The father of four children found dead in an upstate New York apartment earlier this week believes their mother and grandmother killed the kids, then died by suicide, to prevent them from traveling out of state to visit him.
“It’s my speculation they did that together,” Brady Harmon told Spectrum News 1. “And all because they were going to spend 60 days with me.”
The mourning father added that their upcoming trip to his home state of Utah would have been the first time he’d seen his children in more than six years.
Officers on Tuesday responded to an apartment in Mechanicville, after receiving a phone call from a concerned neighbor who had not seen the family members in several days. Inside, they discovered the bodies of six people: 64-year-old Amy Steadman, her daughter, Sarah Myers, 44, and her grandchildren — Harper Harmon, 13, Hudson Harmon, 11, and 10-year-old twins Gavin Harmon and Gracelynn Harmon, Police Chief William Rabbitt told reporters at a press conference earlier this week.
He said their bodies were decomposed and they had likely been dead for an “extended period of time” before they were found inside Steadman’s apartment.
During the investigation, Rabbitt said authorities uncovered evidence, including a handwritten note, to suggest “Steadman was involved in the deaths.” However, police have not commented on whether Myers played a role in the killings, some of which appeared to be the result of “intentional poisoning.”
One child also suffered “fatal sharp-force injuries,” Rabbitt said.
“I have been fighting for so long to be able to have access to them, fighting so long to be part of their lives and show them there’s something different,” Harmon said. “Almost to that finish line, have my legs cut out from me and gutted because someone decided to take my kids away from me.”
Harmon also revealed that he and Myers had long been estranged and engaged in an ongoing mediation process over the children.
“I just feel so sorry,” he said, “I was not being able to give an opportunity to sit there and love my children and hug them one more time.”