Bodycam videos show welfare checks at home where mother later charged with killing two toddlers

In Ladson, South Carolina, the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office released body-camera recordings of two welfare checks at the residence of 31-year-old Justine May. During the August 30 visit, a caseworker and a deputy were met with hostility; May briefly held her 15-month-old daughter Harlow before stating she did not want the officers inside. A second visit on September 12 resulted in May again refusing entry and complaining about the frequency of checks, linking her anxiety to the visits.

Despite these encounters, officials found no evidence requiring immediate law-enforcement action and ceased further checks after September 22. On September 29, the bodies of May’s daughters, Harlow Deacon, 15 months, and Emory Deacon, 2, were discovered, and the Charleston County Coroner’s Office classified the deaths as homicides due to neglect, specifically starvation and dehydration. May has now been charged with murder.