New York Father Buries Drowned Four-Year-Old Daughter but Insists Ex-Girlfriend Who Killed Her is Not a ‘Monster’

The dad of one of the three kids allegedly drowned by their mother on Coney Island said Monday that he can’t even bear to think about how his 4-year-old daughter died — but still insisted his ex isn’t a “monster.’’

Shamir Small spoke after his child Liliana “Lily” Stephen was laid to rest wearing a pink dress in a white casket, which was carried out of the Caribe Funeral Home in Flatlands, Brooklyn, by weeping female relatives.

“I don’t want her to be remembered or known as how she passed,” the dad said of his daughter, who was allegedly killed along with her two half-siblings by their deeply disturbed mom.

“I don’t even want to hear about it anymore,” he said. “Don’t want to see it, read it, or nothing. I just want everyone to remember that Lily, for four years, was loved by all her family members.

“Contrary to what happened, she was loved by her mother,” Small said.

“I don’t care what no one says,” he said. “What [the suspect] did was monstrous, but she herself is not a monster.”

Lily and her two brothers — Zachary Merdy, 7, and 3-month-old Oliver Bondarev — were allegedly drowned by their mom, Erin Merdy, in the surf at Coney Island in Brooklyn on Sept. 12.

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SOURCE: New York Post, Desheania Andrews and Jorge Fitz-Gibbon