Chilling bodycam footage reveals two South Carolina toddlers were seemingly fine just weeks before they were found starved to death inside their home.
Their mother, Justine May, 31, was arrested Sept. 29 and hit with homicide charges in the tragic deaths of 15-month-old Harlow Deacon and 2-year-old Emory Deacon, according to the Daily Mail.
“How can I help you?” the accused killer asked officers as they arrived at her door on Aug. 30, adding, “No one can come in.”
When officers asked her to step outside, she grew frustrated and demanded to know why.
Cops pressed May on whether she was hearing voices or planning to harm anyone.
She dodged the questions and instead blamed her ex-fiancé, claiming he was lying about a mental health episode.
When officers pushed for details, May snapped: “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.”
Holding one of her children, May called her ex and her mother “crazy” for constantly calling police to check on her, video shows.
The welfare check came after no one — including the children’s father, Zack Deacon — had seen the kids in a week.
On scene, a social worker warned May that her “mental health has apparently declined” following her split from Deacon.
May denied it, accusing Deacon of “erratic behavior” when he would stop by the home.
In the footage, the house appeared orderly and clean.
Yet, the Charleston County Sheriff’s Office detected no apparent danger during their 13 welfare checks executed in the home leading up to the kids’ deaths, despite the mother’s horrific neglect, according to the Daily Mail.
A welfare check was not performed after Sept. 20, just under a week before the tots’ bodies were recovered inside the home.
“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 police that she had been in a “blur” for weeks and did not remember when she last fed her kids.
The sheriff’s office is now retroactively reviewing body camera footage to determine the girls’ health in the days leading up to their deaths.
Zack Deacon hired legal counsel to investigate police conduct and potential 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.”
