South Carolina Mom Charged After Two Toddlers Died of Starvation Despite More Than a Dozen Welfare Checks

Deputies in Ladson, South Carolina found two toddlers dead inside their home on Tuesday, Sept. 29. Their mother, Justine May, 31, met them outside, crying and speaking incoherently, according to a criminal arrest affidavit obtained by the Post and Courier and released Oct. 2.

The Charleston County Coroner's Office determined Emory Deacon, 33 months, and Harlow Deacon, 15 months, died of starvation and dehydration due to neglect. May told investigators the last two weeks had been a "blur" and that she couldn't remember when she last fed or gave water to her daughters, per the affidavit.

May has been charged with two counts of homicide by child abuse. She waived a preliminary bond hearing on Sept. 30 and remains in custody. Her initial appearance is scheduled for Nov. 20, with a secondary appearance set for March 19, according to public court records cited by the Post and Courier.

Warnings Went Back Weeks

The Post and Courier reported that deputies responded to May's Pinewood Drive home 13 times in recent months, with direct contact involving May and the girls on five of those visits. None of those contacts produced a report of concern, the sheriff's office said.

Gedney M. Howe IV, an attorney for the children's father, said family, friends and neighbors made 38 welfare-related calls over 30 days trying to get help. "We believe these deaths could and should have been prevented," Howe said. "Neighbors, friends and family all called trying to get help for these girls, and no one listened."

FOX 7 Austin, citing WCIV, reported that the 13 sheriff's office visits between Aug. 10 and the day the girls were found included at least one involving the state Department of Social Services and another involving the Department of Mental Health's Mobile Crisis Unit. Neither intervention resulted in the children being removed.

The children's father, Zachary Deacon, told the Post and Courier he had watched May's mental health decline and believed something bad was coming. Text messages he sent her, shared on her own Facebook page, read in part: "You are spiraling Justine. I need you to understand that no matter what you are the mother of Emory and Harlow. You've always been a good mother. This is not you. Please come back. Please get help."

May responded publicly to the mounting concern rather than seeking help. In a Sept. 9 Facebook post cited by the New York Post, she wrote that welfare checks kept finding "absolutely nothing wrong because I am an amazing mom." Four days later she posted: "I am perfectly capable of deciding who is best for my children."

A Family Feared a Copycat

A relative's early September email to May, obtained by the Post and Courier and the New York Post, directly invoked the ongoing Massachusetts trial of Lindsay Clancy, the former labor and delivery nurse accused of killing her three children in 2023. "Lindsay Clancy is on trial right now for killing her 3 children!" the relative wrote. "This has been the fresh hell your family has been living every day that you don't communicate or let us see the girls."

The family explicitly feared a Clancy-style outcome. Still, they could not get the girls removed from May's custody despite dozens of calls to law enforcement and two separate state agencies. Child welfare agencies operate under legal standards requiring evidence of imminent harm before removing children from a parent. Multiple visits producing no documented red flags illustrate how difficult that threshold can be to meet in practice, even when outside observers sense danger.

The Clancy Case, Still Unresolved

Clancy's trial ended Sept. 4 in a mistrial, with jurors deadlocked 11 to 1 in her favor, according to the Associated Press. Her defense did not dispute during trial that she strangled 5-year-old Cora, 3-year-old Dawson and 8-month-old Callan with exercise bands in 2023. Instead, it argued she was not criminally responsible due to postpartum psychosis.

At a hearing after the mistrial, defense attorney Kevin Reddington reversed course, telling Judge William Sullivan there wasn't enough evidence to prove Clancy killed the children at all. "This entire case is based on speculation," Reddington said, without offering an alternative explanation for who might be responsible. Prosecutor Shanan Buckingham called the argument "laughable." The judge has not ruled, and Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz said prosecutors have not decided whether to retry Clancy on murder charges or pursue lesser counts.

Two cases, two states. One shared thread: family members who saw the danger coming and a legal and social-services apparatus that, in both instances, struggled to act on it in time or hold anyone clearly accountable after the fact. The unresolved question in South Carolina is whether the Department of Social Services and sheriff's office visits to May's home will face independent review, something neither the coroner's office nor the sheriff's department has announced as of this writing.