Chilling bodycam footage shows cops carrying out welfare checks just days before two children were found dead in their home

DAILYMAIL.COM • 59m ago

By ALYSSA GUZMAN, US NEWS REPORTER 21:41 10 Oct 2026, updated 21:50 10 Oct 2026

Chilling bodycam footage showed the moments when two South Carolina children were still alive just weeks before they would be found dead in their home from starvation.

Justine May, 31, was arrested on homicide charges for the deaths of her children, Harlow Deacon, 15 months, and Emory Deacon, two, on September 29.

The children were found deceased in their Ladson home by police. The coroner ruled the children died from starvation and dehydration due to neglect.

At least 13 welfare checks were executed at the home in the weeks leading up to the killings.

Footage released by the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office shoed officers performing two welfare checks on August 30 and September 12, revealing a glimpse into the children’s home in the weeks before.

During one of the checks, May appeared confrontational when she opened the door to find police there again, body camera footage showed.

‘How can I help you?’ she asked when she opened the door, kids screaming and dogs barking behind her. ‘No one can come in.’

When she was asked to step outside for a chat, she appeared aggravated, asking: ‘Why?’

Officers asked if she was hearing any voice or going to harm anyone, to which the mother-of-two replied no, and said her ex-fiancé was making up a mental health crisis.

When police asked the mother to tell her side of the story, she 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.’

She went on to claim her ex and her mother are ‘crazy’ and continuously calling the police on her. The mother told police this while holding one of her children, while the other crawled near her feet.

During the August 30 visit, police were allowed inside her home, which appeared orderly and clean, bodycam footage showed. Her children followed her around as authorities stood inside their home.

A social worker told the mother the wellness check was being conducted due to no one seeing the children in over a week and that their father, Zack Deacon, had tried to see the girls.

He also told May that it had been alleged that since her separation with the children’s father that her ‘mental health has apparently declined.’

May denied this, however, stating it was Zack who was showing ‘erratic behavior’ when he came by her home.

When a case worker noticed her toddler had a rash, the mom replied: ‘Yes, she had a diaper rash, like a normal baby does.’

None of the visits resulted in deputies finding any concerning behavior, the sheriff’s office previously stated.

No welfare checks were made after September 20, a little over a week before the girls would be found dead. On September 22, the sheriff’s office made the decision to stop going to May’s home.

‘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.

When police arrived at her door on September 29, the mom allegedly admitted she had been in a ‘blur’ for two weeks and couldn’t remember the last time she fed her children.

Deputies then found the children’s bodies inside the home.

The Sheriff’s Office is now working through the bodycam footage of the welfare check to create a timeline of the girls’ deaths, Ritchie said at a press conference.

Zack, through his lawyers, has asked for a review of conduct into how the police handled the case.

‘Emory and Harlow deserve the truth,’ lawyer Gedney Howe wrote in a statement. ‘Their father deserves to see the file, not to learn about the case on the news.’

The Daily Mail has reached out to Zack’s lawyers for comment.

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