Law&Crime Sidebar - Mom Killed Her 4 Kids in Twisted Drugging: Cops

Episode Date: August 6, 2026

A devastating discovery in Mechanicville, New York, revealed the tragic deaths of four children as well as their mother, Sarah Myers, and grandmother, Amy Steadman, in an alleged murder-suicide plot ahead of a scheduled court-ordered custody visit. Investigators believe the women poisoned the children, Harper, Hudson, Gavin, and Gracelynn, to prevent them from spending the summer with their father in Utah. Law&Crime's Jesse Weber breaks down the heartbreaking evidence, timeline, and parenting app messages alongside family law attorney Randy Kessler.HOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Christina O'Shea, & Jay CruzScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson, Heather Berzak & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrimeTwitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The loss of six lives, including four children, has touched every corner of this community. A Utah dad excited to spend the summer with his four children whom he hadn't seen in years, instead learned horrific news. All four kids were dead. And he says he knew exactly who was behind it. But the suspects won't ever face a judge or jury after taking their own lives. Despite that, police have been working tirelessly to get answers for the family members. members left behind as the community tries to come to grips with a mass murder.

The deliberate murder of four children cannot be described as protection. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by law and crime. I'm Jesse Weber. On June 23rd, police in Mechanicville in upstate New York made an absolutely devastating discovery. The bodies of six people, four of them children, decompose. posing in an apartment. No one had heard from the family inside for weeks. This prompted a welfare check that quickly turned into a full-blown homicide investigation. The medical examiner's office has determined that the deaths of Harper, Hudson, Gavin, and Grace on Harmon were homicides, and that the deaths of Amy Stedman and Sarah Myers were suicides. The investigation further determined

that Amy Stedman and Sarah Myers conspired in planning and carrying out the murders of the four children before taking their own lives. Chief Bill Rabbit provided an update on the investigation this week, noting that they know more about what may have led up to this awful scenario. This was through forensic findings, reviews of electronic evidence, additional interviews, the collection of records. And the chief clarified during the news conference that the final toxicology reports weren't in yet, but that's not unusual at this stage of the investigation. It can sometimes take weeks, months to received the results, but he did say that based on the solid evidence that they do have so far,

they felt it was important to update everyone. And it is important to know a little bit about where this happens. So Mechanicville in upstate New York, it's north of Albany, it's a tiny city, it's just over 5,000 residents. They were counted in the 2020 census. It's an area where people know each other. It's a small community. But this case has just been a jarring reminder for the small police department and the community at large, that you never know what's going on behind closed doors in someone's home. So here's what we learned. June 10th, so almost two weeks before they were found. Investigators believe that a mother-daughter duo were talking 64-year-old Amy Stedman and 44-year-old Sarah Myers killed Sarah's four children before allegedly taking their

own lives. Myers apparently had so custody of the four kids that she shared with her ex-husband, Brady Harmon. We're talking about 13-year-old Harper, 11-year-old Hudson, 10-year-old twins Gavin and Graceland. And according to ABC News, the two women lived in the same apartment building in different units. Harmon lived in Utah where he'd remarried. He told media outlet News 10 that he hadn't seen his kids in person since the end of 2018, but it was this summer where you had a new court-ordered custody agreement that would mean they were supposed to spend two months with him out in Utah. But Myers and Stedman, based on the evidence, apparently believed that the children would somehow be in danger if they went with their father. And the allegation is that they

started planning this diabolical solution to the problem. One of the earliest pieces of evidence recovered was a handwritten letter signed with Amy Stedman's name. In that letter, the author accepts responsibility for what occurred and states that they believed killing the children was the only way to keep them safe from alleged abuse in Utah. The author also claims that Sarah Myers had done everything she could and that no one would help her and acknowledges that the events did not unfold as they planned. So through surveillance footage and purchase records, officers discovered that Stedman had visited multiple pharmacies in the days leading up to and including June 10th, picking up her own medications, but also buying a lot of

over-the-counter sleep medication. Officials believe that these two started planning no later than June 5th. And I just want you to keep that in mind because we're going to talk about messages between Myers and Harmon around that same time period. We'll talk about it just a minute. But Chief Rabbit said that the messages between Myers and her mom, so the children's own grandmother, lays out this plot, this sinister plot, allegedly planning to poison the kids. Those conversations documented discussions regarding obtaining medications, where the murders would occur, how those medications would be administered, how the children would be brought together, what they would be told, and how suspicion could be avoided.

In one exchange, Sarah Myers instructed Amy Stedman that the medications should be administered between 1030 a.m. and noon so they could be finished before a scheduled telephone call at 6 p.m. with the children's father. Late that morning, as the children failed to respond in the manner Stedman and Myers had anticipated, one of the messages stated, quote, it's not working, we need another option, end quote. Investigators also recovered a message from Graceland that began quote, why would you do that? You both won't let me puke, unquote, before describing increasing pain in her stomach.

Later that evening, Amy Stemond said a final disturbing message stating, Gracie is aware. That's right. It seems at one point that one of the youngest children, who I mentioned before, Graceland, was starting to catch on that something bad was happening. And it appears her twin Gavin also realized the danger and tried to defend himself. That's when police say either Myers or Stedman, we may never know which, stabbed him multiple times. Electronic records gave investigators insight into what was going through the suspect's minds too. Stedman's search history reportedly showed not only searches for medication reactions,

the effect of insulin on non-diabetics, and the Utah court system. But she also allegedly searched the phrase is, where is the most fatal place to be stabbed and find the carotid artery in the neck? This is according to Chief Rabbit. And it all seems to circle back to the idea that the children would be in grave danger if they went to Utah. During the investigation, we recovered electronic files belonging to Sarah Myers that included images appearing to document injuries to Myers and some of the children.

Text messages in handwritten materials alleging abuse. Now, I want to be clear about something, okay? So Brady Harmon has denied all allegations of abuse in multiple media interviews. Chief Rabbit said they couldn't independently confirm that any of those. those claims were true. During the news conference, Chief Rabbit was asked about prior welfare checks at the family's apartment. But it seems that during at least one of those visits, the family was in Stedman's apartment, so it seemed like no one was home. Officers responded on 13th. They knocked on F1. We know everybody was in M5 now, and we didn't

know that at the time. We knocked on F1, we got no response. One of the officers interviewed one of the neighbors, one of the neighbors had said that they had seen Sarah Myers and had seen the children recently and that they appeared in good health. That information was relayed back. Finally, a neighbor called police on June 23rd to report a bad odor. That is when the six bodies were discovered. According to Chief Rabbit, they were already so badly decomposed that their identities couldn't be officially confirmed until the autopsy two days later. Okay. So to help give us some insight into this, into when we talk about custody agreements, disputes, how things like this happen. I want to welcome back family attorney Randy Kessler.

Randy, it's good to see you. I wish it was under better circumstances because this is really the worst outcome in a case like this. You have one parent seemingly deciding that it would be better for a child to be dead than to be with the other parent. Generally speaking, you've seen things like this? Unfortunately, yes. Sometimes it's the, I'd rather my spouse be dead than divorce me, you know, but this is, you know, taking 10 times worse. Look, these are the extreme situations. They're not common, obviously.

But yes, I see these feelings. I don't see these actions very, very commonly, but I see people saying, you know, I wish they would just all go away, or I'd rather no one had them if he's going to have the kids. Just horrible feelings. I can't believe that people still actually carry out these thoughts. I understand having the thoughts and being angry

and saying things out of anger, but acting on this, it's always upsetting. What would be some red flags in a situation like this? When you see people, you know, there's a term parental alienation that gets overused and now it's been so overused that judges sort of ignore it. But when you see people really saying, not only is he not a good father or she's not a good mother, but she shouldn't even be allowed to know the kids. A kid shouldn't even be allowed to know them. And I'm going to do everything I can, including moving to another town, hiding them. When people start breaking the law to make sure the other parent doesn't get to see their children, that's a red flag to me.

You know, the tensions, when they're not following court orders. And apparently in this case, Jesse, there was a contempt of what we call an enforcement hearing coming up because mom wasn't letting dad see the kids. You know, that alone's not enough. But if it's over and over, moving to other states, doing everything you can, something's wrong. And I don't know how you stop it. And you can't accuse everybody of being falsely accusing the other parent and being a bad parent. But there are flags here. And I wish somebody had taken notice.

I'm sure mom and grandma had some mental history, something else that probably talked. into this who could do something like this without being unstable. This divorce decree that laid out exactly how the co-parenting plan would be adhered to, is there ever any sort of oversight? Is there any sign of accountability outside the family unit? I mean, how does it work usually? Very rarely. I mean, a court wants to be done with the case, right?

Most family court judges across the country are assigned 900 to 1,000 cases a year. So they need to move them through. And their goal is to finish them. They want to do it right. They want to do a good job. But when it's over, they don't monitor. Nobody reports to the court. What happens if somebody doesn't follow the order,

then the other side has to pay a lawyer to come back to court to ask the judge to make them follow it or make them go to jail. Every now and then we put in consequences. Like if you don't let him see the kids, then you have a financial penalty. Or if you don't watch the kids when it's your time and you don't take the kids, you pay for him to use a babysitter. But those are rare, and that wouldn't have solved this problem. It's just, it's a hard situation.

I don't know how you monitor and safeguard children for these few extreme dangerous situations. How much more complicated does it make it if you have parents who live far away from each other? Those are hard. Those are the hardest cases for judges. We call them relocation cases often because one parent moves, and the question is, are they moving to get away from the other parent?

Or do they have a good reason? They have a good job. They're being close to family. But those visitation issues are really hard because someone spends a lot of time and money planning, traveling, and then not seeing their kids, and then they have to spend money on me to go to court to make the judge tell them,

to produce the children the next time they go there. A lot of parents that visit give up. A lot of guys and women who don't see their kids enough say, you know what, I don't have the money to fight it. The kids are not going to be happy because they are alienated against me. They're terrible situations, and, you know, distance does make it harder to be a parent. Although FaceTime, you know, I do have clients that only FaceTime their children and they don't get to see them for months at a time, but they see them every day.

Brady Harmon says that he didn't find out that Myers had pulled the kids out of school and apparently planned to homeschool them until after they were dead. I mean, is that a decision that the other parent would typically be involved in? Do they get a say in that? How does it work? Parenting plans? Yeah. So in almost every case, the judge will require the parties to communicate before they make a decision. Somebody has to get the right to make the decision. You can't be going back to court to say, judge, can we change schools, can we move houses?

But almost always the court order, the divorce decree and the parenting plan says, before you make a major decision like that, you've got to communicate with the other side. And the reason for that is so the other side, if they need to, can seek court. intervention. It can say, this is a bridge too far. I'm going to go back and ask the judge to stop him or her from doing that. So she was obviously violating the court order, assuming it had one of those typical standard provisions in it. You know, Harmon claims that Myers was under investigation by CPS, right, child protective services. The Times Union reports that since 2020, he had received 10 letters from Saratoga County Child Protective Services saying they were investigating the conditions

at the home where the children lived. Harmon says the last letter that he got was so recent that it was dated June 24th. This was after the bodies were found. And the letters apparently didn't include a lot of details. They were just informing him that an investigation was underway. The letters did reportedly indicate that there were the accusations of maybe inadequate guardianship, educational neglect. A, does that surprise you? And B, what does that tell you about the the system and what a parent is supposed to do. I mean, that's the tough balance, right, Jesse? In a regular criminal case, you know, there's the burden of proof.

You're innocent to proven guilty. It switches a little bit when they're children. You've got to do more. You've got to act. And in a criminal case, a regular criminal case, just because there's smoke doesn't mean there's fire. You've got to prove there's fire. In a case where their children involved, where there's smoke like that, there's fire.

And I wish CPS had acted further. It's easy to criticize CPS. They are underfunded. They're overworked. There are too many cases for them. But the public, me and you and all of us have to give more resources. to them. They need to intervene faster, quicker. And if they're wrong, what's the big deal? So they're wrong and they inconvenience somebody and they investigate somebody and they ask some ugly questions.

But God forbid that they're right. And this time they would have been right. Wouldn't we want them to have acted faster? I wish CPS would intervene more and faster, even if it makes it harder on those that are innocent to prove their innocence because eventually the truth comes out. Myers, Sarah Myers, she had, as you know, sole physical custody of her children for years. how much does that factor into everything? How much does that play into everything? Well, you know, who knows what went on at the time of the divorce, what went on at the time of, you know, the decision.

He just wanted to get away. Maybe that was the easiest way to conclude the situation was to be done with the paperwork. But if she had sole physical custody and he wasn't involved, you know, maybe she just got used to it. Maybe he's a bad guy. Maybe there were some blemishes on him that were legitimate. And even if so, obviously this isn't the way you handle it. You prove that and you get protections, put it. place. You don't engage in self-help, meaning keeping the kids from the dad. More importantly,

you don't harm anybody. I mean, it just, it doesn't equal any justification or rationalization for what she did. You know, going from always having your children with you to having them gone for like two months, that would be hard for any parent, no matter where the kids are going. This period of time is really alarming. I do want to talk to you now about some of the statements that Brady Harmon has made about what happened to his kids. And on August 4th, after the Mechanicville police gave their update, he posted screenshots of conversations that he had with Myers. And this is via a co-parenting app.

And I want to read a portion of the statement that he included alongside those screenshots. It says, quote, I've thought about sharing these final communications for a long time. I'm now sharing the messages from May 31st through June 11th because they show what I was being told while I was planning for my children's summer with me. I sent their flight information.

planned activities based on their interests. I requested their medical records, medications, allergies, doctors information, and other documents that were required under the parenting plan. I believe I was preparing to welcome my children home. I cannot understand how anyone could claim that this was done to save my children from harm. The greatest possible harm was done to them. They were terrified, betrayed, and robbed of their lives by the very people who were supposed to protect them. My children were not pawns to be sacrificed when control was slipping away. They were four beautiful human beings with personalities, dreams, fears, laughter, and an entire family waiting to love them.

They were denied the opportunity to spend the summer with me, reconnect with their grandparents, sister, relatives, and everyone who had waited so long to hold them again. I believe the truth would have begun coming out once they were safely with me. They would have experienced the loving side of their family they had been separated from and taught to fear. Instead of allowing that relationship to be restored, the people responsible chose to permanently silence for children. I will continue speaking their names, telling their story, and fighting for the full truth about what happened to them. Harper, Hudson,

Gavin, Graceland, you deserved your summer. You deserved your family. You deserve to grow up. You deserve so much more. Love always dad. So let's just start right there, Randy. That's, that is heartbreaking in a whole different kind of level. And I mean, there's so many different components about it. You can hear the pain. You also hear this idea of one parent always talks bad about the other one. You see that many times. And yet if they get to live and experience that other side of the family,

it's interesting for the child. Clearly they didn't get this opportunity, and clearly they didn't get an opportunity to live the rest of their lives. But that is a really heartbreaking statement. Well, it's beautifully written. It's a nice homage to his family, to his children. And it's something that, you know, is, How do you capture all your emotions?

The fact that he actually put that stuff in writing is helpful for a lot of reasons. Number one, it might explain why they actually did this. They knew they were going to be exposed. If the children were with him, he might have learned what their life was really like, number one. Number two, if you're out there and you're a parent that's not seeing your children, and you have these kind of communications, and you're thinking, okay, I'm exchanging the information necessary for my parents at time. Everything's good.

This is an alarm bell. Just because you're communicating and passing that information along, keep your eyes open, keep your eyes open for danger signs. Here's what he went through. There are other people, unfortunately, going through what he's going through. Let's hope, not many of them. Let's hope that people intervene before it gets to this. But you're right, Jesse.

There are a lot of components to that beautifully written essay that he put out there. And most importantly, it shows his love for his kids. And I'm sure he could have gone on. They deserve the summer. They deserve the life. They deserve the family. They deserve a wife, a husband, a grandchild. just horrible in every sense of the word.

Let's talk about these screenshots for a second, okay? Because they show these interactions starting on May 31st, and it's a different level to the story. So on that day, there were two recorded video calls that apparently went unanswered. The third try, he was able to speak with the kids for 13 minutes. Then on June 3rd, they spoke for about 20 minutes. After that conversation, Harmon seemingly sends a message saying,

here is their flight information for July 1st flying out with my mom and myself. The next message shows all the flight details leaving from Albany with a couple of layovers. And from there, Harmon says, I will book the return trip and send you the information after the pickup and a little closer to the departure date, September 1st, 2026, with Harmon's wife returning with me and the kids, as I have posted before. Two days later, he apparently gets a reply, quote, thank you. We are good for summer. sometime before July 1st, can we message here about FaceTime and times for summer and birthday calls

so I can have it in writing and there is no error. And if you could please put the child support in the account, I can get them some sneakers. Harmon then sent a screenshot of the money withdrawal. I do want to draw your attention, though, to the date that Myers replies. So this is June 5th. And police believe by this point Myers and her mom were already starting to plan the children's murders. Okay. Now, Randy, just your reaction so far to what I've gone through. I mean, unfortunately, I think I'm starting to see how their crazy, warped mind works, right? When they start to realize there's going to be maybe trouble getting the kids back or maybe they're going to be alone with him and there are obviously money

issues. It's just crazy to me because the flip side of it, he doesn't see any of this. He's actually talking to his kids. He's interacting. He's doing the logistics. It makes it doubly sad for him that he had no way to. understand, predict, expect this. Just all sorts of wrong. But the other side of it is, these are not abnormal texts. I mean, I see these kind of texts all day long. People complaining about no FaceTime, complaining about not enough money to buy sneakers for the kids.

Oh, yeah, well, let me show you how much I bought for them. Or why didn't you use the $2,000 a century last month? Did you use that on yourself to go out at night? So we see horrible exchanges like this, and much worse. There's no way he could have foreseen this or prevented it, just based on that. Now, Harmon assures Myers in the next series of messages saying, quote, everything is set up for summer calls in the parenting plan. Sunday and Wednesdays 4 o'clock MST.

Of course, you can call them on their birthdays. I would never prevent it. Plus, it is in the parenting plan anyway for both of our sakes. June 7th, the family had apparently scheduled this FaceTime call a little early with Myers saying, quote, sorry, we are in home at family dinner with my mom. I think they were a bit distracted and running all over, but still wanted them to have their call. Harmon responds that he's not worried about it. He's just glad he got to speak with them. June 8th. Harmon sends a long message about some of the things he mentioned in his Facebook post.

He wants to gauge their interests in different activities so he can plan a fun time for them. And he wants to make sure that he gets all their medical records, you know, in case there's any emergencies. Myers apparently responds, quote, okay, I'll talk to the kiddos about the stuff they would like to do over summer. And she also says that she's gathering up the other information from. The last screenshot is from the day it's believed the family died. It is a Wednesday, and they're scheduled for a video call. But around 1 p.m. Myers messages, the kids have gotten a little stomach bug throwing up. Is it okay to switch your online visit to tomorrow night at 4 p.m. your time, please?

Now, that is incredibly chilling because we know that around that time, these kids had reportedly been given overdoses of sleep medication. Harmon responds, okay, I will keep painting then. Hopefully, they feel better soon. On Thursday, he asks, are the kiddos feeling better? Doesn't get a response. Calls at their scheduled time, no answer. And at the top of the screenshot, you can see where it says that Sarah Myers was last seen on the app June 10th at 506 p.m. And it would be another 12 days before the bodies of the children, as well as Myers and Stedman, were found in the apartment.

And Harmon told News 10 in an interview that he started asking for welfare check saying they did check on them several times, couldn't get them to answer the door. and then two weeks later, two days after Father's Day, I find out my kids are gone. Who could do that to a child, especially your own child or grandchild? It is so sickening to think that they did that. According to reporting from the Times Union, instead of picking up his children for a fun-filled summer on July 1st, he went to the airport on July 2nd to receive his kids' cremated remains. He and his family scattered their ashes on a mountaintop. This is per the Times Union.

It is just a really heartbreaking scenario, but the messages say a lot. You know, they're never going to be prosecuted. They're never going to, but there is an element of this that it is still being investigated and understood what happened. And those messages say a lot, don't they, Randy? They do. And the scary thing is that there's so many people out there that have this kind of text messaging, this type of interchange and would have no reason to believe something horrible.

He had no reason to think, oh, they can't talk to me. They've got a stomach bug. He answered the right way, right? okay, well, I hope they feel better soon. I'll talk to him tomorrow. I mean, the shock to him, you know, had he had some antenna going up saying, it doesn't sound right, there's something suspicious.

But these, to me, sound like very typical parents who are struggling because they don't get along, but they're trying to at least follow the parenting order. You know, the shock to him when it went from, this is a difficult relationship, but at least I'm going to see my kids this summer and I'm going to interact with them and I'm going to have fun times with them to not only do I not get to see them,

I will never see them again. I just can't imagine. I mean, that's the, it's jumping off a cliff and not landing on the ground, but landing a thousand feet deeper than the ground. It's just going from a high where you're about to see your kids for a summer, a fun time. We call it sometimes people get called Disneyland Dad because you get them for the fun time to the exact opposite. Just horrendous situation. There's really not much more that I can say. There's not even that much more I can analyze at this point.

It is just a tragedy beyond tragedies. I'm Randy Kessler. Thank you so much for coming on. I appreciate it. My pleasure. Always good to be with you. And that's all we have for you right now here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us.

And as always, please subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you should get your podcast. You can also check us out on NBC's Peacock as well. If you want to follow me, X Instagram, my News Nation Show, Jesse Weber Live, Monday through Friday, 11 p.m. Eastern. See you next time, everybody.