nature of the killings as revealed by the toxicology report. The 13-day gap between the murders and the discovery of the bodies has also raised questions about family monitoring and welfare checks in custody disputes.
The toxicology findings were disclosed by sources to NewsChannel 13, adding scientific detail to a crime that authorities had already outlined in broad strokes. The presence of both substances in all four children indicates they were likely drugged simultaneously before the fatal violence.
Harmon has continued to publicly challenge Myers’s characterization of events, positioning himself as a father denied access to his children who then lost them entirely. His statements to local media have focused on the suffering inflicted on the children rather than engaging with the abuse claims Myers leveled posthumously.
The murder-suicide in Mechanicville represents one of the deadliest familicide cases in New York state this year, with six lives lost in a single incident. The involvement of both a mother and grandmother in killing multiple children distinguishes it from more common patterns of filicide.
Authorities have not announced any additional investigations stemming from the toxicology findings, and the case is considered closed with the deaths of the two perpetrators.