She Heard Those Terrifying Words—Minutes Later, Her Own Mother Set the Nightmare in Motion
Autumn Coleman was born on March 16th, 2016 to parents Sharon Coleman and Martin Tony Pereira. Sharon and Tony had begun their relationship on May 28th, 2015, nearly a year before Autumn’s birth. Sharon worked as a medical assistant at Jamaica Estates Medical Center. Tony was from Guyana and had moved to the US and worked in construction.
The two reportedly met near Sharon’s workplace. Now, in the early stages of their relationship, things appeared to be going well. [music] Tony made Sharon feel valued and was attentive to her needs. He was really kind. If I needed groceries, he’d take me shopping. Although Sharon was on birth control at the time she was dating Tony, she became pregnant with Autumn in 2015.
Four years prior, Sharon had experienced a previous pregnancy that ended in miscarriage. This time, however, despite the pregnancy being unplanned, she was overjoyed at the prospect of having a child. On February 7th, 2016, Sharon’s sister, Nicole, hosted a baby shower to celebrate Sharon’s pregnancy. During the gathering, Tony surprised Sharon by proposing.
Sharon immediately accepted and the two became engaged. However, later that same night, tragedy struck. Sharon’s father died suddenly of a heart attack and the loss placed their wedding plans on hold. On March 16th, 2016, Sharon gave birth to a daughter whom she named Autumn. However, Tony listed her name as Zoe Autumn Pereira on her birth certificate, which was against Sharon’s wishes.
She was understandably upset, but despite this, she continued to call her daughter Autumn, and we’re going to do the same. The family lived in a one-bedroom apartment where Autumn slept in a crib beside her parents’ bed. At night, Sharon would hold her daughter’s hand as they drifted off to sleep. Even at a young age, Autumn was described as curious and full of life.
She said she wanted to be a princess doctor when she grew up, following her mother’s footsteps. Sharon later recalled, “My daughter was perfect. She was loving, always smiling, and oh so caring. Even as a toddler, Autumn knew the days of the week and could count up to 13.” Shiron described her as very independent, very smart.
Shiron also shared videos of Autumn dancing. Autumn’s aunt Nicole later recalled, “She was adorable. She liked her kitchen set, her tea set. She liked cooking for her mom, for her grandmother. She was just, I guess, what you would call a normal 3-year-old girl.” Tony frequently shared photos of Autumn and Shiron on his Facebook page.
In October of 2017, he posted a selfie with the two of them captioned, “I love us.” But as Autumn was growing older, Tony and Shiron’s relationship was getting worse. He’d become more controlling, was yelling at her over minor things. Tony had been spending a lot of time at his family’s home in Valley Stream, where he was contributing to the mortgage.
He really wanted Shiron and the baby to move in with his family, but Shiron refused, saying she wouldn’t have any privacy if she lived there. On March 13th, 2019, tensions between Tony and Shiron’s relationship had erupted to the point where Shiron took off her engagement ring in his car and gave it back to him. Tony did not take this very well.
Both of the parents wanted custody of their daughter, and that custody battle only fueled Tony’s rage, with him promising, “I’m going to make sure you don’t see your daughter anymore.” Two days after the breakup, Tony showed up at Shiron’s place to pick up Autumn for a visit. There, Shiron’s mother, Denise, noticed that Tony wore the wedding ring on his pinky and kept twisting it so awkwardly.
The incident made Denise feel extremely uncomfortable. She called Shiron and reported the whole incident to her. Shortly afterward, Tony contacted CPS, alleging that Shiron had harmed Autumn and was using drugs. In response, child welfare investigator visited Shiron’s home in Rochdale, Queens, to assess the situation.
The investigator searched for any presence of drugs, evaluated the cleanliness of the apartment, and confirmed that adequate healthy food was available. As an additional precaution, Sherawn was given a breathalyzer test, which returned a negative result. Autumn was also taken to a hospital to be examined for any signs of violence, and no evidence of harm was found.
Still, Tony was dissatisfied with their outcome. He insisted on a hair follicle test, insisting that the breathalyzer results were unreliable. Despite these events, Sherawn was initially willing to grant Tony visitation rights, believing him to be a good father. She sought full custody of Autumn while allowing Tony scheduled visitation.
Tony, on the other hand, wanted full custody of his daughter. He attempted to have the case moved to Nassau County, where he was living with his family, but the judge denied the request. In late April, Tony posted a photo of Autumn on Facebook with the caption, “I miss her.” This is about the same time that Sherawn and her sister Nicole began to notice what they described as increasingly irrational behavior from Tony.
Nicole and Sherawn both thought that Sherawn was in danger, with Nicole stating, “He was acting kind of crazy lately since the breakup, and with his behavior, it did cross my mind that he may do something to harm my sister.” What neither of them realized was that Autumn was on his radar, too. In early March, a family court judge ruled that Tony would have custody of Autumn for the weekend of May 4th and May 5th.
On April 23rd, Sherawn took the day off work in order to convince the court to cancel the weekend visit. Her attorney was on vacation at the time, so she had to write and submit her request all by herself, which said, “I’m very afraid for my child’s safety and mental development with her deranged father. Her father is losing a grip on reality, and I honestly feel my child is in danger while in his care.
” Sherawn also told the court that she witnessed Tony stalking her for several days, and that Tony had scratched her car from the trunk to the front fender. Ultimately, court attorney referee Margaret Mulrooney adjourned the matter until June. For Sharon, this delay was catastrophic. So, the court order remained in place, requiring Sharon to hand Autumn over to Tony for the next visit.
In the early morning hours of May 4th, 2019, Sharon braided Autumn’s hair before the scheduled exchange. During a previous visit with Tony, Autumn had returned home unkempt. According to later reports, a member of Tony’s family took a photograph of him removing Autumn’s braids and sent it to Sharon. Tony first took Autumn to the local salon, and by coincidence, that day Sharon was also there.
Sharon approached and attempted to comfort Autumn, but Tony intervened, yelling at her to get away from her before picking the child up himself. Sharon feared that any resistance could jeopardize her custody rights, so she complied and stepped away. She later expressed distress over how Autumn’s hair had been set, stating, “They cut my daughter’s hair, straightened my daughter’s hair, and had her looking like a grown girl.
” After leaving the salon, Tony contacted Sharon and accused her of hitting Autumn in the stomach. He claimed that Autumn was experiencing abdominal pain and alleged that Sharon had physically harmed her. Tony then took Autumn to Cohen Children’s Medical Center in New Hyde Park for evaluation. At the hospital, Tony told the staff that Sharon had beaten Autumn.
He further alleged that Sharon was a drug dealer and a drug user. When Sharon arrived at the hospital, Autumn attempted to sit on her mother’s lap, but Tony prevented it. It was painfully obvious how much Tony was jealous of the close relationship Sharon had with her daughter. Even after the two had a heated argument in the emergency room, Tony was allowed to take the toddler home with him for the whole rest of the weekend.
The following morning, Tony repeatedly called Sheron. She didn’t answer. She had enough of Tony’s behavior. Getting desperate, Tony contacted one of Sheron’s cousins who lived in California. According to that cousin, Tony indicated that he was a danger to himself and Autumn during the call. Alarmed, the cousin immediately told Sheron to get the police involved.
This is when Sheron decided to return Tony’s call in an effort to calm him down. During the call, Tony became increasingly agitated and yelled, “Do I have your attention now, [ __ ] I got your attention now, [ __ ] You’re never going to see your daughter again.” Sheron immediately called 911. When police officers arrived, Sheron placed another call to Tony, this time on FaceTime, hoping to prove to officers why he was a danger to their daughter.
But, that plan backfired. After Tony noticed a police officer in the background, he became enraged and yelled, “I know you’re talking to the cops.” Sheron replied saying, “Yeah, I am. You’re [ __ ] crazy. Where’s my daughter?” Tony refused to say where him and Autumn were. Instead, he told Sheron that he would make her crazy for good, ensuring she would never see her child again before hanging up.
When Sheron called him back, Tony responded only by yelling incoherently before disconnecting. Just hours before all of this took place, Tony had posted a photo of Autumn on Facebook. The image showed her sitting on a counter top with pink and purple balloons behind her. In the comment section, Tony’s friends spoke positively, having no idea what was really going on.
Sheron went with the police to the NYPD’s 113th Precinct. While there, she learned of an emergency call about a fire that came in at approximately 8:52 p.m. According to the report, a man driving along Baisley Boulevard in Queens noticed a 2008 Audi A6 driving erratically before suddenly veering onto a sidewalk near 154th Street, where it went up in flames.
Tony owned this very same car. A man climbed out of the car while engulfed in flames himself. The caller pulled over, grabbed a blanket from his own car, and rushed to help the burning man, who turned out to be Tony. As he helped put him out, Tony yelled that his baby was still in the car. The bystander attempted to get in the car, but couldn’t, and this is when he dialed 911.
When Tony realized what was going on, he jumped in a nearby Baisley Pond, tearing off his clothes as he ran. According to later reports, Tony had also FaceTime Sheron while the car was on fire. Sheron later broke down in tears as she described what happened. And when he calls me on video chat, I see a video of my daughter burning in the background.
Burning in the background. Like so that I’m like, I think he’s burning her. There’s a fire. I think he’s burning her. After he set himself on fire, he jumped out the car and tried to run into the um pond. Left my daughter burning in When authorities arrived, the scene was completely out of control and deeply disturbing.
First responders did everything to save Autumn, but there was very little that they could do. The car’s door handles had melted, and although firefighters managed to force the rear doors open, there were chains sealing them shut from the inside. Inside the back seat, there was a tube running with a propane tank left wide open to feed a fire.
Small plastic gas cans, partially burned, were found in both the front and the back seats. Tony had also drenched the back seats of the car with gasoline. It was painfully obvious that it was Tony’s plan all along to burn Autumn alive in the car. Autumn was still strapped into her car seat. By the time firefighters finally reached her, she was in critical condition, but she was somehow still alive.
She was rushed to Jamaica Hospital in Queens, where she was pronounced dead shortly afterward. Authorities began searching for Tony who was nowhere to be found. Not long after someone noticed a piece of clothing smoldering in flames along the road leading towards the pond, and that’s how police arrested the father who burned his daughter alive.
Tony was found in just his underwear covered in second and third degree burns. The sources we found differ on this exact percentage, but his burns covered roughly 70 to 80% of his body. He was arrested and taken to the burn unit at New York Presbyterian in Manhattan. What makes this even more devastating is that Charon was taken by authorities to the burning Audi on 154th Street.
She stood there and witnessed her daughter’s final moments that night. Something that no parent should ever have to see. She later said, “After I saw my daughter, I knew there was no way she survived that. I knew she was dead from the moment they took her out of the car.” Autumn was her first and only child. Overcome with shock, Charon was taken to a medical center where an officer later informed her of her daughter’s death.
She collapsed into tears. Following day, Tony was charged with reckless endangerment, arson, and murder in connection with Autumn’s death. Because of his condition, he remained in the hospital while recovering from his injuries. Around the same time, one of Tony’s former co-worker’s named Angel Rivera came forward.
He described Tony as increasingly unstable after the breakup. Saying the custody battle only intensified his behavior. According to Angel, Tony had complained that his daughter was being exposed to weed. People accused me of letting people smoke weed in front of her, things like that. Um And that wasn’t true? No, that’s not true.
Nobody’s smoking weed in front of my daughter. Yet just days later, he left that same child to burn alive. Angel said, “There was a lot of stress building up in him. It made him explode up like that.” It was also reported that a file existed within the Child Services Administration containing prior complaints concerning Autumn. While those records were never made public, it appeared that both Tony and Sharon had filed allegations [clears throat] against one another.
Further investigation into Tony’s background also showed that it wasn’t his first arrest, either. Back in 2013, 6 years before he killed his daughter, Tony had been arrested and charged with aggravated assault and harassment involving his 21-year-old ex-girlfriend. Sharon had no knowledge of this when she dated Tony.
She only learned about it after Autumn’s death, as the case had been sealed. Records also indicated at least two additional arrests, though details of those cases were never made public because they were also sealed. Sharon said if she had known about any of this at all, she wouldn’t have even dated him, let alone have a child with him.
While no reasonable person could blame Sharon for this, she still felt guilty. She later said that if she had only violated the court order and kept Autumn with her, and instead went to jail herself, it would have been better than losing her child. But, if she had done that, it is likely Autumn would have ended up in Tony’s clutches anyways.
It’s our opinion that she did everything she could have done to keep her daughter safe. She later spoke about her resentment towards Tony, saying, “He’s the [ __ ] devil. He’s the devil. His family is responsible, too. They have called ACS on me so many times with so many lies. I wish I could torture him and kill him. I can’t imagine the pain my baby went through. She was burnt terribly.
Her bones were out, and he ran out and left her to burn to death. Why would he do this to my daughter to get to me? It doesn’t make sense. I want him to live and suffer for what he did to my daughter.” Sadly, that wish would never come true. Sharon never received any real closure for her daughter’s death, as the man responsible for it ended up dead himself.
On Tuesday, January 28th, 2020, Tony died from his own burn injuries. According to sources, he was taken off life support at 6:20 p.m. Sheron later attempted to sue the city, but was told that pursuing legal action would not be successful. Nine months after the incident, Sheron’s mother Denise said that Sheron had been living in constant agony since the tragedy.
Still, she was trying to move forward. She had recently returned to work hoping that falling back into a routine might help her cope with the loss. Denise also spoke about Tony saying, “He was so selfish. He wanted to hurt my daughter, so he murdered my grand baby. He burnt her alive.” Tony’s family never reached out to Sheron’s family afterward, nor did they offer any condolences.
They also refused to speak with reporters. Following the tragedy, a Brooklyn-based social worker named Emma Hare reached out to Sheron and offered to counsel her free of charge for an entire year. Sheron accepted the offer. She also chose to share memories of Autumn in an effort to make sure she would never be forgotten. She smiled as she recalled how playful she was and what a little prankster she could be.
She personalized her new license plates with Autumn’s name, and her apartment was filled with tributes to her daughter. A beautiful photo of Autumn sat on the coffee table in the living room. An angel statue stood beside a portrait. And a candle burned near a poster placed next to her baby picture. Autumn’s crib had been transformed into a shrine adorned with stuffed animals and tributes from family and friends.
A white rose from her funeral service rested inside alongside a blanket covered in mother and daughter photos. There was also a football jersey from a local team bearing the number three. The jersey had been issued by August Tony High School, which honored Autumn’s memory by dedicating an entire football season to her.
Every jersey issued that season carry Autumn’s name on the back. Sharon also had Autumn’s name tattooed across her shoulder surrounded by autumn leaves. She wore another tattoo on her arm and one on her neck as well. On the nape of her neck, her daughter’s date of birth was permanently inked. According to Sharon, everyone went on with their life, but she never forgot the happy moments she shared with Autumn.
She said, “My daughter’s story needs to be told and she needs a voice.” What I really want to know here is what the hell was Tony actually thinking? Like what was his end plan here? Did he really think that like I mean was it a genuine belief that if he killed Autumn that this was going to punish Sharon? Like what what was he thinking here? He’s in a car where he’s chained the door shut.
There’s gasoline in the air. Did he think he was going to survive this? I don’t think that he did. Like how do you expect to walk away from that? Well, we’ll never know cuz to try to apply a rational lens to what a person willing to kill their own child is thinking, there’s going to be some disconnects. But I would reason to believe that he just didn’t expect to survive this.
That his ultimate goal was to kill Autumn and then he’s going to do that and it’s going to you know be one of those situations that YouTube doesn’t like us talking about where he’s going to visit the self-checkout in this type of situation. Yeah. Then why did he get out and jump in the in the water and try to flee? is quite a common thing.
It’s and I have to be careful with certain terminology. People who use what we’re talking about here, so I think I think it’s fine. Yeah, people who um are successful depending on the method, you might find that they struggled or tried to get out of it last minute um or tried to save themselves.
And I think that when you’re on fire, that’s essentially what happened with him. He had gasoline poured into the back. He had canisters. That was somebody that was trying to make their car blow up. It’s really hard to wrap my mind around this. How somebody could sit there, even in a moment of rage. They talk about crime of passion in a court of law.
Yeah. This is something so different. When you think about the mentality of somebody in a crime of passion scenario from a legal lens, they’re not thinking about doing this. It’s a control thing. That’s probably why he called Sharon. He’s trying to like hurt her last minute here. He is just like just like he tried to control the situation when he changed her name to Zoey. Mhm.
And we can talk about that, too. not want that. So, he’s trying to like in all different ways he’s trying to control the situation with the females in his life. The birth certificate thing is the very first example of Tony attempting to have control over the situation. Well, try to think about this from Sharon’s angle, too.
Like she is a I want to say an older woman. She’s not an older woman. She’s about my age. But she’s [snorts] struggled with fertility. She never thought she was having a child. She has this beautiful daughter. And then Tony just You don’t do that. I’m I’m happy to have a daughter. I I’ll accept the the name change on the birth certificate.
But to to her credit, but she’s still that? Like when this is her like one one chance at being a mom, like having her own child, like screwed up. It’s really hard to see up. I just can’t say the F word. It’s really hard to see something like that. There’s a lot of things that are just very unthinkable. And after we finish this case and I go back over it, I still am just dumbfounded by everything.
There’s so much to be angry about. And that And that is the thing at the very end that this was in Sheron’s mind, assumedly, her only shot at having a child. Mhm. And she was robbed of that. That is something very hard to put into words. Like on top of that, children are also used quite often as pawns in intimate partner violence.
Not just children, but like pets as well. This is why a lot of times when someone’s trying to leave a situation, they feel they can’t because of the kids or their pets. Like they they want them before they leave. He’s sitting there saying like he loves her, posting all these pictures and selfies together, but he is just using Autumn as this pawn, this control to hurt Sheron in that way, even before the fire. Absolutely.
Absolutely. And And this is where this culminated. He knew he was losing control. He knew because because Sheron was making successful strides strides, excuse me, in family court. And my guess is that in his mind, he felt that control slipping. And people like this, when they feel like they’ve lost control, they become cornered animals.
You would You would never think they’re going to do this to Autumn. your daughter again things. Absolutely ridiculous. can’t have her, no one will. Like that that sort of mentality. And like this happens in New York City and we see a lot of cases where um it’s called ACS there, but they it’s their CPS and they’re very slow to act. Very slow.
And Talked to a lot of people, covered a lot of cases where the process in family court through ACS or anything like that takes a long time there. So like in the case of Julissa Abad, we covered her story a couple months back. You know, her grandmother wanted to keep her. She did not want to go with her mother, but ACS was very slow to act, wanted to reunify with mom.
And Julissa died. We included in the episode. There’s the actual audio of her like screaming and crying and saying she doesn’t want to go with mommy. Yeah. But Very vocal about that be just let it happen. It’s a very overwhelming case and I can understand if somebody would need a break after hearing Autumn’s case to not want to hear Julissa’s, but if that is something that you have the stomach for, I’ll have the video right over here.
The case of Julissa Abad is is very sad. Again, not for the faint of heart.
