Bodycam Footage Reveals Welfare Check Weeks Before South Carolina Toddlers’ Deaths

Disturbing bodycam footage shows that two South Carolina toddlers appeared to be doing well just weeks before they were found starved to death inside their home.

Their mother, 31-year-old Justine May, was arrested Sept. 29 and charged with homicide in the deaths of 15-month-old Harlow Deacon and 2-year-old Emory Deacon, according to the Daily Mail.

“How can I help you?” May asked officers who arrived at her door Aug. 30. She then told them, “No one can come in.”

When police asked her to come outside, May became frustrated and demanded an explanation.

Officers questioned May about whether she was hearing voices or intended to hurt anyone.

Rather than answer directly, she blamed her former fiancé and said he was lying about a mental health episode.

When officers asked her to explain further, May replied, “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.”

While holding one of her children, May described her ex-fiancé and her mother as “crazy” for repeatedly contacting police to check on her, according to the footage.

The welfare check was requested after no one—including the children’s father, Zack Deacon—had seen the toddlers for a week.

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A social worker at the scene told May that her “mental health has apparently declined” since her separation from Deacon.

May rejected that assessment and accused Deacon of displaying “erratic behavior” when he visited the home.

The bodycam video showed a home that appeared clean and orderly.

However, the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office reportedly found no obvious danger during 13 welfare checks conducted at the home before the children’s deaths, despite the alleged neglect, according to the Daily Mail.

No additional welfare check was carried out after Sept. 20—less than a week before the children’s bodies were discovered inside the house.

“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 said in a statement to the Daily Mail.

May allegedly told police she had been in a “blur” for weeks and could not recall when she had last fed her children.

The sheriff’s office is now conducting a retroactive review of bodycam footage to assess the toddlers’ condition in the days before their deaths.

Zack Deacon has retained an attorney to examine police conduct and investigate possible incompetence.

“Emory and Harlow deserve the truth,” attorney Gedney Howe said in a statement to the Daily Mail.

“Their father deserves to see the file, not to learn about the case on the news.”