NEW EVIDENCE REVEALS WHAT HAPPENED BEFORE 4 CHILDREN WERE KILLED: Police say Sarah Myers, 44, and Amy Steadman, 64, spent weeks planning the murders, exchanging text messages, buying medications, and leaving behind handwritten letters explaining why they believed there was no other way. But investigators say many of their claims—including allegations of abuse—remain unverified
On the evening of June 23, 2026, officers from the Mechanicville Police Department in upstate New York responded to a welfare check at an apartment on Harris Avenue. A neighbor had grown concerned after not seeing the family for nearly two weeks and noticing flies gathering around the windows. Inside the residence of 64-year-old Amy Steadman, police discovered six bodies in advanced stages of decomposition: Steadman herself; her 44-year-old daughter, Sarah Myers; and Myers’ four children—Harper Harmon, 13; Hudson Harmon, 11; and 10-year-old twins Gavin and Gracelynn Harmon.
The remains were so badly decomposed that officers could not immediately identify the victims. Investigators later determined the family had been dead for approximately 13 days. What began as a tragic discovery quickly evolved into one of the most disturbing murder-suicide cases in recent New York history.
At a news conference on August 4, 2026, Mechanicville Police Chief William Rabbitt released a detailed update based on weeks of forensic work, digital evidence recovery, and analysis of physical items found at the scene. According to police, Sarah Myers and her mother, Amy Steadman, had jointly planned and carried out the murders of the four children on June 10 before taking their own lives. The pair spent days preparing, exchanging text messages about logistics, purchasing medications, and ultimately leaving handwritten letters in which they attempted to justify their actions as a form of protection.
A Bitter Custody Battle and Years of Separation
Sarah Myers and Brady Harmon married in December 2015 in Salt Lake City, Utah. They had four children together. The couple separated in November 2019 and finalized their divorce in 2020. Court documents awarded them joint legal custody. Myers was to have the children during the school year, while Harmon was granted uninterrupted summer parenting time from July through early September, along with regular video calls, holidays, and birthdays.
In practice, Harmon had not seen his children in person since November 2019—more than six and a half years. He described a prolonged and contentious struggle to enforce the parenting plan. Myers repeatedly delayed or restricted contact. By the spring of 2026, Harmon had secured court-ordered summer parenting time beginning around July 1. The children were scheduled to travel to Utah for approximately 60 days—the first extended period he would spend with them in years.
Myers faced a court date in Utah on June 29 related to alleged noncompliance with the parenting plan. Harmon last spoke with the children via FaceTime on June 7. He later described them as “happy little kids.” On June 10—the day police now say the murders occurred—Myers texted him that the children were sick and would call the following day. That call never came. The same day, Harmon’s attorney sent Myers formal paperwork regarding the upcoming enforcement hearing.
Child Protective Services records obtained by Harmon showed multiple investigations into Myers between 2020 and 2024. At least three resulted in findings of inadequate guardianship and educational neglect. Myers had withdrawn the children from public school to homeschool them. Harmon received roughly ten notifications from Saratoga County CPS over the years. He has consistently denied any allegations of abuse made against him and has never been charged with a related crime.
Planning Began No Later Than June 5
Police say the conspiracy began by June 5, 2026. Steadman started visiting multiple pharmacies to purchase over-the-counter sleep aids and medications that had been prescribed to her. Surveillance footage, purchase records, and search-warrant evidence documented these transactions. Her internet search history included queries about medication reactions, the effects of insulin on non-diabetics, and the Utah family court system. Later searches included “Where is the most fatal place to be stabbed” and references to locating the carotid artery.
Text messages recovered between Myers and Steadman revealed detailed discussions about obtaining medications, where the killings would take place inside the apartment, how the drugs would be administered, how the children would be gathered together, what they would be told, and how to avoid raising suspicion. The plan centered on completing the act before a scheduled 6 p.m. phone call with the children’s father on June 10.
On the morning of June 10, Myers instructed Steadman to administer the medications between 10:30 a.m. and noon. The children did not respond as expected. One of the women texted the other: “It’s not working. We need another option.”
Gracelynn, then 10, sent a message on her iPad complaining of increasing stomach pain: “Why would you do that? You both won’t let me puke.” Later that evening, Steadman sent a final message stating, “Gracie is aware.” The last text exchange between mother and daughter occurred at approximately 8:41 p.m. Around 9:30 p.m., surveillance cameras captured Steadman visiting a local gas station before returning to the apartment.
Three of the children died from poisoning involving a combination of prescription and over-the-counter medications. Ten-year-old Gavin was repeatedly stabbed with a knife. He had a defensive wound, indicating he tried to protect himself. Police noted that Steadman’s earlier internet searches about fatal stab locations aligned with the injuries he sustained.
Handwritten Letters and Unverified Claims
Investigators recovered multiple handwritten documents at the scene. One letter, signed with Amy Steadman’s name, accepted responsibility for the deaths. In it, the author stated that killing the children was “the only way to keep them safe from alleged abuse in Utah.” The letter also claimed that Sarah Myers had done everything possible and that no one would help her. It acknowledged that events had not unfolded as planned.
A series of unsigned handwritten notes—believed by police to have been written by Myers—repeatedly referred to the children as “my babies.” These writings expressed anger toward the Utah family court system, alleged that Myers and the children had been abused while living in Utah, and complained that she had been unable to obtain legal representation.
Electronic files belonging to Myers contained images that appeared to document injuries to herself and some of the children, along with text messages and notes repeating abuse allegations. Chief Rabbitt stated that investigators carefully reviewed this material alongside all other evidence. “While they documented allegations of abuse, investigators were not able to independently verify the circumstances surrounding the alleged incidents,” he said.
Brady Harmon has categorically denied the accusations. In interviews with police and media, he described the claims as a “victim card” and stated flatly: “There is no abuse.” After the August 4 press conference, Harmon told reporters the new details confirmed his worst fears about what his children experienced in their final hours. “All it tells me is that my kids were afraid, terrified,” he said. “You don’t do that to someone you love.” He characterized the stated motive as delusional: “They stabbed my son; they poisoned my children—all in the delusional state of, ‘We’re doing this for your benefit.’”
The Days After and the Community’s Response 
Neighbors requested welfare checks on June 13 and June 17. On those occasions, officers knocked on what they believed was the correct door and spoke with a neighbor, unaware that the family was already dead in an adjacent unit. Only on the third call, on June 23, did police enter Steadman’s apartment and discover the bodies.
The children’s remains were eventually cremated. Harmon arranged for the ashes to be flown to Utah, where the family scattered them on a mountaintop near the resting place of Harmon’s father. A private service was held. Steadman’s own obituary was stark and brief, stating only that she had passed away on June 23 and that services were private at the family’s request.
In Mechanicville, a small community roughly 20 miles north of Albany, residents held a vigil in the days after the discovery. More than 100 people gathered to remember the four children. Police emphasized that there was no ongoing threat to the public. The investigation remains open pending final toxicology results, which authorities have indicated they are unlikely to release in detail to prevent any possibility of copycat behavior.
Chief Rabbitt closed the August 4 news conference with a clear statement rejecting the killers’ framing of their actions: “Amy Steadman and Sarah Myers consistently portrayed these murders as a way of protecting the children. Whatever they believed justified their actions, the deliberate murder of four children cannot be described as protection.”
He added that the community cannot change what happened but can honor the children by supporting one another and working to prevent similar tragedies.
Unanswered Questions and Ongoing Scrutiny
Several aspects of the case continue to draw attention. Toxicology results that would specify exactly which substances were used have not been publicly released. The precise sequence of who administered what, and who ultimately stabbed Gavin, has not been detailed beyond the evidence already described. CPS records showing prior findings of neglect against Myers have prompted questions about whether earlier interventions might have altered the trajectory, though no official finding of systemic failure has been announced.
Harmon has spoken repeatedly about the years he spent fighting through the courts and about the final message he received on June 10 claiming the children were ill. He has expressed frustration that the system did not move faster to enforce his parenting time. At the same time, he has focused public comments on the children’s suffering rather than on personal recrimination.
Police have stressed that no outside parties were involved. The evidence—text messages timed to the hours of the killings, pharmacy records, internet searches, the children’s own messages, and the handwritten letters—forms a consistent picture of a planned joint act by mother and grandmother.
As of early August 2026, the official determination remains that Sarah Myers and Amy Steadman murdered Harper, Hudson, Gavin, and Gracelynn Harmon on June 10 and then died by suicide. The allegations of abuse they cited as justification have not been independently corroborated by investigators. The father of the four children continues to reject those claims entirely.
The case stands as a stark illustration of how a prolonged custody dispute, combined with unverified fears and deliberate planning, ended in the deaths of four children who had no ability to protect themselves. Their final hours, reconstructed through digital messages and physical evidence, reveal a sequence of events that police describe simply and without mitigation: the deliberate murder of four children, followed by the suicides of the two adults who planned and carried it out.
