The ailing grandmother suspected of poisoning her daughter and four grandchildren inside her upstate New York home before dying by suicide was acknowledged by surviving relatives in a stark obituary that ran just two sentences.
“Amy J. Steadman, 64, passed away on Tuesday, June 23, 2026. Per the request of the family, services were held privately,” reads the full notice posted by Albany-based New Comer Cremations and Funerals, which did not include a photo.
Steadman, her 44-year-old daughter Sarah Myers, and four grandchildren — Harper Harmon, 13, Hudson Harmon, 11, Gavin Harmon, 10, and Gracelynn Harmon, 10 — were discovered dead at Steadman’s Mechanicville residence after police were called for a welfare check.
Mechanicville Police Chief Bill Rabbitt told reporters last week that a handwritten note recovered at the home “strongly suggests” Steadman poisoned the family members before taking her own life.
“There is recovered evidence inside the apartment that indicates intentional poisoning with numerous prescriptions and over-the-counter medication,” Rabbitt said, noting that investigators are still awaiting additional toxicology results.
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One of the children was also stabbed in the five killings, which sources told Channel 13 may have been fueled by anger over the children’s father recently gaining custody.
The children’s devastated father, Brady Harmon, had been involved in a custody dispute with Myers and planned to bring the children back to Utah with him for the summer.
But when Harmon spoke with Myers again on June 10, she told him the children were sick, he told the US Sun.
He and Myers married in 2015 but separated four years later — the last time he saw his children in-person.
He had previously concerns about the children’s safety before the tragedy, which he described to Fox News as “horrendous.”
“The system is broken, it takes way too long to get anything done. I spent six and a half years fighting to be able to have access to my kids,” he said.
“My concern right now is being able to bring my kids home, and have them away from those two monsters that did this to them,” he added, about Myers and Steadman.