Police Uncover Poison Plan — Kids Gone

Police in Mechanicville, New York say a mother and grandmother drugged four children with allergy medicine and kratom, then took their own lives inside a small apartment.

Story Snapshot

The medical examiner ruled the deaths of Harper, Hudson, Gavin, and Grayson Harmon homicides, and the deaths of Amy Stedman and Sarah Myers suicides
Police say the two women planned the killings together, with no evidence anyone else took part
One child was stabbed multiple times and had defensive wounds, investigators said
Toxicology results later matched what police already believed happened
A handwritten note found at the scene pointed to Stedman’s involvement

What Investigators Found Inside the Apartment

Mechanicville Police Chief William Rabbitt told reporters at an August 4 news conference that the county medical examiner classified all four children’s deaths as homicides. Stedman, the children’s mother, and Myers, their grandmother, died by suicide, he said. All six bodies were found inside the same apartment, and police said nothing pointed to anyone outside the home being involved.

Rabbitt said Stedman and Myers “conspired to plan and carry out the killings.” Investigators repeated at multiple briefings that they found no sign a third person took part in the plotting or the deaths themselves. That conclusion, delivered publicly and on the record, has anchored every update police have given since the bodies were discovered.

How Police Say the Deaths Happened

Rabbitt said evidence recovered from the apartment pointed to intentional poisoning using “numerous prescription and over-the-counter medications.” One child also suffered multiple stab wounds and had defensive injuries, according to investigators, meaning at least one of the four young victims fought back before dying. Police have not said which woman inflicted the stab wounds.

Toxicology testing took weeks to complete. In early September, Rabbitt told reporters the preliminary results were “not inconsistent with the direction of our investigation,” meaning the lab findings lined up with what detectives already suspected. Sources told WNYT the children’s blood contained both Benadryl and kratom, an herbal supplement sometimes misused for its sedative effects.

The Note, the Motive, and What Remains Unresolved

Investigators said a handwritten note found at the scene, along with other circumstantial evidence, “strongly suggests” Stedman was involved in the deaths. The children’s father has said he received repeated letters from child protective services in the weeks before his kids died, though police have not tied that correspondence directly to the killings.

Family members have suggested the women believed they were protecting the children from abuse, a claim police say they could not independently verify. Investigators have been clear that any justification described in personal notes or messages does not change their conclusion: the deaths were planned, and they were carried out by the two adults inside that apartment.

A Pattern Researchers Have Documented Before

Cases like this one fit a grim pattern researchers have tracked for years. Studies of homicide-suicides involving child victims find that 98 percent are committed by adults, most often parents, and that the violence is frequently premeditated, sometimes with warning signs left behind beforehand. Intimate-partner conflict, mental health crises, and legal stress are the circumstances most often present before these tragedies unfold.

None of that broader research changes what Mechanicville police have said about this specific case. Their conclusion, repeated across several press conferences, is that Stedman and Myers acted alone, planned the deaths in advance, and used both physical violence and poisoning to kill four children before ending their own lives. The medical examiner’s rulings stand as the official record.