THE dad of four children found dead alongside their mother and grandmother in a suspected mass poisoning has revealed the last time he spoke to them.
Sarah Myers, 44, her mom Amy Steadman, 64, and Myers’ four children were discovered inside Steadman’s apartment in New York on Tuesday.
Police were called to the home in Mechanicville, outside Albany, for a welfare check around 6:20pm after a neighbor claimed she could “smell death” and noticed flies gathering around a window.
The neighbor told local news outlets she feared the worst after not hearing from the family for days and was heartbroken when authorities confirmed they had died.
The children were identified as 13-year-old Harper, 11-year-old Hudson, and 10-year-old twins Gavin and Gracelynn Harmon.
Myers had been embroiled in a bitter custody battle with her ex-husband, Brady Harmon, and the children were due to spend the summer with him in Utah.
In an exclusive interview, he told The U.S. Sun, “No parent wants to outlive their children. It breaks my heart.”
Myers and Harmon married in December 2015 in Salt Lake City and separated in 2019. He had not seen the children since.
He has been fighting for access with the support of his family and new wife.
Myers had claimed on social media that she was a victim of domestic violence, but Harmon vehemently denies the claim.
He said he last spoke to his children on FaceTime on June 7 and was getting excited to spend time with them after more than six years.
But when he contacted Myers again on June 10, she claimed the children were sick and he would have to wait for another video call.
Harmon said he never heard from them again, and a police officer visited his home in Utah to deliver the devastating news this week.
“June 10, she messaged me, ‘Hey, the kids are sick, we’ll talk to you on the 11th,” he told the U.S. Sun.
“My lawyer sent her the paperwork and everything regarding the court hearing on the 29th. These are your violations and everything due to the parenting plan. You can show up to the court in Utah, or you can do it via Zoom.”
He said his lawyer sent paperwork at around 4pm on June 10.
“So, I don’t know if that pushed them over the edge because like, ‘Oh my gosh, he actually has a lawyer that’s going to do his job. And we don’t know way out of this, so let’s do the next best thing.’ ‘He’ll never have access to these kids… and then do what they did,” Harmon said.
Court filings show Harmon filed for divorce in 2020, and the case was finalized in April.
The decree granted joint legal custody of the couple’s children, with Myers awarded sole physical custody, and ordered Harmon to pay $500 per week in child support.
After being granted time with the children, from July 1 to September 1, he filed a motion to enforce the order, according to docs.
Myers was due in court on June 29 for potential contempt proceedings – just days before she and her family were discovered.
Recalling their last video talk, he said, “I spoke to the kids, but she was always in the room, she had to monitor what was being said.
“It was like, ‘Hey dad’. It wasn’t like a really over-exuberant relationship.
“I don’t think she ever told them they were coming out to Utah, even though I tried several times.
“What do you guys want to do? How do you guys want your rooms set up? What colors do you want?
“Just trying to make everything as homely as possible for them because it would be a huge transition… six and a half years.
“You’re going to be able to see the open your eyes moments.”
He said he and his mother were planning to fly TO New York on June 30 and pick up the children on July 1 before flying back to Utah.
Harmon said he planned to do “tons of stuff” with the children, including visiting Arches National Park and Shoshone Ice Caves, Bryce Canyon National Park, and more.
“Just anything and everything… load them up with fun and outdoors and reconnecting with family and connecting with everybody else,” he said.
He said he called police for a welfare check three to four times over two weeks, but each time was met with silence.
“They would call me back and say, ‘We can’t get a hold of them’. And I would call again later and like, ‘We’ll send somebody else over.’
“I called on the 13th, they were supposed to call and they hadn’t called, I couldn’t do anything,” he said.
“I was like, ‘I’m sorry to burden you but I cannot get a hold of these kids, and she said they were sick, and I’m worried something’s gone on.
“And then come to find this is the end result.
“They went and checked, her residence and the grandmother’s residence, they could never get them to answer either door. No idea.
“Even if I wanted to bring them home and bury them I can’t because of the decomposition of the bodies.
“That’s unfortunate because I can’t even go and hold their hands and say I love them.”
Authorities have not announced a cause of death, but investigators said the circumstances are consistent with an intentional poisoning, and findings have suggested the grandmother may be responsible.
A handwritten note was found at the apartment, along with evidence of prescription and over-the-counter medications, police said during a press conference on Thursday.
Officials also said one of the young victims suffered “fatal sharp-force injuries,” but did not identify which child as the investigation is ongoing.
“I feel gutted,” Harmon said.
“They’re still ongoing on the investigation.
“I do know a little bit more, but I’m not going to share because they [police] didn’t disclose that.”
He has since remarried and has other children who have been supportive, along with his mother and siblings.
Asked why Myers kept him from the children, he claimed it was simply “control.”
He alleged that she was violent during an argument on November 9, 2019, as he was trying to leave the home.
“She sprinted down the hall, slammed the door in my face, which I put my hand up,” he alleged.
“And then she opened the door and then stabbed me in the face with a medicine dropper. And then I called the police.
“I got stabbed in the face, had a scar, three inches down from my right eye.”
He claims Myers and her mom painted him as the main aggressor, but neither was arrested, and Harmon has no previous criminal record.
“Well, I would never be the aggressor,” Harmon said. “I did not want any stain on my family’s name or reputation of me hitting her. That’s not how I was raised.”
Asked whether he was ever able to speak to his children after the split, he said, “There were periods of time that I was able to, but then she turned around and put a protective order in place.
“She wasn’t a victim at all, she was the culprit.
“It took me a while to even track them down to get [Sarah] served,” he went on.
“She was trying to play games that she was still here in Utah.”
He said he hasn’t had any contact with her family since the tragedy and hopes his children can be buried away from their mom and grandmother.
Harmon added, “I won’t sit there and… give up. I’m gonna try to figure out an additional ways to help people in the same situation and trying to fight, to be able to see their kids, to be able to not have that parent alienation, not to have relationships destroyed.”
