A South Carolina mother faces two counts of homicide by child abuse after police found her infant daughters dead inside her Ladson home. Investigators said the woman told them she could not remember the last time she had given either child food or water.
Justine Marie May told officers that the previous two weeks had been a “blur” and acknowledged neglecting her daughters, 1-year-old Harlow and 2-year-old Emory Deacon. Police responded Tuesday to a welfare check at May’s home in Ladson, near Charleston, according to an affidavit obtained by WCIV.
May’s relatives believed the 31-year-old mother was experiencing postpartum depression. The Post and Courier reported that family members wrote to her about the Lindsay Clancy murder trial in Massachusetts, warning that they feared she could similarly harm her children.
“Lindsay Clancy is on trial right now for killing her 3 children!” a female relative wrote in an email to May in early September. The message referred to the triple-murder case, which ended in a mistrial last month.
“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 relative wrote.
“Would Justine do this? No. Would this dark entity that is behind Justine’s eyes do this? This haunts my worst nightmares,” the email continued.
In the weeks before the girls’ deaths, May posted screenshots of conversations with her former boyfriend, Zachary Deacon, the father of Harlow and Emory, the Post and Courier reported.
“This is not harassment. I am genuinely terrified for the kids,” Deacon wrote in one message. “Are you going to hurt one of the kids to get back at me?”
In a separate Facebook post dated Sept. 9, May reportedly complained about repeated welfare checks at her home after Deacon contacted police.
“Of course, they found absolutely nothing wrong because I am an amazing mom,” she wrote.
May also reportedly addressed concerns from another family member about the children and what the relative described as her “unhinged” social media activity in a Sept. 13 Facebook post.
“I am perfectly capable of deciding who is best for my children. And they are having the time of their life wit [sic] people who have always wanted to be around them wit [sic] me begging for it,” she wrote.
According to the affidavit, May came out of the house when officers arrived Tuesday, “and began crying and speaking incoherently.”
Police found Harlow and Emory inside the home. The affidavit said both children were “obviously deceased.”
May told investigators she “did not remember the last time she fed or gave her two children something to drink.” She also said she believed the girls had died because they had not eaten, according to the affidavit.
She told officers that she had been the only person at the home and the girls’ sole caregiver during the preceding weeks, the affidavit said.
“[May] unequivocally demonstrated an extreme indifference for human life in that she failed to provide both of her own children, according to her, with the basic sustenance to maintain life thus being a main contributor to their death,” the affidavit stated.
May was charged with two counts of homicide by child abuse. The affidavit listed Harlow and Emory’s causes of death as starvation and dehydration resulting from neglect.
“We believe these deaths could and should have been prevented,” the girls’ father’s attorney, Gedney M. Howe IV, told Live 5 News on Thursday.
“Neighbors, friends, and family all called trying to get help for these girls, and no one listened. Zack was sounding the alarm and was arrested for it,” Howe said.
Deputies made separate contact with May and the children twice in August and three times in September, and noted no obvious signs of concern, authorities said.
Officers’ last visit to the property while the children were still alive was on Sept. 20, according to the sheriff’s office.
The Charleston County Sheriff’s Office of Professional Standards said it is conducting an internal review into the response.
The South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division’s Special Victims Unit and the Department of Child Fatalities are assisting in the investigation.
May waived her right to a bond hearing Wednesday and remains in custody at the Sheriff Al Cannon Detention Center in North Charleston, Law&Crime reported.
Her next court appearance is scheduled for Nov. 20.
