Deputies responded repeatedly before Emory and Harlow Deacon were found dead, prompting questions about warnings, agency decisions and missed opportunities.

LADSON, S.C. — Authorities received 21 calls concerning a Ladson home and sent Charleston County sheriff’s deputies there 13 times before two young sisters were found dead inside, a sequence that has put the earlier welfare checks and a decision to stop additional visits under growing scrutiny.

Emory Deacon, 2, and Harlow Deacon, 15 months, were found Sept. 29 at a home in the 3200 block of Pinewood Drive. Charleston County Coroner Bobbi Jo O’Neal later said both girls died from starvation and dehydration due to neglect and ruled their deaths homicides. O’Neal estimated that they had been dead for three to five days before they were found. Their mother, 31-year-old Justine Marie May, has been charged with two counts of homicide by child abuse. The charges are allegations, and the publicly available reports reviewed for this story do not show that May has been convicted.

The case has expanded beyond the criminal accusations against May because deputies, child-welfare workers and mental-health personnel had been involved with the family for weeks. The Charleston County Sheriff’s Office said calls about the Pinewood Drive residence began Aug. 10 and produced repeated responses, follow-up contacts, supervisory reviews and coordination with other agencies. Deputies reported seeing May and the children during several visits and said they did not observe circumstances they believed showed the girls were in immediate danger. The South Carolina Department of Social Services and the state Department of Mental Health’s Mobile Crisis Unit were involved in some of the contacts.

Records and later statements from the sheriff’s office show how the assessments changed over time. Deputies reported contact with May and the children on several dates in late August and September. During a Sept. 11 response, according to reports later obtained by local news organizations, deputies were told by the girls’ father, Zachary Deacon, that he was worried about May’s behavior. Deputies wrote that the children appeared healthy, appropriately cared for and well-fed and that they did not see an immediate condition requiring emergency intervention. The same period included a continuing dispute between May and Deacon, whose relationship had ended in August.

That dispute became intertwined with the welfare concerns. May told deputies that Deacon was repeatedly contacting her and driving by her home despite her requests that he leave her alone. Deacon, meanwhile, was telling authorities he feared for the children. Deputies sought a second-degree harassment warrant against him, and he was arrested Sept. 12. Records show he received a personal recognizance bond the following day. The arrest has since become one focus of criticism from the family because some of the contacts that authorities treated as harassment were connected to Deacon’s repeated efforts to raise concerns about his daughters.

The Sept. 12 visit also involved the state Mobile Crisis Unit, which had asked deputies for an escort to speak with May. The crisis evaluator determined that May did not meet the unit’s criteria for intervention, according to reports describing the encounter, and provided information about available resources. Sheriff Carl Ritchie later said DSS and Mobile Crisis personnel who participated in visits did not report conditions that indicated immediate danger to the children. Those earlier assessments, however, did not resolve the increasingly urgent question of whether the girls remained safe as contact with the family continued.

The sheriff’s office said its final in-person contact with May before the deaths came Sept. 20. Ritchie later said May did not allow deputies into the home because she said the children were sleeping. The children were not seen during that visit. Two days later, an on-duty supervisor decided to discontinue additional welfare checks. Ritchie said that decision was based on previous contacts, the involvement of DSS and Mobile Crisis and the absence of new actionable information indicating an immediate threat. The sheriff’s office has said its Professional Standards office is conducting an internal review of the agency’s handling of the case.

The timing of that decision became more significant after the coroner estimated Emory and Harlow died three to five days before Sept. 29. That estimate places their deaths after the Sept. 22 decision to discontinue additional welfare checks, although authorities have not publicly specified an exact time of death for either child. The girls’ father, through attorney Gedney M. Howe IV, has called for a broader independent review of the law enforcement response. The family has questioned the decision to stop the checks, the arrest of Deacon and whether authorities could have taken additional protective action. Ritchie has defended his deputies’ actions as based on the information available during each encounter.

Family concern was also visible outside official incident reports. In messages that May later posted on Facebook, relatives described becoming increasingly worried about her behavior and their inability to see the children. One relative urged her to accept help and expressed fear that the children or May could be harmed. Deacon also wrote in messages that he was “genuinely terrified for the kids.” May rejected those concerns publicly. In one September post, she said repeated visits by police and DSS had found nothing wrong and described herself as an “amazing mom.” The social-media material documents the competing accounts within the family, but the posts alone do not establish what authorities could see or prove during any particular welfare check.

When deputies and the family’s DSS caseworker returned shortly after 12:30 p.m. Sept. 29, the encounter was different. Authorities said May came out of the home before deputies entered to check on the children because they knew from earlier encounters that she was their primary caregiver. Inside, they found both girls dead. An arrest affidavit described May as crying and speaking incoherently. Investigators said she told them the previous two weeks had been a blur and that she could not remember when she had last provided the children food or something to drink. She also allegedly said she believed the children died because they had not eaten.

The affidavit said May had been the girls’ sole caregiver in the home during the preceding period and understood that failing to feed them was neglectful. Those statements form part of the allegations supporting the homicide-by-child-abuse charges and have not been tested at trial. The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division’s child-fatality and special-victims personnel have assisted the Charleston County investigation. Officials have not publicly released every record associated with the 21 calls, and some details about the decision-making among law enforcement, DSS and mental-health personnel remain unresolved.

The deaths also shook residents of the otherwise quiet Ladson neighborhood. On the day the bodies were found, a large law enforcement response filled Pinewood Drive and restricted access for hours. Residents later told local reporters that the discovery was difficult to reconcile with the familiar residential setting. A public vigil was held in Summerville days later for Emory and Harlow. The family has sought to keep attention on the girls while also pressing for answers about how repeated warnings and agency contacts ended without intervention before their deaths.

The next formal step in May’s criminal case is an initial court appearance scheduled for Nov. 20. She remained in custody at the Sheriff Al Cannon Detention Center in the latest available reporting. Separate from that prosecution, the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office is continuing its internal review of the repeated welfare checks, leaving both the criminal allegations and the agency’s handling of the family under examination.

Author note: Last updated November 10, 2026.