Disturbing body-camera footage appears to show two South Carolina toddlers healthy and well just weeks before they were found dead from apparent starvation inside their home.
Their mother, 31-year-old Justine May, was arrested Sept. 29 and charged with homicide in connection with the deaths of 15-month-old Harlow Deacon and 2-year-old Emory Deacon, the Daily Mail reported.
“How can I help you?” May asked officers who arrived at her home Aug. 30. She then told them, “No one can come in.”
When police asked May to come outside, she 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 accused him of misrepresenting a mental health episode.
When officers sought more information, May responded, “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 former fiancé and her mother as “crazy” for repeatedly asking police to check on her, according to the footage.
The welfare check was prompted by concerns that 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” after her separation from Deacon.
May rejected that assessment and instead accused Deacon of behaving “erratically” during visits to the home.
The footage shows a home that appeared clean and orderly.
Despite the mother’s alleged neglect, the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office reported no obvious signs of danger during 13 welfare checks conducted at the home before the children’s deaths, according to the Daily Mail.
No additional welfare check took place 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 investigators she had been in a “blur” for weeks and could not recall when she had last fed her children.
The sheriff’s office has begun a retrospective review of body-camera footage to assess the children’s condition in the days before their deaths.
Zack Deacon has retained an attorney to examine the police response and investigate possible negligence or incompetence.
“Emory and Harlow deserve the truth,” lawyer Gedney Howe wrote in a statement to the Daily Mail.
“Their father deserves to see the file, not to learn about the case on the news.”