{"id":869009,"date":"2026-10-03T04:24:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T04:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/869009\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T04:24:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T04:24:14","slug":"911-call-reveals-concerns-about-well-being-of-2-children-found-dead-from-starvation-at-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/869009\/","title":{"rendered":"911 call reveals concerns about well-being of 2 children found dead from starvation at home"},"content":{"rendered":"

LADSON, S.C. (WCSC<\/a>\/Gray News) \u2014 Two children who were found dead in a home earlier this week in South Carolina have been identified<\/a>, and authorities said this wasn\u2019t the first time they had been called to the residence. <\/p>\n

Emory Deacon, 2, and Harlow Deacon, 15 months old, died of starvation and dehydration due to neglect, Charleston County coroner Bobbi Jo O\u2019Neal said. <\/p>\n

Justine May, the children\u2019s mother and described as their primary caregiver, has been charged<\/a> in the case with two counts of homicide by child abuse. <\/p>\n

\"HawlowHawlow Deason (left), Justine May (middle), Emory Deason.(Family\/CCSO)<\/p>\n

According to the Charleston County Sheriff\u2019s Office, deputies had responded to numerous calls at the Pinewood Drive residence before ultimately finding the two children dead during a welfare check at the home. <\/p>\n

The previous calls<\/a> to the home were said to have included welfare checks and visits coordinated with the South Carolina Department of Social Services and the South Carolina Department of Mental Health Mobile Crisis Unit.<\/p>\n

Authorities said deputies made contact with May and the children in August and again several more times in September, noting they observed no signs of concern during those visits.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, authorities said they were called back to the home after a 911 call came through that morning asking deputies to conduct a welfare check on the two young girls after they had not been seen, with their mother acting differently while walking around the neighborhood by herself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just concerned because she didn\u2019t have her kids, and nobody has seen her kids,\u201d the caller told the Charleston County 911 dispatcher. \u201cShe was walking down the road today, and she didn\u2019t have her babies, and that\u2019s not like her.\u201d <\/p>\n

When deputies arrived at the home that afternoon, they said May exited the house and was crying and speaking incoherently. Upon entering, that\u2019s when they saw the two children dead.<\/p>\n

May was taken into custody. <\/p>\n

According to affidavits, after being read her Miranda rights, May told detectives that she had spent the previous two weeks in a \u201cblur,\u201d saying she could not remember the last time she fed Emory and Harlow or gave them anything to drink.<\/p>\n

Authorities said May told detectives that she believed her children were dead because they did not eat. She reportedly told deputies that she knew that not feeding her children was neglectful and confirmed she had been the only one present at home and was the sole caregiver for the girls over the last few weeks.<\/p>\n

May remains jailed at the Al Cannon Detention Center. <\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 WCSC via Gray Local Media, Inc. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LADSON, S.C. (WCSC\/Gray News) \u2014 Two children who were found dead in a home earlier this week in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":869010,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[366396,366394,366395,366401,23,366397,366398,366399,366400,366402,366404,366403,366405,366406,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-869009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-2-children-found-dead","tag-2-children-found-dead-from-starvation","tag-2-children-found-dead-from-starvation-ladson-south-carolina","tag-911-call-children-found-dead-in-home","tag-america","tag-children-found-dead-in-home","tag-children-found-dead-in-home-starvation","tag-emory-deacon","tag-harlow-deacon","tag-justine-may","tag-justine-may-arrest","tag-justine-may-charleston-county","tag-justine-may-children-deaths","tag-justine-may-children-found-dead-in-home","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=869009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/869010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}