Chilling bodycam footage shows Justine May, 31, greeting deputies with a calm “How can I help you?” just weeks before her two toddlers were found starved to death in their Ladson home.
The Aug. 30 welfare check, captured on a Charleston County deputy’s body camera, came after no one — including the children’s father, Zack Deacon — had seen 15-month-old Harlow Deacon and 2-year-old Emory Deacon in a full week. May immediately blocked entry when officers arrived, telling them flatly, “No one can come in.”
When deputies asked her to step outside, she grew frustrated and demanded to know why. Officers pressed May on whether she was hearing voices or planning to harm anyone, but she dodged the questions entirely. Instead, she blamed her ex-fiancé, claiming he was lying about a mental health episode.
May’s patience broke as the questioning continued. “I don’t want to tell it,” she snapped at officers. “The police know. I’m not doing this at all. I’m not telling my side at all.” At one point in the footage, she is seen holding one of her children while calling her ex and her mother “crazy” for repeatedly calling police to check on her.
A social worker on scene warned May that her “mental health has apparently declined” following her split from Deacon, according to the bodycam audio. May denied any decline, firing back that Deacon himself was guilty of “erratic behavior” during his visits to the home. Despite the concerns raised, the house appeared orderly and clean in the footage.
The Charleston County Sheriff’s Office had conducted 13 separate welfare checks at the residence leading up to the children’s deaths, yet detected no apparent danger that would justify removing the girls. The final welfare check came on Sept. 20, roughly a week before the toddlers’ bodies were recovered inside the home.
Sheriff Carl Ritchie explained the decision to stop the checks in a statement. “The decision was made by the on-duty supervisor to discontinue additional welfare checks based on the totality of the information available at that time, including the previous contacts, the involvement of DSS and Mobile Crisis, and the absence of new actionable information indicating an immediate threat to Ms. May or her children,” he said.
May was arrested Sept. 29 and charged with homicide in the deaths of Harlow and Emory. She allegedly told police after her arrest that she had been in a “blur” for weeks and could not remember when she last fed her children.
Zack Deacon has hired legal counsel to investigate police conduct and potential incompetence in the case. “Emory and Harlow deserve the truth,” his lawyer Gedney Howe wrote in a statement. “Their father deserves to see the file, not to learn about the case on the news.”
The sheriff’s office is now retroactively reviewing all body camera footage to assess the girls’ visible health and condition in the days leading up to their deaths.
