Emory and Harlow Deacon died days before authorities found them, raising separate questions about earlier welfare checks and agency decisions.
LADSON, S.C. — Emory Deacon was 2 years old. Her younger sister, Harlow, was 15 months old. By the time deputies entered a Ladson home during a Sept. 29 welfare check, the Charleston County coroner estimates both girls had already been dead for several days.
Coroner Bobbi Jo O’Neal determined that the sisters died from starvation and dehydration due to neglect and classified both deaths as homicides. Their mother, Justine Marie May, 31, has been charged with two counts of homicide by child abuse. But the criminal accusations are only one part of the continuing inquiry surrounding the girls’ deaths. The case has also prompted scrutiny of repeated visits by law enforcement, child-welfare workers and mental-health personnel during the weeks before Emory and Harlow died. May has not been convicted, and the charges against her remain allegations to be resolved in court.
The coroner’s estimate sharpened that second line of inquiry. O’Neal said the girls were believed to have died three to five days before their bodies were discovered. By then, the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office had received 21 calls concerning their Pinewood Drive residence since Aug. 10 and had sent deputies to the address 13 times. An on-duty sheriff’s supervisor had decided Sept. 22 to discontinue additional welfare checks unless new information showed an immediate threat. The estimated window of death came after that decision, although authorities have not released an exact time of death for either child.
Members of the girls’ family have said they want the official response examined separately from the prosecution of May. Attorney Gedney M. Howe IV, who represents the girls’ father, Zachary Deacon, has argued that repeated warnings should have led to stronger intervention and called for an independent examination of law enforcement’s handling of the case. The family has specifically questioned the decision to discontinue checks and the earlier arrest of Deacon on a harassment allegation after he repeatedly contacted May and authorities while voicing concern for his daughters.
Sheriff Carl Ritchie has responded that deputies did not simply ignore the household. His office says deputies had multiple contacts with May and the children in late August and September, while DSS and the South Carolina Department of Mental Health’s Mobile Crisis Unit also participated in visits. Officials said that when the girls were observed during earlier contacts, responders did not see conditions indicating immediate danger. One Sept. 11 report said the children appeared healthy, appropriately cared for and well-fed. Mobile Crisis personnel later evaluated May and determined that she did not meet their criteria for intervention.
Those assessments are now being measured against what was happening within the family. Deacon told deputies that he believed May was behaving unpredictably and needed help. May told authorities that Deacon was harassing her, repeatedly contacting her and driving near her home despite her requests that he stop. The sheriff’s office found probable cause for a second-degree harassment allegation, and Deacon was arrested Sept. 12 before being released on a personal recognizance bond. The competing accusations complicated a situation in which officers were simultaneously dealing with a relationship dispute, mental-health concerns and questions about two young children.
Relatives were also trying to reach May outside those official encounters. Messages later published because May had shared them on Facebook show family members expressing alarm about her isolation and their inability to see the girls. One relative wrote that the family feared something could happen to May or the children and urged her to accept help. Deacon wrote in a message that he was “genuinely terrified for the kids.” May publicly disputed the warnings, saying others were interfering in her life and portraying routine family conflict as a crisis.
May also pointed to the visits from authorities as evidence that the allegations against her were unfounded. In a September Facebook post, she said police and DSS had been sent to the house repeatedly and that nothing had been found wrong, adding that she was an “amazing mom.” Another post said she was capable of deciding what was best for her children. Those claims reflected her view of the earlier contacts. The agencies’ own later descriptions were narrower: officials said they had not observed immediate signs of danger during specific visits, not that they had permanently cleared the household of any future welfare concern.
The last documented contact before the deaths came Sept. 20, when deputies spoke with May but did not see Emory or Harlow. Ritchie later said May told deputies the children were sleeping and did not permit entry. She also declined Mobile Crisis assistance, according to the sheriff’s account. Two days later, a supervisor stopped further welfare checks based on the earlier visits, participation by outside agencies and what Ritchie described as a lack of new actionable information indicating an immediate threat. The Charleston County Sheriff’s Office has since opened an internal Professional Standards review of its response.
Seven days after that decision, deputies returned with a DSS caseworker for another welfare check. Officials said May came out of the residence. Responders entered because previous contacts had established that she was the children’s primary caregiver and they needed to check on the girls. Emory and Harlow were found dead inside. The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division’s child-fatality and special-victims personnel joined the investigation. The discovery brought a large law-enforcement response to Pinewood Drive and left neighbors struggling to understand what had happened in a residential area they described as close-knit and ordinarily quiet.
The arrest affidavit shifted the focus from the history of welfare checks to May’s alleged conduct inside the home. Investigators said she was crying and speaking incoherently and told them the previous two weeks had been a blur. According to the affidavit, she could not remember the last time she fed the girls or gave them something to drink. She allegedly told investigators that she believed the children died because they did not eat and acknowledged that failing to provide food was neglectful. Authorities also said she described herself as the sole caregiver during the relevant period.
Those alleged statements form part of the evidence underlying May’s charges, but they do not resolve the separate questions about how earlier concerns were evaluated. Welfare checks are based on conditions officers can observe and information they can verify at the time, and the released records show responders repeatedly documented an absence of immediate danger. The family’s criticism focuses instead on the cumulative picture: repeated calls, warnings from several relatives, involvement by multiple agencies, the girls not being seen during the Sept. 20 visit and the later decision to stop returning without new actionable information.
Ritchie has said the community deserves answers grounded in complete records and that his office is reviewing the relevant contacts. He has also said the deaths have deeply affected the agency. In the public statements reviewed for this story, the sheriff’s office has not announced a final conclusion from its internal review. SLED is assisting with the criminal and child-fatality investigation, while the family has continued to seek broader accountability over the decisions made before Sept. 29.
Amid the arguments about warrants, policies and agency responsibility, relatives and community members have also tried to keep attention on Emory and Harlow themselves. A candlelight vigil was held in Summerville after their deaths, where people were invited to bring candles, photographs and flowers. The gathering reflected a concern voiced by the family as the case gained wider attention: that the girls not be reduced to the circumstances in which they died or to the institutional questions that followed.
Nine days separate the sheriff’s last reported in-person contact with May from the discovery of Emory and Harlow on Sept. 29, and authorities have not publicly answered every question about what occurred during that interval. May’s homicide-by-child-abuse charges remain pending, while investigators and the sheriff’s Professional Standards office continue separate examinations of the deaths and the earlier agency response. No final determination from that administrative review had been publicly released.
Author note: Last updated November 10, 2026.