The two children’s caskets were flanked by star-shaped balloons, with little Liliana Merdy wearing a tiara inside one and her brother Zachary holding a toy police car in the other.

Heartbroken family and friends of the slain siblings gathered Thursday for an emotional Brooklyn wake remembering the Coney Island kids lost three days earlier when their mentally ill mother allegedly drowned the pair alongside their 3-month-old baby brother.

“He loved his sister,” the boy’s father Derrick Merdy said after the wake. “Always looking out for his sister. I just don’t know what to say. There are no words that could ... do him justice for what he really was. I can’t express it. Like you met my son, I mean, you’ll love him.

“To know him was a real privilege,” the dad continued after spending extra time at his son’s casket. “In seven years of life, he changed my life forever. He really did.”

The mourners, numbering about 100, assembled at the Caribe Funeral Home in Brooklyn for the sad sendoff. Huge photos of both children stood on easels between the caskets — white for 4-year-old Liliana, blue for 7-year-old Zachary — with the little girl flanked by stuffed animals.

“Loving family,” read a large floral arrangement placed nearby, with Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez among those mourners offering their condolences to Zachary’s dad. There was no sign of accused murderer Erin Merdy’s family among the mourners that also included Shamir Small, father of Liliana.

A funeral for Zachary will be held at some point in Virginia, where the little boy will be buried with his dad’s relatives. Zachary spent the last summer of his life with his father in Virginia before returning to his mom in Coney Island.

A Monday funeral was set for his sister Liliana, while arrangements for the funeral of infant Oliver, who was born in May, remained unclear.

The mother, charged Wednesday with three counts of murder, remained under psychiatric care while awaiting arraignment for the chilling killings. Erin Merdy told police about a “dream” where she walked the children into the water when asked by investigators about what happened that night.

Police said daughter Liliana’s bruised body indicated Merdy held the little girl under the water.

Zachary’s grandmother on his father’s side broke down in tears after sharing her recollections of the boy and his sister, recalling how she took care of Liliana at one point when their mother became ill.

“She is just as important to me as Zachary because she’s his sister,” said the grandmother, addressing the girl’s father. “I loved your daughter. I just wanted you to know that.”

The grandmother, before her husband came up to console her, remembered Zachary as “so special. I will miss him every day. He was very loving. He was like his father.”

The mother was taken to NYU Langone Hospital-Brooklyn after the killings and the timing for her first court appearance remained uncertain. According to police, there were no warning signs of imminent danger to the children before their deadly walk to the beach and no apparent motive for the killings.

“I don’t want to say much about her,” said Derrick Merdy about the accused killer. “Because I don’t want to give no more publicity than she already deserves. I don’t want my son to be remembered being murdered by his mother. He was so much more than that.”

Autopsies indicated all three kids were drowned before the incoherent parent wandered to nearby Brighton Beach, where she told relatives “the babies are gone.”

A Thursday evening event with candle-lighting and balloons to remember the children was planned on the Coney Island boardwalk following practice for the youth football team where Zachary played last season.

Three Stoughton police officers who have since resigned from their roles with the department engaged in inappropriate relationships with a teenage girl who died suicide years later, the town’s chief said Friday.

Prosecutors say they have questions about the credibility of two witnesses. Gaetz has denied wrongdoing.

“The trauma that has affected us all, however, pales in comparison to what Azuree no doubt experienced,” the district attorney said.

A caller reported seeing someone throw a plastic tote over a Central Florida bridge from a moving vehicle this week, according to a Thursday Facebook post from Orlando-based Orange County Animal Services,.

The women are accused of using a phone to track her down, where they punched and kicked her until she couldn’t breathe.

The white woman who called the police on a Black bird-watcher for nothing other than being Black, filed a lawsuit against her former employer. She claimed they wrongfully terminated her and defamed her as a racist. According to NBC News, she lost her little suit.

Authorities in Georgia said there's no evidence suggesting a missing Georgia mother who was found dead this month was kidnapped — despite a chilling text message to her daughter indicating that she was possibly being held against her will.

“A 30-pound girl, little more than a toddler, was physically and chemically suffocated by an out-of-control, financially motivated dentist,” an attorney said.

"Nine years have gone and I still struggle to associate that revelation with her."View Entire Post ›

A 15-year-old girl who was abducted at knifepoint in Hawaii last week was rescued over the weekend by a restaurant host and a customer who jumped into action after recognizing her from local news reports. Mikella DeBina and her boyfriend were on a secluded beach in the area of Anaehoomalu Bay near Waikoloa Beach Drive when a man held them at knifepoint and forced the girl to tie her boyfriend up and put a blindfold on him, the victim’s aunt told police. Mahi brought DeBina to the beach parking area where she was forced into a white Honda SUV.

The Milwaukee Cannibal was given 15 consecutive life sentences.

GoFundMe and Foster County PoliceA North Dakota man who admitted to running over and killing a teenager says he did it because he thought the teen was part of a “Republican extremist group” that was out to get him, according to court documents. Shannon Joseph Brandt, 41, was charged with one felony count of vehicular manslaughter and one count of leaving the scene of an accident in the death of 18-year-old Cayler Ellingson on Sept. 18. He was also charged with driving under the influence after h

The Chesterfield Township Police Department says they are investigating a deadly domestic violence situation Friday afternoon. Police say a 57-year-old man is dead. The suspect and three other victims have been transported to a nearby hospital. “This is a tragic situation but there is no threat to the community at this time,” police said in a statement.

A man accused of killing an 18-year-old woman in Jacksonville is in jail after he was denied bond on Wednesday.

Alexander Tung Cuu Le, 33, of Westminster, has been charged with one count of interference with flight crew members and attendants, the Department of Justice announced on Thursday.

A toddler was found dead inside a car that was stolen after the child's father was shot and killed in Houston on Tuesday, police said. The name of the suspect, who initially had been detained for questioning, will be released once charges are filed, police said. "We are asking for a lot of things from the public right now," Houston Police Executive Assistant Chief Larry Satterwhite told reporters during a press conference Tuesday night.

Jen Hensel, who lost her daughter Avielle in the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting, testified Wednesday in the Alex Jones defamation damages trial.

An Indiana man sought for throwing a hatchet at people in a park became the target of frantic hours-long search through Bloomington's storm sewer system Tuesday.

Tracy Edwards was nearly one of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer's victims, but he survived. He appears in 'Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story.' Where he is now.

Here’s what happened in court.