South Carolina mother allegedly killed her daughters, family says Lindsay Clancy

A South Carolina mother has been charged with two counts of homicide by child abuse after police found her two children dead in her home. The mother told investigators she didn’t remember the last time she gave them food or water.

Justine Marie May told officers the past 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 to a welfare call at her home in Ladson, outside Charleston, on Tuesday, 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 Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial in Massachusetts to express their fears that she might do something similar and harm her children, the Post and Courier reported.

“Lindsay Clancy is currently on trial for killing her 3 children! “” the female family member wrote in the email to May in early September, referring to the triple murder case that ended in a mistrial last month.

“It’s hell that your family goes through every day without you communicating and not letting us see the girls,” the relative continued.

“Would Justine do that? No. Would this dark entity behind Justine’s eyes do that? It haunts my worst nightmares,” the email continued.

May posted screenshots of messages with her ex-boyfriend — Harlow and Emory’s father, Zachary Deacon — on her Facebook page in the weeks before the two girls’ deaths, the Post and Courier reported.

“This isn’t harassment. I’m truly 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 September 9, May allegedly complained about continued welfare checks at her home due to Deacon calling the police.

“Of course they found absolutely nothing wrong because I’m an amazing mom,” she wrote.

May reportedly responded to another family member’s message expressing concern about the children and her “disjointed” social media presence in a Facebook post on September 13.

“I am perfectly capable of deciding who is best for my children. And they are having the time of their lives with people who have always wanted to be with them and are begging for them,” she wrote.

When police arrived Tuesday, May came out of the house “and began crying and speaking incoherently,” according to the affidavit.

The bodies of Harlow and Emory were found inside the home and were “obviously deceased,” the affidavit continues.

May told officers she “did not remember the last time she fed or gave water to her two children,” 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 in the home and the only one caring for the children over the past few weeks, according to the affidavit.

“(May) unequivocally demonstrated extreme indifference to human life to the extent that she failed to provide her own two children with, in her view, the basic means of subsistence necessary to sustain life, thereby primarily contributing to their deaths,” the affidavit reads.

She was charged with two counts of homicide by child abuse, according to the affidavit, with Harlow and Emory’s causes of death being starvation and dehydration due to neglect.

“We believe these deaths could and should have been avoided,” their father’s attorney, Gedney M. Howe IV, told Live 5 News Thursday.

“Neighbors, friends and family all called trying to get help for these girls, and no one listened. Zack raised the alarm and was arrested for it,” Howe said.

Deputies separately made 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 visited the property while the children were still alive on Sept. 20, according to the sheriff’s office.

The Charleston County Sheriff’s Professional Standards Office said it is conducting an internal review of the response.

The South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division’s Special Victims Unit and the Department of Child Fatality are assisting in the investigation.

May waived his right to a bond hearing Wednesday and remains in custody at the Sheriff Al Cannon Detention Center in North Charleston, Law&Crime reported.

His next court appearance is scheduled for November 20.