The deaths of two of the six family members found dead in a Mechanicville apartment last month have been ruled suicides, while the other four are being investigated as homicides.
On June 23, police found the bodies of Amy Steadman, 64; her daughter, Sarah Myers, 44, and Myers’ four children — Harper Harmon, 13, Hudson Harmon, 11, Gavin Harmon and Gracelynn Harmon, both 10 — inside an apartment in Mechanicville.
The bodies were discovered Tuesday evening after a neighbor requested a welfare check, saying they had not seen Steadman for some time and were concerned. After officers were unable to make contact with Steadman, the building’s management let them into the apartment.
Amy Steadman and her daughter, Sarah Myers, died by suicide. Police have ruled the four children’s deaths homicides.
This represents a dramatic shift from the investigation’s early focus.
In a press briefing Thursday, Mechanicville Chief of Police William Rabbitt said the investigation has found evidence, including a handwritten note, that strongly suggests Steadman was involved in the deaths.
Police found a handwritten note in the apartment that “strongly suggests that Amy Steadman was involved in the deaths,” Rabbitt said at the press conference.
Yet weeks later, the focus broadened.
On Wednesday, Mechanicville Police Chief Bill Rabbitt told CBS6’s Briana Supardi this week investigators “have not ruled out that Sarah Myers was also complicit in the deaths of her children.”
“I do want to make one important point clear. We have not ruled out that Sarah Myers was also complicit in the deaths of her children. You may quote me on that. I understand that statement will raise additional questions, but I will not be able to answer them at this time.”
The tragedy took on new meaning against the backdrop of a brutal custody war.
Harmon said he had been trying to get custody or visitation with his children for six years and had planned to fly to the East Coast next week to pick them up July 1 and bring them back to Utah for the summer.
The father of the four children found dead inside their grandmother’s apartment in Mechanicville was just days from seeing them in person for the first time in more than six years. Brady Harmon, who lives in Utah, was counting down the days until July 1. After years of fighting for custody of his children, the father had finally secured a court order allowing them to spend two months with him each summer, from July 1 to September 1.
Brady Harmon was days away from that reunion when he got devastating news.
Harmon said Salt Lake City police came to his home two nights earlier with the news.
“I don’t know what happened,” Harmon said in a phone interview Friday. “I have speculations, but not to be able to see my kids — that’s the part that sucks the most.”
He did not hold back about his suspicions.
“It’s my speculation they did that together,” Brady Harmon said in a phone interview with Spectrum News 1 about his estranged ex-wife and her mother. “And all because they were going to spend 60 days with me. Sixty days in six and a half years. I finally get 60 days, and I get this thrown in my face.”
He added, “Almost to that finish line, have my legs cut out from me and gutted because someone decided to take my kids away from me.”
Brady Harmon’s recent reaction to the official ruling came last week.
“It’s not surprising to be honest,” Harmon tells CBS6’s Briana Supardi. “I knew my kids were murdered.”
Yet answers remain elusive.
While the ruling answers one question, he says it still leaves many others unanswered. “I guess the question I want is who actually stabbed one of my children.”
In the viral moment that preceded this tragedy, investigators initially focused on evidence of toxicity.
Evidence showed the deaths may have resulted from “intentional poisoning” from medication. While medical examinations were ongoing and the cause of the deaths had yet to be determined, evidence collected showed the deaths may have resulted from prescription medication and over-the-counter medication.
One of the children is believed to have suffered fatal sharp-force injuries.
Police also noted that
the children were homeschooled and were not enrolled in public school.
The CPS letters were sent to Harmon from the New York State Office of Children and Family Services and the Saratoga County Department of Social Services to notify him of reports made to the Statewide Central Register of Child Abuse and Maltreatment involving his children. There were at least nine reports made, including one filed on June 24– the day after the children’s bodies were found. The investigations into three of the reports found evidence of inadequate guardianship and educational neglect.
Sarah Myers’ father broke his silence for the first time.
“Those kids were her life,” he said. “She put her life around those kids.”
He continued,
“Sarah told him she feared her ex-husband, Brady Harmon, and was worried about losing custody of her children. According to Myers, Sarah claimed Harmon had abused her and the children and once told him, ‘If I get murdered, please make sure Brady don’t get my kids.'”
Yet support for Steadman from outside the family painted a different picture.
“To me, I would say she did have nothing even close to having anything to do with their deaths,” Bauman said of Steadman. “You know, at all. Because they were her world.”
The medical examiner’s office has completed testing.
The Mechanicville Police Department has said the investigation remains active, with additional information expected to be released next week.