Pod Insights Crime Weekly The Harmon Family Tragedy | 6 Found Dead, A Custody Battle, And A Chilling Note About this episode On June 23, 2026, six members of a family were found dead inside a Mechanicville, New York apartment during a welfare check. Grandmother Amy Steadman, her daughter Sarah Myers, and Myers' four children, were found poisoned, and a handwritten note and medications strongly suggest Steadman was involved in the deaths, with investigators exploring a possible link to a recent custody decision involving the children's father.
Transcript Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
0:14 Derrick Levasseur? Hey everyone, welcome back to Crime Weekly News. I'm Derek Levasseur.
0:17 Stephanie Harlowe? And I'm Stephanie Harlow.
0:18 Derrick Levasseur? And as you can probably see from the title today, this is gonna be a rough one. And you know, we're just, we're just compounding it right now between Harmony, Montgomery, and now this story, but Stephanie made me aware of it. It's absolutely horrible. A father who was preparing to finally see his four children after an extended period of time apart is now planning their funerals after they were found dead alongside their mother and grandmother inside an apartment in upstate New York. According to reporting, Brady Harmon had not seen his children in person since 2019, but he was expecting them to come and stay with him in Utah for the summer, a visit that was supposed to begin within days of Brady being informed that his children were
0:59 Derrick Levasseur? gone. Investigators say evidence at the scene points toward intentional poisoning, and they are now looking closely at the custody dispute and the timing of what happened. But this case is still unfolding, and there are a lot of unanswered questions which Stephanie's going to try and help us out with today. But what a absolutely horrific story, and it is interesting that we're talking about this type of incident when Harmony, although very different, also has some similarities when you talk about custody disputes and who's gonna be taking, I guess, possession, for lack of a better way of saying it, of the children.
1:36 Stephanie Harlowe? And one parent, you know, not seeing the child or children in this case for an extended period of time.
1:41 Derrick Levasseur? Right. That being a completely different guy, though. A parent, you know, we don't know Brady too much yet, but obviously with Harmony's situation, dad should have never seen her.
1:50 Stephanie Harlowe? Yeah, so this actually happened in an area close to me. So this was Mechanicville, New York, Saratoga County, just north of Albany. I'm in upstate. And so there's obviously been a lot of talk about this in the area, not just like on the regular news, but I see it on Facebook and stuff. People are talking about it because it is absolutely just like shocking.
2:14 Derrick Levasseur? Horrible.
2:15 Stephanie Harlowe? Six people, including four children, were found dead in Mechanicville, New York. The six people found dead have been identified as 64-year-old Amy Steadman, 44-year-old Sarah Myers. So Sarah is Amy's daughter and the mother of the four following children, 13-year-old Harper Harmon, 11-year-old Hudson Harmon, 10-year-old Gavin Harmon, and 10-year-old Grace Lynn Harmon. So all six were found dead inside Amy Steadman's apartment at the John S. Moore Apartment Complex on Harris Avenue in Mechanicville. Sarah Myers and the children reportedly lived in the same complex, but not in Amy Steadman's unit. So you have grandmother, daughter, four children.
2:59 Stephanie Harlowe? They appear to all have lived in the same apartment complex, but they were all found dead in the grandmother's apartment. Now, the police were called for a welfare check on Tuesday evening, June 23, 2026. So this literally did just happen a few days ago as we're filming this. A neighbor said they had not heard from or seen the family for some time. One report says the neighbor has not seen them since around June 9. And police did say that the bodies had been there for quote unquote, "an extended period of time."
3:26 Derrick Levasseur? That's gonna be a tough scene.
3:28 Stephanie Harlowe? Mm-hmm. They said the decomposition was reportedly severe enough that visual identification of the bodies at the apartment was difficult.
3:35 Derrick Levasseur? Yeah, I'll tell you right now, from just like a layman perspective, you may be saying, "Oh, two weeks. That's not too bad." You know, like, how bad could it really be inside? Let me tell you, I've had cases where I've shown up three days after a person has passed, and there's already fly larvae activity, especially based on the circumstances, whether it's really hot out or something like that.
3:59 Stephanie Harlowe? Yeah, I was just gonna say, it's June, yeah.
4:00 Derrick Levasseur? Yeah, June, New York. It's been, we've had a hot couple of weeks. We've had rain too, but it's been hot. No air circulation going through there. If the windows were closed... That's a tough scene. I would not want to be the first one for that. That's for sure.
4:15 Stephanie Harlowe? Yeah, I think what you said too, it's been raining a lot. So that means humidity, moisture.
4:19 Derrick Levasseur? Yeah. Yeah, the, it would not be a pleasant sight. And then on top of that, considering it's for young children. Um, that just adds insult to injury.
4:28 Stephanie Harlowe? Now, here's the thing. So Mechanicville Police Chief William Rabbit said that evidence recovered in the apartment indicates intentional poisoning, including numerous prescription and over the counter medications. Autopsies were performed, but police said the official causes and manner of death remain pending additional investigation and obviously toxicology. They said syringes were found inside the home and investigators believe the children may have been injected with the drugs. According to the New York Post, but one of the children, it does not say which one. One of the children also suffered fatal sharp force injuries, according to police.
5:06 Stephanie Harlowe? This is one of the most important details because it means this may not have been a straightforward, everyone was poisoned scenario. Maybe there was more of a struggle or the kids were aware of something happening. Not, not just this kind of like, oh, well, we'll give them medication.
5:23 Derrick Levasseur? They all fell asleep. One of them might have woke up.
5:26 Stephanie Harlowe? Or seen what was happening. Yeah. It appears most of the deaths may involve poisoning, but we know at least one child had a separate fatal injury. Police have not publicly announced final responsibility. Like they haven't said, this is who we think did it technically, but they have said that a handwritten note and other circumstantial evidence strongly suggests that Amy Steadman, the grandmother, was involved in the deaths. So they have not at this time released the contents of the note. And like I said, they're still working on toxicology and a full medical review before making final determinations, but yes, at this time, police are saying no evidence of an outside person being involved exists. There's no, no threat to the public.
6:09 Stephanie Harlowe? And this note that they haven't told us what it says, along with other circumstantial evidence, kind of shows that it was the grandma, Amy. Who may have been responsible for this now, whether the daughter, Amy's daughter Sarah, the children's mother, whether she knew, whether she was complicit. This is all stuff that's going to, I think, unfold and come out as, as we go on, but.
6:31 Derrick Levasseur? I also think the context behind the custody dispute will be important here. You had said, when we were talking about it earlier, and I said it in the opening, 2019 was the last time that Brady had seen his children, right? So that's a long time, we're talking seven years. And so what happened, I mean, that's most of those children's lives, some of them are only 10 years old. So for most of their life at this point, they had no interaction, at least in person, with their father, from what we know. And I have to imagine, just from a historical perspective, that this wasn't a amicable custody dispute. And there's probably a high likelihood that the grandmother and the mother weren't on board with this.
7:15 Derrick Levasseur? This was something that was court ordered, and they were reluctantly having to hand over the children to Brady. And on the surface, it appears like it would be a murder-suicide situation. But the reason law enforcement is still waiting to announce anything is because even though it appears to be that, based on the note and based on the circumstances surrounding their deaths, they have to make sure that they cross their, their Ts and dot their Is because you also have to ask the question, was it made to look this way? Is there something else here, another layer to this, where there's another person involved, who we haven't identified yet, who wanted us to come in here and say, oh yeah, this doesn't appear to involve anybody else? So that's the approach you have to go with.
7:57 Derrick Levasseur? Even if you walk in there and you're like, I'd bet my house on it, that this was a murder-suicide, they shouldn't publicly say that right away until they've conducted a full investigation. And this investigation's not necessarily for the murder-suicide, it's to rule out any potential possibilities that there was foul play, and there's an outside party involved that hasn't been identified yet.
8:17 Stephanie Harlowe? Well, they say that there, there is an outside party involved. I think maybe a lot of that is that they do have strong evidence, we don't know yet. But also, they don't want the public to feel like there's some maniac out there, sneaking into homes and, you know, poisoning entire families.
8:33 Derrick Levasseur? No, exactly.
8:34 Stephanie Harlowe? Yeah, they want the public to feel like, listen, i-if this is anything, this is a personal family matter, there's no, you know, random attacker out there, just.
8:44 Stephanie Harlowe? Sneaking into homes in Albany and injecting people with poison. So don't worry about that. I think that's where.
8:50 Derrick Levasseur? There's a balance, right?
8:51 Stephanie Harlowe? Yeah.
8:52 Derrick Levasseur? Like putting the the community at ease, not raising any type of fear, but also being professional and not coming out and putting your foot in your mouth and concluding something before the investigation is complete. It's a tough, it's a tough thing to navigate, but I feel like this is, I feel like this is the right approach. Hey, listen, we don't think you should be concerned. However, we're gonna reserve saying anything else until we finished, you know, completing this entire investigation and we know for certain this is what happened.
9:19 Stephanie Harlowe? Even though I feel like with the University of Idaho, remember, after that happened, they they were also really quick to be like, hey, don't worry.
9:27 Derrick Levasseur? Yeah.
9:28 Stephanie Harlowe? Like, there's no, you know, the public doesn't need to be concerned. And and really, if you if you think about it and look at it, like, that was absolutely not true.
9:35 Derrick Levasseur? No, not true at all.
9:36 Stephanie Harlowe? Because according to Brian Koberger, this was a completely random attack. There was no beef between him and the victims. There was no reason that he chose these victims, even though he's, I think, still denying that he did this. But there's no known connection between Brian Koberger and the victims besides like, oh, maybe he knew, you know, one of these kids from when they were, there's nothing like, that you would look at and be like, that's a motive for Brian Koberger to kill these these kids. So for the for the public at that time to be told, like, there's no concern, you're good. That was kind of inaccurate because if Brian Koberger had gotten away with it, like, you know, he may have struck again. So.
10:14 Derrick Levasseur? And he could have had co-conspirators too, right? Like, even with him in custody, if they had like, or they had an eye on him at that point, how do you know he didn't have someone else helping him out?
10:21 Stephanie Harlowe? Yeah. And that is where this case with the Harmon kids, it gets a little bit more disturbing, because the children's father, you talked about briefly in the the opening, his name is Brady Harmon, and he lives in Utah.
10:33 Derrick Levasseur? Yeah.
10:34 Stephanie Harlowe? So not in New York. And court paperwork obtained by WRGB, it's just a CBS affiliate, it says Sarah Myers and Brady Harmon married in December of 2015. They separated in 2019. They finalized their divorce in 2020. And the custody agreement reportedly gave. Both parents joint custody with Sarah having custody during the school year and Brady supposedly having uninterrupted summertime with the children from July to September, plus regular video calls, holidays and birthdays. And that's where we have to be like, okay, what happened here though? Because according to Brady, if this divorce was finalized in 2020 and the custody agreement was finalized around that time, even if it took another year for the custody agreement to be finalized,
11:18 Stephanie Harlowe? why have you not seen your kids since 2019? And I think I kind of found some answers to that. We're going to take a quick break and we'll come back and talk about it.
11:29 Stephanie Harlowe? You know what's funny? We spent so much time talking about eating healthier, exercising more, drinking enough water, you know, all the things you do during the day when you're awake, but people almost never talk about sleep.
11:39 Derrick Levasseur? Yeah, which is crazy because if you don't get enough sleep or you don't sleep well, everything else gets harder during the day. I mean, it's a proven fact.
11:46 Stephanie Harlowe? Honestly, for the longest time, I thought I just wasn't a good sleeper.
11:49 Derrick Levasseur? Yeah, yeah, I was in the same boat. However, that was until we got Helix.
11:53 Stephanie Harlowe? Yeah, and honestly, I didn't expect the difference to be as noticeable as it was when I switched to Helix, but I'm sleeping deeper now. I don't wake up nearly as much. I actually wake up feeling rested instead of immediately wanting to hit snooze and the back pain is pretty much not, not a thing anymore. And I also upgraded to one of their cooling options, which has been amazing now that it's warmer outside.
12:16 Derrick Levasseur? Yeah, no, I think that's one of the great things about Helix is they don't expect one mattress to work for everybody, right? They understand that people are different and people sleep differently. And so they have different mattresses designed for whatever you're looking for.
12:30 Stephanie Harlowe? Yeah, they actually have more than 20 different mattress models. So whether you're a side sleeper, if you sleep on your back or your stomach, whatever, there's something that's actually designed for the way you sleep. And trying one isn't going to be a gamble either. This isn't going to be like, I'm going to get this mattress here and then I'm going to hate it and I have no recourse. It ships right to your door. The setup is incredibly easy and Helix is going to give you a 120 night sleep trial plus a limited lifetime warranty. So you actually do have time to figure out if it's right for you.
12:59 Derrick Levasseur? So if you're looking to upgrade your sleep, go to helixsleep.com/crimeweek. For 20% off sitewide, 25% off lux mattresses and 30% off elite mattresses. Again, that's helixsleep.com/crimeweekly for 20% off sitewide, 25% off lux mattresses and 30% off elite mattresses at helixsleep.com/crimeweekly.
13:26 Stephanie Harlowe? Okay, so according to the Times Union, Brady Harmon said he was preparing for the children to come with him to Utah from July 1st to September 1st. And then police notified him of their deaths about a week before he was expecting to see them. He said he had not seen them in person since November 2019. And like I said, at this point, without knowing more, that did stand out to me. The custody agreement appears to have existed on paper, but Brady says that Sarah didn't comply with it and he's been fighting to enforce it. But that's a long time, like to fight to enforce a custody agreement that, you know, appears to have been court ordered. So.
14:05 Derrick Levasseur? But think about it, like we've all, I'm going through a court case right now with that's civil, that's a residential thing, but there's so many hurdles that you have to jump through and I'm in the state where the case is taking place. I can't imagine how hard it is for someone who's in Utah to go to court or find someone in, in New York who can handle it for him. Yeah, you can hire an attorney, but I don't know his financial situation. There's a lot of barriers to entry there when you're not in the same state where the, where the whole thing is taking place and you can't physically do anything about it because again, you're across the country and you wouldn't want to anyways because you run the risk of actually hurting whatever's already been decided.
14:44 Stephanie Harlowe? Yeah, well, I mean, I think that once again, we're in a position where we don't know enough about the exact divorce and the custody agreement because.
14:54 Stephanie Harlowe? Looking at the reporting, the union, the Times Union says Brady learned of the deaths of his children one week before he was supposed to see the children for the first time since November 2019, and that he and Sarah had, quote, "only reached a custody agreement last year in their divorce decree." So that wording is a little confusing alongside with the CBS reporting saying that the divorce finalized in 2020, because he said, "We only reached a custody agreement last year in the divorce decree." But the key point is, I guess, there was apparently a recent custody or enforcement development that was finally supposed to give Brady in-person summertime. CBS 6 also reports that Sarah Myers had been ordered to appear in Utah court on June 29,
15:38 Stephanie Harlowe? 2026, because she was being accused of not following the divorce custody terms through a motion to enforce. That is probably the missing piece. It suggests that Brady had to go back to court because whatever the custody plan said, Sarah allegedly was not honoring it. And then Brady's own public account is that he's been fighting for access and was finally about to get the children for a 60-day summer visit in Utah. He told Spectrum News that this would have been the first time he was allowed to see them in more than six years. He said he was supposed to fly out on June 30th, get his kids, and then fly them back to Utah and have them for 60 days. Now, still, for me, though, like, you are having FaceTime calls with them, you're talking
16:21 Stephanie Harlowe? to them, and we'll talk about that in a second. Why wouldn't you, if you weren't allowed to see them, or you weren't allowed to take them back to Utah, why would you not have, since 2019, fly to New York and just show up and be like, "Hey, I'm here to see my kids." Like, what are they gonna do, call the police and be like, "The child's, the children's father is here to see them?"
16:40 Derrick Levasseur? Yeah.
16:41 Stephanie Harlowe? You know, like, what would the police do? Nothing.
16:44 Derrick Levasseur? Yeah, so what would more than likely happen, and I've had this happen hundreds of times, we don't enforce those court orders. So hypothetically... Dad shows up to mom's house and says, I have a court order here that says I'm supposed to have the children. Mom says, that's not right. He's misinterpreting it. This is what the judge actually said. I'm not giving him the children. We don't have the ability to take the children from the home.
17:09 Stephanie Harlowe? Not to even take them, not to take them, just to say, I haven't seen my kids since 2019. I want to see my kids. I want to have a visit with them. And the police show up and he's like, listen, this is the court order. She won't let me see them. And I'm not saying I want to take them. I want to see them. I want to sit with my kids, put them in my arms and tell them I'm here and I'm like trying.
17:28 Derrick Levasseur? He, he can say all that. My, my point being for Brady, if he were to fly out to New York and do that, there's a high probability, I would say 90% chance that when he shows up and then the police arrive because she calls on, she calls them to come over. The police unfortunately are going to say, listen, man, we hear you. We're not saying you're wrong. We're not saying we even disagree with you. But this is a civil matter and we can't do anything about it. We can't force her to bring the children out just to let you hug them. You have to go back to court and you have to go through this lengthy process. I'm not even saying it's fair. And then at that point, maybe there's something we can enforce, but he runs a risk of flying out to New York, making that trip, going over there, all to be told, you gotta leave.
18:13 Stephanie Harlowe? Yeah. I mean, that, that sucks.
18:15 Derrick Levasseur? We, but we know it's true, right? We know that shit happens all the time.
18:18 Stephanie Harlowe? Yeah. Especially because it's not his, it's not his property. Yeah.
18:21 Derrick Levasseur? No, it's a custody dispute. We have it happen all the time, even when we have custody disputes where they use the police station as like the exchange of the children. There's times where it doesn't go smoothly and we hear an argument in the lobby. We gotta go out there and like, oh yeah, but he was supposed to bring these toys. And I'm like, dude, listen, here's the deal. Take the kids and go. You gotta go back to court, file it. We don't do that. This is not the courthouse. We can't do nothing. We can't choose sides here. We're only making sure the children are okay. That's why we're doing this. But ultimately we're not going to enforce a court order. You have to go back to court with your law, your lawyers, your legal team and find them in contempt if they're violating the, whatever the judge has, has ruled. So.
19:01 Stephanie Harlowe? There has to be more to this six, seven years of trying to make your, your wife or your ex-wife.
19:09 Stephanie Harlowe? Go ahead and, you know, cooperate with a court ordered custody agreement seems long, even for the court system, which we know is greatly delayed.
19:18 Derrick Levasseur? There's definitely more context to this.
19:20 Stephanie Harlowe? Yeah, and I mean, I was looking online and like I said, a lot of people are talking about this on Facebook and Facebook people, they, you know, they be speculating and spilling the tea, what they call it, but a lot of people on Facebook from my area have said, you know, there's clearly a reason that the custody arrangement maybe wasn't initially that Brady would get all this time during the summer with the kids and that maybe there's a reason why Sarah and her mother were afraid for the kids to go back to Brady.
19:51 Derrick Levasseur? No doubt.
19:52 Stephanie Harlowe? That's what a lot of people are now, I don't know if there's any truth to that.
19:55 Derrick Levasseur? No, we don't know nothing about this guy.
19:56 Stephanie Harlowe? Yeah, yeah, we don't know, we don't know what, who he is or what happened to, to make it so that Sarah felt like, because they got married in Utah, so at one point, Sarah and the kids lived in Utah.
20:07 Derrick Levasseur? Yeah.
20:08 Stephanie Harlowe? With Brady and then she was like, I'm going and flying to New York, like I want to get away from you.
20:13 Derrick Levasseur? Yeah, taking four kids and leaving you.
20:14 Stephanie Harlowe? Yeah.
20:15 Derrick Levasseur? I think again, this is a great time to cover it because we don't know Brady, so we're not sitting here saying that he's like a superhero.
20:20 Stephanie Harlowe? We don't know, yeah.
20:21 Derrick Levasseur? We don't know anything about him.
20:23 Stephanie Harlowe? He could be, he could not be.
20:24 Derrick Levasseur? This is very new, but when you consider what we're talking about right now on Crime Weekly with Adam, here's a guy who was an absolute-
20:33 Stephanie Harlowe? Adam Montgomery, you mean Harmony's father, yeah.
20:34 Derrick Levasseur? Yeah, Adam Montgomery, you know, the dad, absolute scumbag, should have never had any visitation rights for Harmony and if he hadn't, we wouldn't be here right now. And yet, because of that process, unfortunately Harmony ended up in his custody. So are we looking at a similar situation where, and I'm not saying they made the right call, they absolutely didn't, but the family members said, we would rather us be together and, and leave this earth as one than to allow these children to be exposed to what this guy's capable of. And again, purely speculative, this guy could be an absolute angel, but we also know the other side of that coin. And did they feel that it was so bad?
21:18 Derrick Levasseur? In Utah for these children, that this was the better alternative?
21:21 Stephanie Harlowe? Yeah.
21:22 Derrick Levasseur? Clearly, they're wrong.
21:23 Stephanie Harlowe? Yeah, obviously, yeah.
21:24 Derrick Levasseur? But I definitely want to know more.
21:25 Stephanie Harlowe? Yeah, and I, so the last time Brady talked to his kids was on June 7th. So at least we know.
21:30 Derrick Levasseur? They were alive at that point.
21:31 Stephanie Harlowe? Yeah, they're saying they don't know when this happened. We know that the father of the children saw them on June 7th during a roughly 15-minute FaceTime call, and he said at that time that the kids seemed like happy kids. There was nothing off, nothing going on. He said the kid's maternal grandmother, Amy Steadman, had lived with their family at one point during his relationship with Sarah, which lasted for, I, what, about a decade? They were, were married? Or at least, they were married in 2015. They got separated in 2019.
22:03 Derrick Levasseur? Yeah, so they married four years, but how long were they together before that?
22:06 Stephanie Harlowe? Divorce was finalized in 2020. So it's been kind of a decade-long whole situation here. But he said that Amy did live with them for a while, and he said she wasn't like a warm person. He said, quote, "She was never really a cordial, warm person to be around. It was very arms' distance, I guess," end quote. He did say, though, she seemed like she had a close bond with his children. He said, quote, "She was just a doting grandma. You know she'd spoil the kids," end quote. So it seems like maybe Amy was not a huge fan of Brady, but really did have a good relationship or seemed to love her grandkids. And this is coming from Brady himself. So the possible motive being reported is that the children were days away from spending
22:49 Stephanie Harlowe? the summer with their father after years of separation. But to be very clear, police have not publicly confirmed this as a motive. It just seems kind of common sense at this point.
23:00 Derrick Levasseur? Yeah. Now. But real quick, though, it's a little contradictory because, and it still could be true, if we're to believe the timeline of when they were last seen and the level of decomposition, and that will become more, we'll know more about that as the time goes on. But if they have been dead for two or three weeks.
23:16 Stephanie Harlowe? Uh huh.
23:16 Derrick Levasseur? Then it doesn't really align with them just being days away from having to hand them over to Brady.
23:22 Stephanie Harlowe? No, so June 7th, he talked to them, June 23rd, they were found and then he was supposed to fly out to New York on June 30th and pick them up.
23:31 Derrick Levasseur? Yeah, but my point being that eyewitnesses hadn't seen them since June 9th and then more important than that, if the level of decomposition supports being dead for more than a week or two, then my question would be, why so far in advance? What triggered this at that moment? Was there something that happened? Was there a conversation? Why is this day? If they can pinpoint within like a 24 hour window.
23:53 Stephanie Harlowe? It seems like this happened around that FaceTime call.
23:56 Derrick Levasseur? Yes, exactly. So what happened around that time where whoever made this decision decided this was the best, this was the best option, whether it was Sarah or Amy?
24:05 Stephanie Harlowe? And it had to happen now.
24:07 Derrick Levasseur? Yeah, because that's still a couple of weeks before they're going to be going to Utah.
24:11 Stephanie Harlowe? Yeah, about three weeks before.
24:12 Derrick Levasseur? Yeah, so why, why then? That's something I'm sure they're trying to figure out right now.
24:15 Stephanie Harlowe? Yeah, so I, I would say that that is also very interesting and it seems more like that the FaceTime call maybe triggered that happening.
24:23 Derrick Levasseur? Yeah, seeing them getting along or whatever, I don't know.
24:26 Stephanie Harlowe? I don't know, yeah. A newer Times Union report says Brady Harmon claims he received 10 letters from Saratoga County Child Protective Services over three years notifying him that CPS was investigating the children's living conditions. This is what Brady says. He said he does not know who made the reports, like who called into CPS, but he suspects the school district may have been involved because according to him, the letters stopped after the children left the district and started being homeschooled in 2024. And neighbor Stephanie Sweeney said the kids have been homeschooled for the last two years, which lines up with that 2024 time period. But neither the police nor school officials have confirmed why the homeschooling began
25:05 Stephanie Harlowe? and CPS also has not come out and confirmed like, yeah, we sent him 10 letters in the last three years. So this is just what Brady is saying.
25:15 Derrick Levasseur? For all we know, Brady was calling on her.
25:16 Stephanie Harlowe? Well, yeah, or.
25:17 Derrick Levasseur? He, he just said he received the letters. He didn't say who initiated it. He's saying, I don't know who initiated it, but.
25:21 Stephanie Harlowe? Yeah, but he said it may have been the school district because the kids, when they were. Homeschooled CPS stopped getting called, but also don't you think the school district, if they were worried about these kids' living situation, when the kids got pulled out to be homeschooled, the school district wouldn't stop calling? They wouldn't be like, well, not our problem. You would hope at least, but.
25:40 Derrick Levasseur? Yeah, that's, that's a wishful thinking.
25:42 Stephanie Harlowe? So, yeah, we, we know that. So Brady Harmon said he's now trying to obtain his kid's school records. He claims in previous years Sarah did not include him in the school's disclosure of educational records. He said he's been asking for the records in accordance to the parenting plan, but he's gotten nothing. So Brady kind of makes it seem like, yeah, for years I've been, but once again, now you have CPS sending you, sending you 10 letters in three years. You take those letters to whatever court's handling your custody dispute and say, my wife, my ex-wife won't let me see my kids. I haven't seen them since 2019. Now I got CPS in the area they're living, saying that their, their living conditions are being investigated. Like, can we get an emergency hearing for this so that I can make sure my kids are
26:25 Stephanie Harlowe? okay? Like, what was happening behind the scenes that it's been this long since you've seen the kids and no legal body is getting involved?
26:33 Derrick Levasseur? This whole case to me, now that we're starting to talk about it, i- is interesting on multiple levels. We see child custody disputes every day, both in our personal lives, in the news, whatever it might be. And they're never fun, but they usually don't go to this extreme. And so I, the detective in me is really curious as to what was the background with this, not only with Amy and Sarah's mental health, but I'd also like to know a lot more about Brady. What's his, what's his background look like? Does he have a criminal history? What were some of the police reports, if any, that were filed when they were living together? Were law, was law enforcement ever, uh, sent to that location, dispatched to that house for domestic disputes? These are all things that I would want to
27:16 Derrick Levasseur? have access to before casting any judgment. There's one thing I'm sure of, this was not the right approach. This was not the right answer. And I think that goes without being said, but I do wonder because right now you're looking at two ends of the spectrum. On one hand, it could be a tragic story where this father who has been fighting to see his children, this good guy who had been fighting to see his children. After all these years was finally getting that opportunity and these women took that from him. On the other hand, you could be looking at a story where this could be an absolute monster and the mother and the grandmother did everything they could to keep the children away from him and having to experience what they had to experience. And when the court systems failed them, they had no choice but to do this so that they didn't have another Harmony Montgomery situation. I'm not saying it's that.
28:01 Derrick Levasseur? I'm just saying when, and I'm not trying to use hyperbole here, like both are still in play right now. I want to know more before saying anybody's a hero here or a victim. I just want to know what the details are behind all of this.
28:14 Stephanie Harlowe? Well, we might have some insight, actually. So we're going to take a quick break and we'll be right back.
28:21 Derrick Levasseur? Hey, can I ask you something?
28:23 Stephanie Harlowe? Of course.
28:23 Derrick Levasseur? Why does finding one outfit somehow turn into a three hour event?
28:27 Stephanie Harlowe? Well, because it starts with like, I just need a dress, right? And then it's like, well, now I need shoes to go with the dress.
28:32 Derrick Levasseur? Okay.
28:33 Stephanie Harlowe? Now I need a jacket. Like, do these earrings work with the dress? Maybe I should just start over. And suddenly you have like 15 tabs open and you've accomplished absolutely nothing.
28:41 Derrick Levasseur? Okay. And that's exactly why I asked, because it seems like that's a common occurrence around here.
28:44 Stephanie Harlowe? I totally understand. That's why I've been loving Revolve, though, because it doesn't feel like you're digging through thousands of random pieces, hoping something works. Everything feels really curated. So if I find one dress I like, it starts showing me shoes, bags, jewelry, even other styles with the same vibe. So it feels like it's I more have somebody styling the outfit than trying to build one from scratch.
29:05 Derrick Levasseur? Which that has to save you a ton of time, right?
29:07 Stephanie Harlowe? It really does. It really does. So I recently got this black dress from Revolve that I wore out to dinner and I loved it because it was exactly my style. It's like simple, classic, one of those outfits. I immediately feel put together. I don't have to think too much about it. And that's why I keep going back. They've got new arrivals every day. They have inclusive sizing in all the brands I already wear. Plus, if I'm debating between two sizes or two different looks, the fast shipping and easy returns makes ordering both completely stress-free. So you can kind of order both sizes, see which one fits better, send back the one you don't need.
29:35 Derrick Levasseur? Yep. So whether it's a big night out, a wedding, a trip, or you just need something last minute that actually works, Revolve always has it. Go to revolve.com/crimeweekly to shop our faves and use code CRIMEWEEKLY for 15% off your first order.
29:48 Stephanie Harlowe? They have fast shipping, easy returns. It just makes everything easier. That's revolve.com/crimeweekly. You can shop our faves and get 15% off your first order. Offer ends July 13th, so don't miss out.
30:05 Stephanie Harlowe? Alright, so we're back and the way I'm kind of looking at it when I see a case like this and then, yes, there's a custody element, there's a broken home element.
30:15 Derrick Levasseur? Big factor.
30:16 Stephanie Harlowe? I still look at it and I'm like, okay, it could be true that Brady, maybe not the best father, maybe not the best husband, maybe there were things that had happened that would make Sarah and Amy want to keep the kids away from him.
30:29 Derrick Levasseur? Yeah, not feel comfortable.
30:30 Stephanie Harlowe? Yeah, and then, you know, this custody order goes through, there's no longer anything they can do, and then he's gonna take them. Still, still, when I look at that and then I see this murder-suicide thing happen where it's the parents and the kids, I have to wonder that there, that there must be some mental health instabilities here because like you said, you can feel the way that you feel and you can know, hey, I don't feel safe with the kids going with him, something bad may happen to them, but this still is not.
30:58 Derrick Levasseur? It's not the way.
30:59 Stephanie Harlowe? The way to do it.
31:00 Derrick Levasseur? Run away with them, I'm not condoning this.
31:01 Stephanie Harlowe? Run away, run away and hide, exactly.
31:03 Derrick Levasseur? Take off to Canada, go to another country, do everything you can.
31:06 Stephanie Harlowe? Not condoning this, not telling you, but maybe border help, something like that, right?
31:10 Derrick Levasseur? Yeah, something, get you, hey, the United States is definitely letting people leave, so just go.
31:14 Stephanie Harlowe? Yeah, you don't kill them because why would you think they're better off dead than they would be with their father where you still have a chance to, you know, save them and bring them back?
31:23 Derrick Levasseur? Right.
31:24 Stephanie Harlowe? And then, and then I think, is there a religion aspect to this because it is often very heavily religious people who feel like, okay, well, in the afterlife, it is gonna be amazing and we'll all be together and they would be better off there than they would be there, right? So, and I kind of looked more into it and I found an article where they were talking about having a vigil for the four children. And so, the family friend, the neighbor of Amy Steadman, who called the police for a welfare check, this was Stephanie Sweeney, so that's the neighbor, she said she had no idea what was going to happen just next door, she said, quote, "If it came down to even had any kind of thought about it, I'd snatch the kids and ran myself, they did not deserve this, not
32:09 Stephanie Harlowe? in any way," end quote.
32:12 Stephanie Harlowe? Stephanie Sweeney says that, you know, nothing can justify the deaths of these four innocent children. She says they need to be remembered, but she ultimately blames the father back in Utah, Brady Harmon. Now, over the phone, according to this article, this 13-wm article, over the phone, Brady Harmon denied any abuse towards his children and their mother.
32:34 Derrick Levasseur? Of course he did.
32:35 Stephanie Harlowe? Was there some sort of maybe allegation from Stephanie Sweeney that according to conversations she'd had with Sarah or Amy, that there was abuse? It kind of sounds like that, even though this article doesn't come right out and say Stephanie Sweeney says that she blames the father because he was abusive or because he did the wrong thing. No, it goes from the article saying Sweeney ultimately blames Brady Harmon, and then the article saying, according to a phone call that this outlet had with Brady Harmon, he denies any abuse towards his ex-wife or children.
33:14 Derrick Levasseur? We're gonna have to, like I said, we're gonna have to see those reports, if there were any reports filed.
33:18 Stephanie Harlowe? Yeah, so, and it does, according to Stephanie Sweeney, though, she also says, religion guided those grieving the lives of Amy Steadman's family, and it does maybe seem like the family, Amy, Sarah, maybe the kids, were, did have a little bit of like a religious aspect. They were from Utah initially. We can see that, I'm trying to say this without saying this in a way that sounds like offensive, but I'm just gonna say it. If Brady and Sarah got married in, I think, what was it, 2015, and they'd had four kids by 2019 when they separated, first of all, this marriage does not deteriorate to the point of separating
34:03 Stephanie Harlowe? with four kids overnight. This was a steady decline of the marriage, right? Because usually when you have a bunch of kids together, you try to stay together. So it wasn't just like one day Brady and Sarah were like, our marriage sucks, let's get separated. No, this was probably happening steadily from the time that they got married. The same issues were present and they continued having kids. They're from Utah, Brady lives in Salt Lake City. There could be, you know, maybe um um an LDS church aspect to this. And that's why maybe Sarah felt that she had to take the kids and go to New York. But it does feel like there was some sort of religion aspect. Their family members were deeply tied to their local church
34:43 Stephanie Harlowe? and religious community. That once again is what I usually see where it's like, oh, we we killed ourselves and the kids. Because we felt they would be better off that way than than in the reality of what this new custody arrangement would mean for them.
34:59 Derrick Levasseur? The only other thing I want to add, just looking back at the children's ages, because I think it's important. Harper and and Hudson, what I I believe Harper was probably born before they got married because she was 13 at the time of her death. And they were together for seven years. So they hadn't she he hadn't seen them in seven years. They got married in 2015. So wouldn't that make her six years old at the time when she left?
35:23 Stephanie Harlowe? Hmm.
35:24 Derrick Levasseur? Right? Am I wrong here with the math? Let me let me redo that again, right? She was 13 when she passed away. He hadn't seen her in seven years. So that means they left in 2019, right? And they got married in 2015. Right? So she would be, no, maybe right around there. Yeah, she might have been a year or two old. Right? Because 2015 was basically 11 years ago. So she was around, if they got married in 2015, she was 13. That means she was around two years old when they got married. The first one at least. And then the the Hudson, Gavin and Graceland would be around like right after he got they got married and then a couple of years later. So it looks like Harper was the only one they had before they got married.
36:08 Stephanie Harlowe? Yeah.
36:08 Derrick Levasseur? If my math is wrong on that, I'm not a math petition, guys. I suck. You can correct me if I'm wrong. But I ask, I have Stephanie checking my math, which is just as bad. We're not in good company.
36:17 Stephanie Harlowe? No, I mean, either way, they they had a lot of kids in a in a pretty close succession.
36:23 Derrick Levasseur? Yes.
36:23 Stephanie Harlowe? Yeah.
36:24 Derrick Levasseur? Yep.
36:24 Stephanie Harlowe? Um, and and like I said, this is not.
36:26 Derrick Levasseur? I say that because did they get married because they had a children, a child before marriage and that was like. ground upon and that kind of forced them to get married. I wonder like what's the dynamic there?
36:36 Stephanie Harlowe? They could have, but then either way they stayed together and kept having kids.
36:39 Derrick Levasseur? Right. Yeah, not the right call. Things are getting worse. You don't have more kids.
36:43 Stephanie Harlowe? Yeah, you just don't, you don't, you can't, you can't do that, right?
36:46 Derrick Levasseur? Yeah, I am so fascinated by this one because there is, this is probably going to turn into a crime weekly at some point because I think we are, even with everything we know so far, which is more than we usually know at this point in the investigation. I feel like we're just scratching the surface.
37:01 Stephanie Harlowe? Yeah, and I mean, you, once again, like, if you look at the case, it looks like there was a reversal in the custody arrangement, so it kind of seems like maybe for a while, like several years, Brady didn't have a ton of rights when it came to his children and this reversal happened shortly before these deaths happened. And so you once again have to go back and ask, like, why was Brady not allowed a lot of rights when it came to his children? And if we look into this more and we find out he was absolutely a perfect father, there was no allegations, nothing was going on. You know, then I think there's going to have to be some, once again, some legal bodies who have to answer for that.
37:41 Stephanie Harlowe? But I would be surprised if that's, if that's what we found out. Now, once again, does not justify the solution that it appears was chosen. But once again, when you bring in the religious aspect and maybe thinking they would be better off and safer this way, it's not understandable, but you can see how we got from point A to point B, unfortunately.
38:01 Derrick Levasseur? Yeah, and I'm still, even the murder itself, if that's what happened here, I'm still wondering how that was decided on. Could it have been Amy? Was it Sarah? Did Sarah kill Amy? What, what, what happened here? And I'm hoping law enforcement can shed light on that to let us know exactly what happened, who made the call, and I would imagine that the note, once it's finally revealed with the contents of it, will give us an insight into who made this decision? Was it a collective decision by Amy and Sarah? Was it one person over the other? That's something I want to hear about as well.
38:36 Stephanie Harlowe? Did Amy make the decision and Sarah was just another victim of that? Now, Like I said, nothing legal, nothing really concrete, but there was a GoFundMe that was created earlier this month. The GoFundMe was created and shared by Sarah Myers. But in this GoFundMe, it says that Sarah Myers is a survivor of domestic violence and a caring mother, and each of her children has unique needs, and she had to go to Utah for a custody battle and needed money for an attorney and travel costs. So Sarah and a friend of hers made this GoFundMe to try to raise money for the travel and her having to go to Utah. But she didn't have to go to Utah until after the kids were found dead, right? So she was
39:20 Stephanie Harlowe? going to have to go around that same time. So she's trying to raise money to go, and she says she's claiming that she is a survivor of domestic violence. So, I mean, there are, like I said, I would be very surprised if we look and there's never been any allegations against Brady.
39:35 Derrick Levasseur? I have a question for you, and we'll kind of wrap up this episode on this question, not only for you, but for the audience as well. If in this note, this dying declaration, if you will, she, let's just say it's for the sake of this conversation, it's Sarah. It's Sarah, and she says, "Listen, he abused me. He abused the children, and I would rather us die together than put them in a position where I can't protect them." Do you, as a woman, a mother yourself, and I'm asking you guys in the audience as well, do you take that as Bible, where she must be telling the truth? Or could it be her last attempt to tarnish Brady before killing herself and her children? What do you take as, not as
40:20 Derrick Levasseur? a true crime researcher, but just-
40:22 Stephanie Harlowe? No, I think she's telling the truth. It just still doesn't justify-
40:25 Derrick Levasseur? No, God, no.
40:26 Stephanie Harlowe? -what she did. So, yeah, she could absolutely-
40:27 Derrick Levasseur? God, no. There is no world where it's justified.
40:29 Stephanie Harlowe? Yeah, in her mind, that could be her ultimate truth. And, you know, physically, if there's, you know, allegations to back this up, and evidence to back this up, that could be the truth, that he was abusive and she was like, "Yeah, I don't..." Yeah. But that doesn't, it doesn't justify anything that you chose to do.
40:48 Derrick Levasseur? No, I agree with you, by the way, to go to this extreme. If everything mentally is in- In line with her, she's never had any issues with that. And she's coming out in her, her dying words, her last communication with people that know her and care about her, that she's going to say this. There's probably some validity to it, but I definitely want to hear your opinions on this one. Where do you stand currently? Are you influenced based on what we just, what we're in the middle of coming, covering right now with Harmony Montgomery? Cause we know how this can go. Really sad story. Nobody wins here. This was obviously not the right decision, but before we pass any judgment on anyone, we need to know the full details and as they unfold, we will let you guys know. And if it becomes a whole nother wrinkle, maybe it is a crime weekly. Stephanie,
41:33 Derrick Levasseur? would you allow me to transition and end this episode on a more positive note?
41:38 Stephanie Harlowe? Yes, we gotta transition it to something more happy. Yes.
41:41 Derrick Levasseur? Yes, because first off, we have to start with an apology. And I'll, I'll take the blame for this one. We have to do our birthday shout outs for our Patreon partner and crime members every month. We're recording this episode right now on June 29th. So we're in the green, right? We wanted to make sure we get the bonus episode out. And we did that. We got your cameos out. You should have them all ready. So I'm thinking we're doing great. And then I realize this doesn't come out till July 1st. This episode won't come out till July 1st, so I formally apologize to all my June babies. This is going to be one day late, but we have not forgotten about you. Stephanie, hit them with your insight as far as these, the horoscopes here, because this is not my field of expertise.
42:26 Stephanie Harlowe? We have eight birthdays, six of them are Gemini, two of them are Cancer. And I'm going to go over who, who we're saying happy birthday to. So we have Stephanie Sabaleco, who's June 11th. Happy birthday.
42:38 Derrick Levasseur? Happy birthday.
42:39 Stephanie Harlowe? Kim Brow, uh, June 18th. Happy birthday. Amanda Keith, June 14th. Happy birthday. Serena Kronk, that's June 28th. Happy birthday. Gillian Wassmer, June 23rd. We also have Kristen, June 1st, Lola Fox, June 7th, and Kellen, June 18th. So happy birthday to all my June babies.
43:00 Derrick Levasseur? Happy birthday, guys.
43:01 Stephanie Harlowe? We've got my, one of my favorite signs Gemini. Every one in my life is a Gemini, which is probably intentional and a lot of people give Geminis a bad rep, but I like them. So Gemini, this is usually May 21st to June 20th, and I think you're different based on if you're a May Gemini or a June Gemini, but we're talking about June Gemini. So this is represented by the twins. Signs often associated with curiosity, communication, adaptability, and of course duality. Geminis are typically seen as people who are mentally quick, expressive, social, interested in a little bit of everything. I think they're very creative people as well. They can be charming, funny, great conversationalists, but because their minds are so fast, they can also come across as like restless, indecisive,
43:45 Stephanie Harlowe? hard to pin down, kind of switching it up, sending you certain energy, then withdrawing it. Gemini energy is all about movement, ideas, questions, learning, connection. Like I said, creativity, big time. So then we have our two cancers. So cancer that usually begins around June 21st goes through July 22nd. So next month we'll have a few too. Cancer is represented by the crab. Now, my daughter Bella was talking to me about cancers yesterday and she said they're very shy and that's why they're represented by the crab, because they go inside their shell.
44:13 Derrick Levasseur? Bella's doing horoscopes?
44:14 Stephanie Harlowe? Yeah, she likes this stuff.
44:15 Derrick Levasseur? Okay, alright.
44:17 Stephanie Harlowe? So cancer is often connected to emotion, intuition, home, family protection, deep sensitivity. Once again, like kind of going inwards. People with cancer energy are usually seen as nurturing, loyal, sentimental, very emotionally aware. They tend to care deeply about the people they love. They may have strong instinct to protect themselves and others and like the crab, they can have a hard outer shell, but underneath that is often a very soft and feeling heart. Cancer energy is about emotional depth, memory, comfort, loyalty, and creating a sense of safety. So the shell is their home. They like to be at home. I have found that with cancer people. They like to be in the house. They don't want to be on the streets. They like to be in the house. So let me know if I'm right about all of you June babies. Let us know and happy birthday to every single one of you.
45:01 Stephanie Harlowe? Thank you so much for being a Crime Weekly Patreon.
45:04 Derrick Levasseur? Yeah, thank you so much. And if you want to join Patreon, the link is in the description box below. We do these birthday shout outs. We do monthly giveaways. We do bonus episodes. We just had a bonus episode. Great bonus episode. Drop yesterday, which was insane. And we also have our discussion boards where we're not only discussing the current cases that we're covering, but we have crime con discussion boards. We have local businesses that you may be involved in where you can promote your business or causes you care about. It's a really cool community. And we love to show support. And this is just one of the little added bonuses, the little benefits you get of being a Patreon member. So again, we appreciate the love and support. We'll be back later this week with Harmony Montgomery, part two, audio on Friday,
45:48 Derrick Levasseur? YouTube on Sunday. And if you're a Patreon member, you get it early and ad free. We appreciate the love and support, guys. We'll see you soon. Bye. Be safe out there. Bye.
Previous Harmony Montgomery | The Custody Decision That Lead To Her Death (Part 1) Next Harmony Montgomery | The Duffle Bag, the Vent, and the Truth (Part 2) Page updated October 29, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated