Mother Charged With Homicide After 1- and 2-Year-Old Children Found Starved and Dehydrated to Death — Authorities Received 13 Welfare Calls as Relatives Warned of ‘Another Lindsay Clancy’ Tragedy

Credit: Charleston County Sheriff’s Office

A South Carolina mother has been charged with two counts of homicide by child abuse after authorities discovered her two young daughters dead inside their home, and the horrifying case is now raising serious questions about how repeated warnings from family members apparently failed to save the children.

Justine Marie May, 31, of Ladson, was arrested after deputies conducting a welfare check on September 29 discovered her daughters, 33-month-old Emory Deacon and 15-month-old Harlow Deacon, dead inside the family’s Pinewood Drive residence.

2-year-old Emory Deacon and 15-month-old Harlow Deacon (Credit: Live 5 News)

The Charleston County Coroner’s Office determined that both little girls died from starvation and dehydration due to neglect and ruled their deaths homicides, according to WCIV.

The details contained in the probable-cause affidavits are absolutely sickening.

According to the affidavit, deputies responded to the Ladson home for a welfare check and encountered May outside, where she was reportedly crying and speaking incoherently.

When authorities entered the residence to check on the children, they found both girls already dead.

May allegedly told detectives that the previous two weeks had been a “blur” and that she could not remember the last time she had fed her daughters or given them anything to drink.

Investigators wrote that May acknowledged that failing to feed the children was neglectful and said she had been their sole caregiver during the preceding weeks. The affidavit alleges her failure to provide the children basic sustenance demonstrated “extreme indifference for human life.”

But the story gets even more disturbing.

Family members and acquaintances had reportedly been sounding the alarm about May and the children for weeks.

The Charleston County Sheriff’s Office acknowledged that it received 21 calls involving the Pinewood Drive residence beginning August 10 and that deputies responded 13 times before the children were discovered dead, according to WCIV.

Those contacts reportedly included welfare checks, follow-up visits, supervisory reviews, and coordination with the South Carolina Department of Social Services and mental-health officials.

The Sheriff’s Office said deputies and partner agencies actually interacted with May and the children during several visits on August 25, August 26, September 8, September 11 and September 12, but officials reported seeing no signs of an immediate threat to the girls.

Then came September 29.

A concerned caller reportedly told dispatch that May was walking around without her daughters and that “no one has seen her kids.”

The caller asked authorities to at least physically see the children because they were reportedly always said to be “napping.”

In radio traffic subsequently released, a deputy could be heard saying, “we’re no longer conducting welfare checks at that address.”

Hours later, Harlow and Emory were found dead.

The Sheriff’s Office is now defending its handling of the case, saying Saturday that the deputy followed supervisory instructions and agency policy. Sheriff Carl Ritchie said the department stands behind the deputy and argued that the history shows repeated responses and assessments rather than authorities simply ignoring the residence.

But the girls’ family is telling a much different story.

Gedney M. Howe IV, an attorney representing the children’s father, Zack Deacon, said the deaths “could and should have been prevented.”

Howe said neighbors, friends and family repeatedly tried to get help for the two little girls.

“Zack was sounding the alarm and was arrested for it.”

That arrest came on September 11, when Deacon was charged with second-degree harassment after May accused him of continuing to contact her.

Records reported by Live 5 News show Deacon had described May as “delusional” and “spiraling” while raising concerns about her and the children. He was later released on a $25,000 personal-recognizance bond.

Perhaps most chilling of all, relatives had reportedly become so worried about May’s mental state that one family member referenced the nationally publicized Lindsay Clancy case while warning about what could happen.

WCIV reported that messages posted publicly before the deaths showed relatives pleading with May about her isolation from family and expressing growing concern about access to her children.

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