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A South Carolina mom has been charged with two counts of homicide by child abuse after cops found her two infant children dead at her home, with the mother telling investigators she couldn’t remember when she last gave them anything to eat or drink.
Justine Marie May told officers the last two weeks had been a “blur” and admitted to neglecting the two girls — 1-year-old Harlow and 2-year-old Emory Deacon — when they responded Tuesday to a welfare call at her home in Ladson outside Charleston, according to an affidavit obtained by WCIV.
May’s relatives believed the 31-year-old was suffering from postpartum depression and wrote to her referencing the Lindsay Clancy murder trial in Massachusetts to express fears that she might do something similar and harm her children, the Post and Courier reported.
“Lindsay Clancy is on trial right now for killing her 3 children!” wrote the female family member in the email to May in early September, referencing the triple-murder case that 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 went on.
“Would Justine do this? No. Would this dark entity that is behind Justine’s eyes do this? This haunts my worst nightmares,” the email went on.
May posted screenshots of messages with her ex-boyfriend — Harlow and Emory’s father, Zachary Deacon — on her Facebook page in the weeks leading up to the two girls’ deaths, the Post and Courier reported.
“This is not harassment. I am genuinely terrified for the kids,” Deacon wrote in one of the texts. “Are you going to hurt one of the kids to get back at me?”
In a separate Facebook post on Sept. 9, May reportedly complained about persistent welfare checks at her home due to Deacon calling the police.
“Of course, they found absolutely nothing wrong because I am an amazing mom,” she wrote.
May reportedly responded to another family member’s message expressing concern about the kids and her “unhinged” social media presence 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.
When police arrived on Tuesday, May came out of the house “and began crying and speaking incoherently,” according to the affidavit.
Harlow and Emory’s bodies were found inside the home and were “obviously deceased,” the affidavit continued.
May told officers she “did not remember the last time she fed or gave her two children something to drink,” and added that she “believed the children died because they did not eat,” according to the affidavit.
The mother added that she was the only one present at the house and the children’s sole caregiver in the last few weeks, as per the affidavit.
“[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,” read the affidavit.
She was charged with two counts of homicide by child abuse, as per the affidavit, with Harlow and Emory’s causes of death given as starvation and dehydration due to neglect.
“We believe these deaths could and should have been prevented,” their 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.
