Bodycam shows SC toddlers healthy weeks before starvation deaths — then welfare checks stopped
Newly released footage from Charleston County deputies' visits to Justine May's home shows her daughters appearing well just weeks before their bodies were found. The last check came eight days after officers last saw the girls alive.
Body camera footage released by the Charleston County Sheriff's Office on October 9, 2026, shows two-year-old Emory Deacon and fifteen-month-old Harlow Deacon appearing healthy inside their Ladson, South Carolina home during welfare visits in late August and mid-September — weeks before deputies arrived on September 29 to find both girls starved to death.
Their mother, Justine May, 31, was arrested the same day and charged with two counts of homicide by child abuse. Charleston County Coroner Bobbi Jo O'Neal ruled that neglect-driven starvation and dehydration killed the girls, and she estimated the children had been dead between three and five days before anyone found their bodies.
The footage, released alongside a press conference by Sheriff Carl Ritchie, covers visits on August 30 — made alongside the South Carolina Department of Social Services — and September 12, when Mobile Crisis personnel accompanied deputies. In both recordings, May interacted with responding personnel and the girls appeared healthy. The home looked orderly and clean.
But the recordings also sharpen a central question in the case: deputies last confirmed they saw the children on September 12. The final welfare check came eight days later, on September 20 — and on that visit, May declined to let anyone inside, saying the children were sleeping. She also declined Mobile Crisis assistance and denied any urge to harm herself, according to the sheriff's office. No deputy documented seeing either girl that day.
Two days after that, on September 22, an on-duty supervisor decided to discontinue further welfare checks. The girls' bodies were found seven days later. From the last confirmed sighting of the children to their discovery, 17 days passed.
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.— Sheriff Carl Ritchie
At the same press conference, Ritchie said May had reported being harassed by family members amid continuing domestic problems, and he framed the possibility of people weaponizing law enforcement against each other as part of the context behind the supervisor's decision — leaving open the question of how deputies balanced those harassment claims against relatives' worries about two children wholly dependent on their caregiver.
The August 30 footage shows the dynamic that had developed. When officers arrived, May met them at the door.
How can I help you?— Justine May
She would not allow officers into the home, became agitated when they asked her to come outside, and sidestepped questions about whether she was hearing voices or had any intention of hurting anyone — attributing the welfare call to her ex-fiancé and insisting he had fabricated a mental health crisis.
I don't want to tell it. The police know. I'm not doing this at all. I'm not telling my side at all.— Justine May
Holding one of her children during that visit, May called her ex and her mother 'crazy' for repeatedly calling police to check on her. During that visit, a social worker cautioned May that her "mental health has apparently declined" since her separation from the children's father, Zachary Edward 'Zack' Deacon. May denied it and accused Deacon of erratic behavior.
That August 30 check had been prompted because no one — including Deacon — had seen the children in about a week. According to the sheriff's office, deputies observed both girls in person on six dates between August 25 and September 12: August 25, 26, 30, September 8, 11, and 12. On two other visits — August 27 and one on September 8 — deputies spoke with May but did not document seeing the children.
According to the New York Post, May allegedly told police after her arrest that she had spent weeks in a 'blur' and could not recall the last time she had fed her children.
Ritchie noted that without an invitation from a resident, deputies have no authority to enter a home during a welfare check, and they cannot take children into custody when no visible signs of distress are present. An internal review, he said, will look at the circumstances under which welfare checks should be ended and whether the procedures governing that decision need to be strengthened. He did not identify the supervisor who made the September 22 call.
The review is also examining what happened in the days between September 22 and September 29. According to Ritchie, the office is going through communications tied to September 22, 23, 24, 28, and 29. In his preliminary account, he described an anonymous caller who requested a welfare check after losing contact with a friend, with records showing three unsuccessful attempts to reach that caller back. Ritchie added that a call received September 23 from the girls' paternal grandmother centered on whether she had an outstanding warrant; deputies looked into it and informed her she did not.
Deacon has hired attorney Gedney M. Howe IV, who has previously disputed the sheriff's office account of communications in the period before the discovery.
Emory and Harlow deserve the truth. Their father deserves to see the file, not to learn about the case on the news.— Gedney Howe, attorney for Zachary Deacon
According to the sheriff's office, additional body camera footage and records — among them dispatch recordings, computer-aided dispatch logs, and correspondence between family members and the office — will be made available once legal review and redaction are complete.
Why it matters — The case raises direct questions about the legal limits and decision-making behind welfare checks — and whether the system that was repeatedly activated to protect two toddlers had any mechanism to catch what happened in the 17 days before their bodies were found.
⚠ Not yet confirmed
- May allegedly told police she had been in a 'blur' for weeks and did not remember when she last fed her children.
- An anonymous caller who said she had not heard from a friend requested a welfare check, with three unanswered attempts made to return the call — dates not clearly established.
- The New York Post and Daily Mail report 13 total welfare checks; the sheriff's office's own confirmed list covers 9 visits between August 25 and September 20.
- erroneous claim that the last check was nine days after officers last saw the girls alive (corrected to eight days for consistency with timeline)
Sources differ on Total number of welfare checks conducted: 13 welfare checks (nypost.com (citing Daily Mail)) vs 9 visits between August 25 and September 20 (abcnews4.com (citing CCSO))
Reported by nypost.com, abcnews4.com, fitsnews.com
